So Kris Allen beat Adam Lambert by a ton of votes last week. You knew there would be a controversy, right? This one is based around AT&T. Seems they might have pushed the results toward Allen by having their reps at parties organized by fans of Allen and teaching them how to "power text," which apparently means sending 10 or more text messages at once. The New York Times has all the details.

My favorite thing about the Idol finale isn't the performances, but playing "Where's Waldo?" with the random B-list celebrities in attendance. My question is, why do some of them get their names closed captioned while others do not? And, who was the nitwit that mistakenly identified Tori Spelling as one of "Taylor's Family & Friends"?

I have to admit that I wasn't really excited about tonight...  

I'll confess to this -- I did cry after watching Elliott's homecoming footage. I'm not the type of person who typically cries at a reality show montage, especially for one involving an Amish leprechaun (as one reader expertly described him.) But I'll fess up to crying tonight. I sniffled and thought, "man, it's going to be sad when he gets eliminated tonight." But then I shrugged my shoulders and remembered ... I don't like Elliott. Never have. But my tears were real, and not faux like Ryan's sexuality or Paula's boobs. I am slightly embarrassed that I broke down so easily. But hey, you gotta admit that seeing his mom choke up during Elliott's parade was a tear jerking Music/Variety/Game Show moment.

It was a good send off for a kid that nobody really thought would make it this far. (Oh, except Paula, of course.)

 

Anna Johns asks a very important question -- with Chris gone, does anybody still care about American Idol? My answer is yes and no. Chris was my number one dude, and I'm destroyed that he's gone. The thrill of the game has left me. I no longer feel the shrill of excitement every Tuesday when Chris takes the stage. I am now filled with blood lust, and I thirst for the demise of Elliott. I don't blame America for Chris' untimely elimination. I blame Elliott. I'm not exactly sure why, but somehow he is at fault. It's certainly not me. Taylor deserves to be in the finale, and so did Chris. Katharine? Eh, I guess. Elliott? Not so much.

With Chris gone, I have a new reason to watch Idol. I want Taylor to destroy them. Destroy them all. When we first met Taylor, he seemed the most unlikely candidate for American Idol. He's got gray hair. He's kinda tubby. And he looks like he's taking a dump when when he sings. This whole season has been absurd, so why not end it with a fireworks display of absurdity. I want Elliott and Katharine to be buried alive under the avalanche of votes that Taylor will receive. I want every man, woman, and child to vote for Taylor. I want more Americans to vote for Taylor then there are actually in America. I want Mexicans to illegally swarm over the border like locusts, with their Cingular Wireless phones in hand, just so they can vote for Taylor. I want him to destroy those other two. I want Taylor to rise from Chris' fallen ashes and pour acid rain all over Elliott and Katharine. I know that being bitter over Chris won't bring him back, but it makes me feel a hell of a lot better.  

Outraged Chris Daughtry fans are saying that not only was it hard to get through to the American Idol phone lines, but when they did get through, some of the callers were misdirected to Katherine McPhee's phone line!

And many online posters on the MSNBC boards are saying the same thing, that when they got through they heard a recording of Katherine McPhee's voice. Friends of Daughtry from North Carolina are telling the Associated Press the same thing. Still other callers reported getting through to the XXX ALL ADULT ACTION line.

OK, I'm kidding about that last part.

So, last night, Chris Daughtry was voted off of American Idol. And judging from all the comments we're seeing on other posts, this has not set right with America.

People are up in arms that Chris, one of the strongest contestants on the show who rarely ever gave a wall to wall "bad" performance, would be sent home before Katherine (who has sounded terrible lately, even in that team Elvis medley last night), or Taylor, who makes "nice" music and seems to be a cool guy, but is more about party dancing than anything else (Simon is dead on when he says that too much of his stuff sounds like bad wedding singing or karaoke). But America voted and Chris is gone.

But fans have to remember something. It's not that Chris was voted out, it's that Elliott, Taylor, and Katherine were voted in. Because you call and vote for your favorite, and if Chris didn't have enough people voting for him, then he was going to go. And I think that's one of the problems with the show. I think that viewers should call to cast their vote for who they want out, not in. One of the reasons is that the way they have it now, fans can just flood the phone lines and vote for their "favorite," not the one who necessarily did the best. If they were made to vote for the person they wanted out, I bet a lot of people wouldn't take the time to vote twice or four times or six times. There wouldn't be this crazy concerted effort to keep someone in, and the numbers would be truer.

It's always been a dream of mine to take a road trip to Tennessee to visit Graceland and Dollywood -- a white trash pilgrimage of sorts. I don't foresee that happening any time soon, so I'll make do with American Idol's homage to Elvis, and keep my fingers crossed for Dolly's night next season.

Everything about tonight was backwards -- the favorites sorta sucked, and Elliott finally found his moment to shine. My crappy internet connection keeps going out, so enough of the pleasantries...let's do this! 

This week's American Idol performances (covered in excellent detail here by Lacy) raised a lot of questions. Many viewers (and the judges) were either confused or horrified by the songs that each singer chose. So how exactly do the singers choose the songs? How come no one ever sings Beatles songs? What rights do the producers have to get before a song can be sung on the show?

Interesting piece at mtv.com. My favorite quote is from co-exec producer Nigel Lythgoe: "A lot of people that have written the songs just say, 'I don't want you to sing my song.' People just don't want their songs sung by good singers."

Yeah, that's why they don't give permission.