American Idol's Ratings Plummet As Caleb Johnson Beats Jena Irene For The Win

The days of American Idol being the top rated show on American TV are over. The former regularly #1 show is now regularly in the Top 20. Usually the lower tier of the Top 20.

I, among many viewers, bailed on watching American Idol last season by the time the contestants were whittled down to the Final Five, or Six.

I did not watch last year's American Idol finale. I know a girl won, I don't know her name, I don't think she has had a hit song.

With this year's American Idol I also did not watch the finale. For me the only one among this year's singers who made it to the live shows who had any chance at pop idol type success was Alex Preston, due to the fact that he is definitely a one of a kind original.

That is this year's American Idol winner, Caleb Johnson, above, sitting on a couch with Alex Preston.

Caleb Johnson  seemed  nice enough personality-wise. But pop idol-wise? His singing seemed to me to be totally imitative of rockers from the 80s. Nothing original about him. I think Simon Cowell would have not been impressed with Caleb Johnson, with Simon's negative critiques likely leading to Caleb's boot well prior to the finale.

As for Caleb's co-finalist, Jena Irene. Well, if you want people to pronounce your named with a long E, then spell it with a G and two E's. The letter J never sounds like Gee, not that I've ever heard.

As for Jena's pop idol-ness, I was not a fan of her singing, at times it was like she went so quiet and soft I could not make out the words she was singing. Performance-wise and entertainment-wise she was sort of dull.

And then there are the judges. I liked Harry Connick Jr., Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban. They all seem like very nice people. But, over the course of seeing a lot of hours of the three there were some elements I got a bit tired of.

Harry Connick Jr. at times seemed to be trying too hard to be "entertaining." Throwing beignets into the audience comes to mind. His critiques, at times, seemed sort of a bit overwrought and overthought.

Jennifer Lopez I  really like. And not just because she is very pleasing to look at. But, both she and Keith Urban did something that really annoyed me.

As in more than once Keith Urban and Ms. Lopez would stand while Caleb Johnson was rocking and dance along with the music like a couple of teenagers in cool kid head bobbing mode. It just seemed wrong to me that those two would do this. Harry would have none of it, even with Jennifer trying to get him to stand and join them.

Another thing with Keith Urban, and again I must say he is a very likable guy, who seems to give good advice, at times. But, he could maybe try and expand his vocabulary a bit. He used the word "killer" way too many times. As in verbiage such as "That was killer." Or "That performance was killer." Or "Man, that was killer."

American Idol is no longer a "killer" show. I doubt American Idol will ever find another Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, Adam Lambert, Phillip Phillips or any of the others who have gone from their American Idol exposure to a show business, or political office career.

Apparently FOX realizes American Idol's best days are behind it, and so will be cutting the number of hours American Idol airs in its next season of searching for America's next pop star....

American Idol: 9 Finalists Manage to Make Elvis Boring With Adam Lambert's Help

Some are saying it was yet one more American Idol Jump the Shark moment for last year's runner up to be mentoring this year's American Idol Final 9, from a stage in Las Vegas.

I don't agree. I thought Adam Lambert gave good advice. However, it seemed he was ignored, for the most part.

In the view in this screencap, Adam Lambert is managing to look like Elvis.

However, the closeup, from the front view, was sort of an un-Elvis look, with way too much makeup, painted fingernails and earrings. I really think Adam Lambert would do himself a favor if he adopted a more natural look.

When Ryan Seacrest said it would be Elvis songs this week, I thought, well, this should be a bit more entertaining than what we've seen so far. I was wrong.

Crystal Bowersox was first up, singing Saved. Another Elvis song I had never heard. I did not care for it, but, of course, the judges gushed.

How can the energy be sucked out of the Elvis classic, You Ain't Nothing But A Hound Dog? Last night we learned that was totally possible via Andrew Garcia.

Others fared almost as poorly.

Siobhan Magnus really has worn out her welcome with me. She pretty much wreaked havoc with Suspicious Minds.

The guy who got the Judges' Save last week, Michael Lynche, sang In The Ghetto. Dull.

Casey James had the sweet spot, also known as the pimp spot, that being the last to sing. Casey sang Lawdy Miss Clawdy. He didn't suck the life out of it, like was done to Hound Dog, but there sure was not a lot of Elvis-like life apparent.

As far as I know I'd never heard the Elvis song Katie Stevens unmemorably sang, Baby What Do You Want Me to Do. She moved awkwardly around the stage.

Aaron Kelly sang Blue Suede Shoes. And was quite animated while doing so, dancing around the stage, being an Elvis-like performer. Compared to most of the others, it was entertaining. Of course the judges hated it, with Cowell using the tired Karaoke critique.

That leaves Tim Urban and Lee DeWyze.

Turban sang I Can't Help Falling in Love, while sitting and strumming the guitar. I thought he did fine, as did the judges, with Simon Cowell saying Tim had gone from "Zero to Hero." With all the money Cowell makes, he really needs to hire someone to write him some fresh cliches.

And then the best of the night, to my tone-deaf ears, Lee DeWyze, singing A Little Less Conversation. Lee came the closest to Elvis rocking it, or so it seemed to me.

So, two will be sent home tonight. I'm guessing it will be Andrew Garcia and either Katie Stevens, Michael Lynche or Siobhan Magnus.

Adam Lambert's American Music Award's For Your Entertainment

Lady Gaga's heat started a piano fire on Sunday's American Music Awards show. Adam Lambert did not start a fire during his performance, but there was some smoke as he sang For Your Entertainment from his first album. And he fondled a couple females and himself and kissed either a female or male, I could not determine the gender for certain. I like Adam Lambert, but I am not a big fan of the screaming/shrieking part of his singing style.

YouTube removed the video of Adam Lambert's American Music Award's controversial performance due to Dick Clark Productions claiming copyright violation.

There is no shortage of opinion spewing from the Internet regarding Adam Lambert's closing act of the AMA's. Opinion seems to lean to he made a massive mistake. Some think he destroyed his career before it really began. Others think his act was pure publicity genius.

Me? I think Adam needs someone around him to tell him, no, that is not a good idea. Like Elvis would have been so much better off, and maybe still alive, if he had someone who could tell him, no, Elvis, you are not going to eat that deep-fried peanut butter and banana sandwich.

Below are a couple comments from a couple of random Adam Lambert fans....

Overwhelmingly, people seem to have seen the suckitude in that performance,but now you have the die-hard Lambert fans who are riding all over people saying stuff like: "You just don't get it. Adam doesn't need fans like you. Now that I've rewatched his performance 8 times, is was freaking brilliant!"

It's so freaking emperor's new clothes to me. And now I'm reading that the face in the crotch and the make out scene were unplanned, impromptu events? And Adam is on twitter saying his performance was artistic expression. Wow, he's drinking his own koolaid.

Everyone who knows me knows what a huge fan I am of Adam Lambert because I think he's one of the most talented and exciting entertainers to come down the pike in a while BUT my problem with the performance was the vocals. A group of us had made a party of it and waited in great anticipation to see our favorite singer again. To be honest, a few seconds into the song we were stunned into silence - and not in a good way. Where was the confident performer from the Zodiac shows on YouTube with the amazing vocals? What we heard was thin, kind of pitchy, and the looks he gave were scary - not sexy. Especially the wierd cross-eyed look at the end. Not really attractive.

American Idol Final 7: Adam Lambert Born to be Wild

Once again, in my always humble opinion, Adam Lambert was the best of the night, by a HUGE margin, on last night's American Idol.

This week it was songs from the movies. Adam Lambert picked Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild from Easy Rider.

He sang it in full rocker mode. It's like this guy is already a seasoned superstar and the other 6 are on an entirely different show. I get bored as the others sing, I'm totally entertained when this Adam guy does his thing.

One real oddball thing from last night. Because last week's American Idol ran long, this week the judges commented in pairs. Simon and Paula being one pair and Randy and Kara being the other. This seemed to defeat the purpose of having judges comment. At times Simon was left having to express himself with looks of disdain at particularly inane Kara comments.

If they needed to save time, rather than shutting up half the judges half the time, why not cut out some of the other stuff? Like the long intro to guest mentor, Quentin Tarantino. Or some of the other blather.

American Idol: Adam Lambert Wins With Weeks To Go

Last night Adam Lambert continued to appear to have already won this year's American Idol. Last week Simon Cowell told Adam his rendition of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" was utter self-indulgent rubbish. This week Cowell told Adam that he is now a STAR after singing Smokey Robinson's "Tracks of my Tears" Smokey gave Adam a standing ovation, followed by pretty much ever one else.

To go from utter rubbish to being a STAR in one week is impressive. Then again, I often think a lot of what comes out of Simon Cowell's mouth is utter self-indulgent rubbish.

What impresses me about this Lambert kid is he is memorable. Usually it takes me awhile to remember their names, or anything else about them. But this guy is interesting. He's a Karma Chameleon. Last week he had on a lot of makeup with clothes that made him look like a Glam King. This week he left off the fingernail polish and turned himself into Elvis. Well, more accurately, the Kurt Russell version of Elvis.

I fast forward through a lot of American Idol. I don't care for that girl, I think the name is Megan, with the tattooed arm. That girl is painful to watch due to how awkward she moves, her arms rocking back and forth like bird wings. She's a really good-looking girl, except for those tattoos.

The guy who mentioned his dead wife one time too many, Danny Gokey, finally got some harsh words. I don't know what they were, because I fast forwarded through him. But I read that 2 of the judges were critical. I assume one being the always critical Cowell.

I like that super young redhead Allison girl who closed the show. She seems so much older than her 16, or is it 17, years.

By this morning I'm not remembering much about the rest of the singers. I recollect Matt the Piano player only stayed at the piano for a short time. And that the blind piano player, Scott, stayed at the piano the entire time. I don't remember what either sang.

I'm guessing that's part of what is meant by 'star' quality. As in being memorable. That and you want to see what they'll do next. So, I guess, as usual, Simon Cowell is right. Adam Lambert is now a STAR. A male Madonna, changing how he looks week to week. Googling for images of that boy you come up with some very interesting Adam Lambert variations.

I wonder what he'll come up with next? Last night Randy Jackson praised him for straightening up his act or something like that. Maybe Adam will do some more straightening. Lose those awful earrings, maybe. Get a short haircut. Next week come out dressed like a construction worker singing Macho Man. Simon Cowell would likely call that self-indulgent rubbish.

American Idol: Rule Change

I don't recollect an over the top anointing of the expected winner on the first Final 12, uh, 13, American Idol, like what happened on Tuesday with Adam Lambert.

And then the announcement by Simon Cowel at the end of the show saying there was going to be a rule change. And it involved the judges.

Of course, the Internet is abuzz with rumors as to what this change might be. Rumors like the judges will pick who gets sent home from the bottom 3. That rumor and the one that has the judges giving immunity to one of the bottom 3 are the only two rumors that seemed remotely possible.

Then we had Ryan Seacrest say something like "if we do this, then we'll have to change the name of the show." I guess meaning it was no longer America's idol, it'd become Judge's idol.

Anyway, I'll likely fast forward through American Idol tonight and learn what the big change is.

Oh, one more thing, high definition TV is definitely not everyone's friend. Maybe we don't need to see everything crystal clear. Like the next American Idol's skin.

Below you can watch a YouTube video of the new American Idol, Adam Lambert, singing "Crazy" at the Upright Cabaret last year....