Thursday, May 31, 2012

Jessica's Idol YouTube Views

Phillip Phillips has one of the best first-week sales of a coronation song ever with "Home" selling 278K copies, but then there are those YouTube views on American Idol's YouTube page. As seen here on their page sorted by most popular, Jessica Sanchez is far more popular than Phillip:

Click Here.

As of this writing, Jessica has the top 2 videos, and 7 of the top 10. On that first page, Jessica has 16 of the top 27 contestant videos.

Phillip has just 3 videos with over 2 million views, while Jessica has 7. Phillip has just 6 videos with over 1 million views, while Jessica has 17. Phillip's most popular video has 3.2 million views, while Jessica's most popular has 6 million views.

What does this all mean? It means Jessica has very fervent fans, but they don't have a lot of disposable income.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Melinda Doolittle calls Jessica-Jennifer Duet "Most Amazing"

Season 6's Melinda Doolittle, speaking with Michael Slezak of TVLine.com on the final installment of the season of their "Idology" recap show, called the duet between Jessica Sanchez and Jennifer Holiday of "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going," sung on the season finale, the "most amazing duet" she'd ever seen on an Idol finale. Melinda said she was "laid out on my living room floor, pounding the floor." Michael said, "That was some wild kingdom sh*." Here is their recap:


And here is the amazing duet:


Is Kris Allen Toast?

Is Kris Allen toast?

According to Hits Daily Double , Kris' second album debuted at just 16.9K, compared to Adam Lambert's 77K and James Durbin's 28K. Kris's first album debuted at 80K, however he had a huge single "Live Like We're Dying" which sold over 1.5 million copies. The second album does not appear to have such a monster single.

Will Kris soon get dropped by his label? If Kris is dropped, he will join David Cook and Lee DeWyze as WGWGs who won then didn't last very long with their record labels. We'll have Cook is from Season 7, Allen from Season 8 and DeWyze from Season 9. This is the pathetic effect of "boyfriend voting" that has afflicted Idol since mass text voting took hold.

HDD is also reporting that Haley Reinhart debuted at 19.1K, which is below James Durbin's 28k. Haley finished #3 and James finished #4 in Season 10. However, Haley's single "Free" has sold over 60K copies, so that makes them about even. But James' album is now over 100K. We'll see if Haley can keep up with him.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Idol Introduces Singles

Idol Introduces Singles

No, not like Ace Young and Diana DeGarmo. We're talking about iTunes singles.

Idol can now sign non-winning contestants to record singles instead of albums.

For instance the #2 finisher can be paid $30K for 4 singles, or $60K if more than 4.

The #3 and lower finishers can be paid $24K for 4 singles.

However, it's unlikely they would sign the #2 finisher to record singles. An album advance for the #2 is $175K. For the #1 it's $300K.

We'll see if they use the singles option on any of the Season 11 contestants.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Season 11 Finale Reactions

Season 11 Finale - Phillip vs Jessica.

132 million votes.

Group number.

Phillip Phillips & John Fogerty perform.

Joshua Ledet performs. With Fantasia.

Top 12 girls perform. With Chaka Khan.

Rihanna performs.

Skylar Laine performs. With Reba McEntire.

Jessica Sanchez performs. Where's the hologram of Whitney?

Top 12 guys perform. With Neil Diamond.

Sing the phone book choir.

Jennifer Lopez performs.

Ace Young proposes to Diana Degarmo. Gets a Yes.

Hollie Cavanagh performs. With Jordin Sparks.

Robin Gibb tribute.

Jessica Sanchez and Jennifer Holiday perform. Wow.

Aerosmith performs.

Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips perform.

And the winner is: Phillip Phillips.

I was one of many who said at Phillip's initial audition that he would win Season 11. A WGWG from Georgia plus a lot talent was too predictable.

It was encouraging to see a diverse Top 3, and to see that Phillip did not win in a landslide.

Jessica at #2 beats Jasmine Trias from Season 3 as the highest finishing Asian or Hispanic girl. Jasmine finished #3.

Season 11 - A DialIdol Nailbiter

Season 11 Final Two - Phillip vs Jessica
A DialIdol Nailbiter

Looking at DialIdol at the beginning of west coast voting, Phillip was ahead of Jessica by 6.3. Over the next four hours, Phillip's lead shrank, and by the end of voting, his lead was only 1.38.

That makes this race the second closest in DialIdol history, second only to Kris vs Adam separated by 1.1.

DialIdol has correctly predicted the winner since Season 5, but it has had a very spotty season this season. Can Jessica's text voting army beat the DialIdol prediction?

Here are the past margins:

Taylor vs Katharine 8.5
Jordin vs Blake 14.7
Cook vs Archuleta 11.8
Kris vs Adam 1.1
Lee vs Crystal 4.4
Scotty vs Lauren 8.1

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Season 11 Top 2 Performance Reactions

1. Jessica Sanchez
2. Phillip Phillips

Details:

*Round 1 (Simon Fuller's Picks):

Jessica Sanchez. This is the one Shannon Magrane couldn't handle. Easy for Jessica.

Phillip Phillips. Downer spin on a lame pick.

Fuller's picks showed no imagination whatsoever.

Jason Derulo performs.

*Round 2 (Redos):

Jessica Sanchez. Fine job.

Phillip Phillips. This one really needed a redo from the original performance, and it's a lot better this time around.

*Round 3 ():

Jessica Sanchez. Okay.

Phillip Phillips. Okay. Very odd.

What a couple of horrible original songs.

*Summary:

It's who do you like.

*Update:

I listened to the studio version of Phillip's "Home" and it really sucks. There's nothing good about it. In some parts he sounds like a howling dog. In others it sounds like the Atlanta Braves war chant. I don't want to hear that again, unless it's for laughs.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Lower Ratings Effect On Idol Voting

Lower Ratings Effect On Idol Voting.

I mentioned early on this season that Idol's lower ratings would have some effect on the voting, but I didn't know what that effect would be.

However, a look at the Top 3s of the prior four seasons is very revealing:

Season 10 -- Scotty, Lauren, Haley -- all white.
Season 9 -- Lee, Crystal, Casey -- all white.
Season 8 -- Kris, Adam, Danny -- all white.
Season 7 -- Cook, Archuleta, Syesha -- mixed.

So you have to go back to Season 7 to find a Top 3 as mixed as Season 11's Phillip, Jessica and Joshua. Why did this happen? I'm not sure, but here are a couple of maybes:

1. The median age of Idol viewers rose to 48, therefore the voting was more mature, and based more on talent.

2. The adults have caught up with the youngsters as far as knowledge of mass text voting apps, leading to a more mature vote.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Season 11 Top 3 Elimination Reactions

Nearly 90 million votes.

Group song.

Joshua Ledet. Recap.

Promos.

Lisa Marie Presley performs.

Jessica Sanchez. Recap.

Adam Lambert performs.

Phillip Phillips. Recap.

Joshua, Jessica, Phillip.

Jessica safe. Suprise.

Phillip safe.

Joshua out.

Surprise? Not really. DialIdol showed essentially a tie between Jessica and Joshua, which left the outcome up to the text voters. It's not surprising that Jessica had more text voters.

Joshua is by far the best raise-the-roof screamer the show has ever seen.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Season 11 Top 3 Performance Reactions

1. Jessica Sanchez
2. Phillip Phillips
3. Joshua Ledet

Details:

*Round 1 (Judges picks):

Joshua Ledet. Nice job.

Jessica Sanchez. Very nice delicates on the high notes.

Phillip Phillips. Terrific. He and the band.

*Round 2 (Contestant picks):

Joshua Ledet. Okay, but a puzzling choice.

Jessica Sanchez. Fine job. At least it wasn't a black-girl song.

Phillip Phillips. Fine job, but not different.

*Round 3 (Jimmy's picks):

Joshua Ledet. Fine job.

Jessica Sanchez. Hey, she did two voices.

Phillip Phillips. That was a chore.

*Summary:

The three are so different, and all did well enough that it really comes down to preference.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Season 11 Top 4 Elimination Reactions

Nearly 70 million votes.

Group number.

Phillip Phillips. No decision.

Hollie Cavanagh. No decision.

David Cook performs. He definitely has a better voice than Kris Allen, Lee DeWyze, Phillip Phillips and Colton Dixon.

Joshua Ledet. No decision.

Jessica Sanchez. No decision.

Jennifer Lopez performs.

Jessica Sanchez. Top 3.

Joshua Ledet. Top 3.

Phillip vs Hollie.

Phillip Phillips Top 3.
Hollie Cavanagh out.

Hollie's technical style is better suited for Broadway. She should get training from little Kristin Chenoweth. I would love to see Hollie play Eponine in Les Mis.

Jessica Sanchez joins Adam Lambert as a Top 3 from the San Diego area. Jessica also ties Jasmine Trias from Season 3 as the highest finishing Asian girl. I doubt she can get past Joshua or Phillip.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Season 11 Top 4 Performance Reactions

1. Jessica Sanchez
2. Phillip Phillips
3. Joshua Ledet
4. Hollie Cavanagh

Details:

*Round 1 (California):

Phillip Phillips. It was fun. Like a sing-along. Sang it a bit high for him.

Hollie Cavanagh. Low-high problem. Sang it too low in order to reach the high notes later, but they weren't very high.

Joshua Ledet. Mostly uninspiring, suprisingly.

Jessica Sanchez. Very nice, but how does she even know who Etta James is? Steven knows, but he's old. Etta was born 10 years before Steven. Oh, Jessica is 65. I see.

Phillip and Joshua duet. Time filler.

Jessica and Hollie duet. Time filler.

Rock of Ages promo. Time filler.

Group song. Time filler.

*Round 2 (Wish They'd Written):

Phillip Phillips. Very cool.

Hollie Cavanagh. I think her mic is set wrong. It's not coming across very well. Probably doesn't matter.

Joshua Ledet. Great job. Girls like Elise Testone and Juliet Simms can stop singing it now.

Jessica Sanchez. Another black-girl song. That's her. The accompaniment was awful, like a karaoke track. Not her fault, but I couldn't get into it.

*Summary:

Nobody changed places after the first round.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Pia Toscano LA Kings Lucky Charm

Pia Toscano LA Kings Lucky Charm


she one sexy king girl

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Season 11 Top 5 Elimination Reactions

Joshua Ledet. Safe. Quick.

Coldplay performs.

Hollie Cavanagh. Bottom Two.
Phillip Phillips. Safe.

Huge disappointment for those who reveled at the sight of Phillip at the bottom of DialIdol. I warned them that the numbers looked wrong to me. DialIdol has been shaky this season more than any before.

Carrie Underwood performs.

Jessica Sanchez. Safe.
Skylar Laine. Bottom Two.

Skylar was at the top of DialIdol, just as Hollie was last week. This happens because of erroneous busy signals. Even one DialIdol user getting erroneous busy signals can mess up the score. This is happening often this season.

Coldplay performs.

Hollie and Skylar Bottom Two. How sad.

Skylar out.
Hollie safe.

Skylar's fate rode primarily with the country folk. After seeing Scotty and Lauren take Season 10, I was certain Skylar would outlast both Hollie and Jessica. But it seems a lot of country folk didn't buy into her for some reason. I'm not sure why. Maybe she just wasn't better than what they already have.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Season 11 Top 5 Performance Reactions

1. Phillip Phillips
2. Jessica Sanchez
3. Joshua Ledet
4. Hollie Cavanagh
5. Skylar Laine

Details:

*Round 1 (60s):

Hollie Cavanagh. Nice job by the little woman.

Phillip Phillips. Oh yeah, Phillip.

Skylar Laine. Not bad, but it ain't much.

Joshua/Phillip duet. Filler.

Jessica Sanchez. Yeah, baby.

Joshua Ledet. Fine job, but not very interesting.

*Round 2 (British):

Hollie Cavanagh. Very nice job.

Phillip Phillips. Who cares if he can't hit high notes when I'm tripping out.

Girl trio. Filler.

Skylar Laine. Not good. Bad choice.

Jessica Sanchez. Beautiful.

Joshua Ledet. Fine job, but Joshua formulaic.

*Summary:

Nobody changed places after the first round.

AEvangelista - American Idol Blog