I’ll admit, I haven’t watched American Idol on a regular basis since Ruben won (he was my pick). I kind of half-heartedly watched when Fantasia won (it was too obvious), and since then I’ve given up on the show. But even when I was tuning in, it seemed like Paula Abdul sometimes wasn’t watching the same show as the rest of us…indeed, there were times we weren’t sure just what it was she was watching. And her own special brand of crazazy continues, when she became entirely too confused on air:
On a night when “American Idol” switched up the judges’ format by making them hold their appraisals until every contestant had a turn, Abdul offered feedback Tuesday for two songs by Jason Castro — except that he’d only sung one.
Unlike the usual format, in which each “Idol” performance is judged immediately, Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell were made to take notes, then offer individual critiques in rapid succession at the end of each round. The reason, Seacrest explained, was because “this show is so tight.”
So after each of the final five contestants sang one Neil Diamond song, Jackson zipped through his appraisals, offering a few terse words for each before kicking it to a visibly flustered Abdul.
“Oh gosh, we’ve never had to write these things down … fast enough,” she began, shuffling through her notecards. “Jason, first song, I loved hearing your lower register, which we never really hear, um … .”
And that’s where it started going off the rails.
“The second song, I felt like your usual charm wasn’t — it was missing for me. It kind of left me a little empty.”
Indeed.
All six people on stage, including Seacrest, stared blankly (except Syesha Mercado, who wore the furrowed brow of mystification).
“The two songs,” she continued, “made me feel like you’re not fighting hard enough to get into the top four.”
After a smattering of nervous crowd laughter, Jackson finally broke the tension.
“That was just on the first song,” he said sheepishly, pointing up to Castro. “Just on the first one.”
Simon Cowell closed his eyes and shook his head, and began to guffaw as Abdul’s confusion mounted.
“Oh my god, I thought you — I thought you sang twice!” she said.
She explained that she got confused by looking ahead at the notes for David Cook. [...]
Even Cowell gathered himself to help patch up the moment, patting Abdul on the shoulder and asking, as if to speed things along, “Paula, who was your favorite?”
Her reply: Cook (the same contestant whose performance she supposedly noted as having left her “empty”). [...]
Abdul told “Entertainment Tonight” after the show that she was thrown for a loop when producers apprised the judges of the change “in the dark” at the last minute.
“This was officially the strangest show we’ve ever done,” Cowell said at the conclusion of the telecast, “but I like that. It’s kind of a bit chaotic tonight.”
Hmm. Okay, I can understand being flustered when somebody changes up the format on you at the last minute, but come on…aren’t these people supposed to be professionals? Don’t they have experience in television? Aren’t there producers, directors, people to make sure hosts do what they are supposed to do? This isn’t Paula’s first season on AI, it isn’t like she’s never done this before. It isn’t too hard to watch and know whether or not people sing one song or two. And she had Randy to pave the way for her, all she had to do was listen to him and imitate what he did. Is it just me, or are there entirely too many “odd” events that happen to Paula?
Randy and Simon didn’t seem to have problems with the new format, but I guess Paula did. Oh well, just add it to the list of Very Weird Events in the career of Paula Abdul.
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