The American Idolater

So, obviously the highlight of American Idol last night — and of possibly the entire season — was Paula Abdul accidentally reviewing Jason Castro’s first song, and then his second song. Unfortunately, he hadn’t gotten around to actually singing the second song yet. Oops. I’m surprised they let her go on as long as she did before Ryan Seacrest (after looking offstage for some help) corrects her and tries to imply that both of her reviews were only regarding the first song.

Ken Levine at the Huffington Post points this out as proof that the judges watch the dress rehearsals and come up with their comments at that time. I didn’t realize that was up for debate, I always assumed that was a generally accepted fact about the way the show works. Was that really not known conclusively before Paula’s big screw-up?

Paula Abdul actually critiqued Jason Castro’s second song even before he sang it! And she had specifics!! This proves two things: Paula Abdul’s brain is not as highly developed as a mollusk’s. And two, the judges watch the dress rehearsal and in many cases formulate their spontaneous opinions beforehand.

Anyway, that was the highlight of the show. The rest of the show involved:

• A lot of annoying girls shrieking about David Archuleta, as usual.
• David Archuleta singing pretty poorly, as usual.
• Syesha Mercado being more boring than usual.
• David Cook being introduced by Ryan as “The Rocker,” which made me want to punch Ryan in the nose.
• Brooke White didn’t forget any words, which is a step up for her.
• And, nobody did anything remotely interesting or memorable vocally or musically.

So, there you go. Thank you Paula Abdul for at least keeping us semi-interested in the season. Who wants to bet that Ryan comes up with some bullshit explanation for Paula’s slip-up last night that somehow avoids mentioning that she had already watched Jason’s second song? I’ll take your bets right here.