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Review: AMERICAN IDOL - SEASON SEVEN
Topic Started: Apr 10 2008, 11:39 AM (69 Views)
lorelai24
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IDOL GIVES BACK 2008

Another brilliant show for a tremendous cause that everyone should donate to
Grade: A
Stars: Simon Cowell, Ryan Seacrest, Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul
Release Date: April 9, 2008
Rating: NR



For those of you that don’t regularly read my reviews of America’s greatest karaoke competition, AMERICAN IDOL, the first thing you should know is I hate this show with a passion. The only reason I’m watching it is that I like my job and my boss knows this so he gets me to do things that I may not want to do. Regardless, after a few years of watching this show, I think I’ve come to understand and even identify when something sucks and when something is damn good.

I will admit this as well off the bat: IDOL GIVES BACK is a brilliant idea and a great cause – hell I even donated last year. I think that everyone should donate as they are doing some really good things and given the power of this show it is a nice thing that they are using that power for good, rather than for evil (calling Uncle Ben).

However, this doesn’t mean that we can’t break down the show for entertainment purposes and see what was interesting, meaningful, funny, schlock and straight up crap.

So let’s get the IDOL GIVES BACK recap underway:

We begin with a dance-off tribute promoting SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE – nothing like opening a charity event with a huge plug for your next big reality show. Probably doesn’t hurt that DANCING WITH THE STARS is nipping at the heels of AI in the ratings and the producers thought they’d steal a little bit of that audience right from the start.

We then heard from NASCAR driver Jimmy Johnson, actor George Lopez and a weird nonsensical attempt at comedy from Ben Stiller that just ended up being really lame.

The first musical act of the night was Snoop Dog and you can’t really go wrong having Snoop open things up and he indeed rocked the house. I was hoping for a few more songs before he left the stage.

We went to break with Lakers great Kobe Bryant telling people to give. Was that a bandage under Kobe’s eye or a tribute to the late Left Eye Lopez (no relation to George)? Sorry, I don’t follow the NBA and he could have just taken a shot in the game the night before. Back from break and HHH from the WWE gives a really good call to give and it’s the best of the night so far.

Randy “dawg” Jackson and Paula Abdul then took the stage to talk about one of the charities behind IDOL GIVES BACK showing a video package of downright terrible neighborhoods in the L.A. area – sad stuff and luckily for us Paula put down the juice for the night to be coherent as it was prove that this is a good cause and people should indeed donate.

For some reason … someone told Teri Hatcher from DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES she could sing so she got up on stage along with Band From TV to sing a Carrie Underwood song. Wow, that sucked ass. Don’t quit your day job, Teri. I was dying for Simon to get a mic and give her a “bloody awful” review but alas this is for charity.

The most annoying woman on TV, Mary Murphy (yep, another plug for SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE), then showed her ugly mug and gave her buffalo mating call asking for donations … wow bad move. All it made me want to do was change the channel. Seriously, if I wanted to see animals cry in heat I’d turn on Animal Planet. Much better was the Jonas Brothers that showed up to lend their celebrity to the cause.

Billy Crystal did an uncomfortably bad comedy schlock routine with Miley Cyrus that was an Abbott and Costello-ish banter of old verses new, new technology verses the old school. Boring … we don’t need to have a biography on both of these people, we know it already. Get on with the performance. And Miley (aka Hannah Montana) did and I guess it was OK, I dunno I’m not fourteen.

Bono, who has been a champion for human rights for decades, then was part of a video package about AIDS in Africa and how terrible and debilitating it is to the continent and how IDOL GIVES BACK will help these women and children that are just heartbreaking in a terrible, terrible position. It really does pull at the heart strings and if you don’t think you should give some of your money … I don’t know what else you need.


Julianne Moore then read cue cards to tell people to give. The third performance of the night was care of Fergie and John Legend. I’ll just say this … the performance was good but what’s up with Fergie’s neck? It’s like they put a 70-year-old woman’s neck on a 40-something (she’s in her 40s right? … wait quick Internet check … whoops she’s only 33). They moved right to the next performance surprisingly from Heart, which I was not expecting. Nice to see them get some love on TV’s big stage and proving they can still rock the house, even with having to share the stage and song with Fergie.

Adam Sandler gave his star power to the show and then we were back watching the Season Seven contestants answering the phones and gave Syesha some more love in front of the camera (maybe they know she’s going home tomorrow?). Anyway, Syesha … looking smoking hot, damn she’s bringing it tonight. I just realized also that the already kicked out Top-12 IDOLS are answering phones – that’s cool extend their 15 minutes for a while.

Eli and Peyton Manning showed a video package of another IDOL GIVES BACK charity helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The Beckhams then pleaded with people to give anything, a dollar, five dollars anything to help out. My only complaint was that we didn’t get a chance to see what Victoria was packing as the phone number banner was cutting off her cleavage.

We returned to Bono and Annie Lennox in Africa and this time I whip out my credit card and head over to the Web site (www.americanidol.com) to donate to this really good cause once again. Just breaks your heart what’s happening in places other than where you live. Annie then took the stage and sang behind the piano in the most emotional performance of the night by far. As we go to break, Kiefer Sutherland of TV’s 24 (and recently out of jail) encourages people to give in the next 24 hours … get it?

Coming back from the break, we another heartbreaking tale in Africa this time with Celine Dion and why this event is for a wonderful cause. Jimmy Kimmel then came out and gave the funniest performance of the night almost roasting Simon Cowell and numerous pot shots at his muscle shirts, his Mitts (man-tits) and his stupid hair cut – brilliant stuff but he took some of my material about his shirts and nipples. Simon then showed us another video package of a family struggling with medical bills and illness before pleading with people to donate and then introducing Carrie Underwood, who proved once again why she is one of the most successful IDOLs of them all.


Gloria Estefan performed next … bah, I was hoping for the Miami Sound Machine. Oh, yet another sighting of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE – think Fox wants to all those DANCING WITH THE STARS viewers or what? Sarah Silverman came out then and did a great job mocking the judges. Sarah then introduced the next video package from Africa with Forrest Whitaker and his wife and fight against malaria – where every 30 seconds a child dies of the disease. Think about that in the time you read this paragraph, a child died in Africa. That’s horrible. That’s reprehensible that it happens in a modern world. And there is no reason for it.

Reese Witherspoon was next showing us the story of a family living in American and living in poverty and how we need to fight against this in our own country and the seriousness of the situation. Unfortunately, this was followed up by the karaoke singers – the final eight of season seven – singing “Seasons of Love” from RENT. Had they gone first maybe it would be OK but since we have seen actual singers perform up until this point … it was underwhelming.

Oh boy …they rolled out Robin Williams as the Russian Idol winner and hilarity ensued … OK, that’s a big fat lie it was painful to watch as they rolled out every cliché known to Russiankind including Stalin, Siberia and not having enough to eat – which is probably in bad taste given most of their charities involve starving children. I hated this segment including the forced IDOL judges giving their critiques and the BROKEBACK reference, it just wasn’t funny. Plus, Williams didn’t even plug that people should give money to the cause, hello, that’s why you’re here dumbass.

Rob Schneider and crazy Tyra Banks were next to get people to give back, followed by David Spade who introduced Brad Pitt and his video package on how many people lost their homes due to Hurricane Katrina – more than 200,000 people either lost their homes or had their homes damaged by the disaster and are still in need, a tragedy unto itself given the funds and ability to rally in this country, we can’t get these people back on their feet? That’s embarrassing to our government and the current administration that is more concerned about oil and foreign countries than its own people.

Brad Pitt took the stage and after a mic failure … which turned into a funny segment with a stagehand … introduced Daughtry’s trip to Africa – similar to Carrie Underwood’s trip last year with singing and all that good stuff.

And we are officially into overtime on IDOL GIVES BACK (not surprising, it happened last year) … the last performance of the night was saved for the biggest act in Mariah Carey that featured Randy Jackson on the bass? That’s weird but whatever, it’s for fun I suppose. Mariah I believe is the upcoming mentor next week for the karaoke kids so that will be interesting to see what song ballad-only David Archuleta sings of hers.

That’s a wrap … I again encourage everyone to donate to this tremendous cause just a little bit of money from everyone can go a long way, regardless of how you feel about the show, the hosts, judges or reality shows in general. Either download the songs from IDOL GIVES BACK on iTunes (money goes to the charities), go to the Web site (www.americanidol.com) or call 1-800-IDOL AID.

http://www.ifmagazine.com/review.asp?article=2440

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