American Idol Gives Back, makes a 17 year old girl cry
I wonder why one of these people is crying?
It’s kind of hard to slam a show trying to do good, but I’m going to try anyway. Though I must add that I did not watch the show in its entirety — did anyone?
First, the telethon. I watched the following segments: Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Annie Lennox, that Stayin’ Alive montage, the creepy Elvis duet, most of what Ellen said, and a few of the Africa Packages. The show seemed kind of bumpy, but I guess if you’re trying to produce The Great American Live Television Event! there will be bumps. I’m not saying that every segment did or didn’t work, but from the moments I watched I did get the feeling that the show seemed far more tolerable than, say, an awards show. Perhaps that’s because the congratulatory attitude was slightly off-set by the general do-gooderness of it all.
Speaking of do-goodery, did it trouble anyone else that someone like Ellen DeGeneres was able to donate $100,000 and that an enormous media company like News Corp. was only giving $5 million. I know, I know, that $5 million is money that the recognized charities didn’t have on Monday, but still the amount of advertising the company has raked in since this show (let alone other shows and media properties) debuted is likely astronomical. Capping your audience match at $5 million just comes off as cheap — or maybe Warren Buffet has ruined charity for everyone. What’s that? You’re giving $5 million, oh well I’m giving $5 billion… Yeah, with a B.
Second the elimination. Look, I think we can all agree that NOT eliminating anyone was about as surprising as a Cheney heart-attack, but the fact that they actually made poor Jordan, who was hands down the best on Tuesday, actually cry is without a doubt one of the crueler tricks the show has ever played. What made it so much worse was that Chris had a mic in his hand the whole time making us think that they were running low on time and that he was going to have to start singing his closing song as soon as the results were known — at least that’s how I read the situation (so I guess the non-elimination was maybe kind of surprising).
Still, why torture Jordan? Especially on a night that was suppose to be uplifting.
Did anyone watch the whole thing? The money goes here.
April 26th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
I didn’t watch any of it. I hate charity.