popular thinking

OK. So the live shows finally begin next week for American Idol. I think we can mostly all agree that Idol's producers gave short shrift this year to Hollywood week, essentially reducing it to only one hour, and not even giving us any sort of update on dozens of singers profiled during the audition specials...from Sanjaya's sweet sister to the opera singer, the girl with the little girl voice, the carhop girls, the guy who looked like Tyson Beckford's little brother, the guy who sang Christian tunes with a Fidel Castro hairdo, Tami Gosnell (we only saw her saying she didn't make the final cut, without learning why), and the same went for the guy who looked like "a little fun Ruben." What gives, Idol?

At the same time, we also discovered that of the Top 24, we had barely even seen seven of them before the final cut episode. So it'll be up to next week's live shows to prove whether Amy Krebs, AJ Tabaldo, Jared Cotter, Leslie Hunt, Nicole Tranquillo, Sabrina Sloan and Stephanie Edwards have what it takes. Not that it cannot be done. Two years ago, Bo Bice emerged from out of nowhere (OK, so it was Constantine's shadow) to become the runner-up. But usually, the show lets us see its favorites right from the get-go. So these contestants have their work cut out from them, particularly because they haven't gotten an equal chance to build the popularity required to burn up those phone lines on show nights.

As for the rest?

My initial gut instinct is to say that Chris Sligh and Melinda Doolittle are the first-week frontrunners. They've got the singing chops. They're different from past champs. And they've both showcased winning personalities. They should launch successful careers no matter how they fare from here on out.

But I reserve the right to modify my stance on the eventual finalists as I review the tapes myself. You can catch up, too, by clicking on the show's Top 24 page here.

Labels: American Idol, TV