It’s the Idol curse!
Stalkers, lower ratings, Kara DioGuardi, and crew members falling from set pieces!
A mere 2 hours before the show’s live broadcast on Tuesday, stage manager Debbie Williams fell from Ryan Seacrest retractable staircase, suffering a gash to the bone on her leg that required a trip to the emergency room and stitches. A large tower also fell, littering the stage with shattered glass.
Adding to the chaos, audience members were not permitted inside until just 20 minutes prior to airing, causing ushers to urge them to disregard their tickets and simply sit wherever.
There comes a time in any “Idol” season, last one excepted, when a performance is so outstanding that it seems to magically, mysteriously or maddeningly turn off a switch in the heads of millions of viewers who would normally pick up the phone, or text the vote, or otherwise call attention to the best in the only way this show allows. So good is a particular performance that there’s almost a shrug, or numbness, translated as – the performance was so outstanding that the very gods will take care of him (or her) so why bother?
This reflex has scuttled Jennifer Hudson, Melinda Doolittle and Chris Daughtry: They were not merely the best in their respective seasons (3, 5 and 6) but outrageously the best; so far and away the best that the need to actually vote for them seemed redundant.
Will this happen with Lambert – so far and away the best that the eighth season is now officially over? (And last night’s performance was probably one of the five most memorable in “Idol” history). Probably not, but last week’s hiccup was a warning sign: Simon blamed it on the staircase, which seems to me like blaming bad weather here on a butterfly’s wing-beat in China. He came in the bottom two because the switch had been turned on – the illogic of inaction had superseded the logic of action: Lambert is so good that he’ll be OK.
Categories: TV
