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American Idol - Why I don't watch the vote-off (and my longest post yet)

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Thanks to Lost airing some sort of recap (ratings grab) the Channelup house was forced to watch the Idol vote-off. I have successfully avoided these all year. Tonight confirmed that I haven't been missing much. What a disaster. (Spoilers ahead)

Many many many many awkward moments in this. The disco-dance/ medley-Paula Abdul-choreographed mess was tough to watch. The contestants looked like idiots, the dancing was terrible, the music worse but I grinned and bared it. Highlight of this whole thing was Matt Giraud "being surprised" to find out he could download his own songs as a ringtone on his Blackberry. WHHAAA?!! Is this the future or something? Phones can play songs?! I suppose next you'll be telling me they can take videos or something crazy like that? Idol is always ahead of the technological curve.

Then Lil Rounds gets voted off and sings fantastically. I kind of wonder if the nerves just never left her all season. She always seemed to under perform for no apparent reason. Then she comes on tonight, when the pressure is off and crushes it. No one in the competition had more to gain from a huge record contract than Lil. She is the only one with a family. I hope she lands somewhere.

Then Idol brings out some random awful singer no has ever heard of to sing a song no one has ever heard. Not to be out done the producers decided to then double down on the first ill advised bet by bringing out another no name to sing another crappy song. Paula looked like she superglued her face into a smile just in case the camera focused on her (which it did). I wonder how much coaching the crowd needed before these performances. I have been to a couple of television tapings and at each one a low level producer comes out to basically beg the crowd for enthusiasm. They must have threatened lives or taken loved ones hostage tonight in order to get the kind of reaction elicited from the group.

I need to stop here for a second and let you know a little bit about how I write. I watch the show and sort of take notes, free write and then clean it up when the show is over. The paragraph above I wrote during the live disco performances. By the time KC and the Sunshine Band hit the stage I was out of ways to write the words "awkward" or "terrible." At this point it doesn't even pay to try and keep up with the inexplicable decisions made by Idol producers in terms of this show. I will sum it up by saying that Mrs. Channelup buried herself in a blanket so she didn't need to watch anymore.

But then my knight in shining armor David Archuleta (requisite screams and squeals!!!!) performed. Archuleta is one of my all-time favorite contestants. He just seemed genuine. I didn't love the song he sang tonight, but who cares. Archuleta is awesome. He may be the most unlikely famous singer ever. Not from talent but he just looks like a little excited kid just happy to be on stage.

The final two tonight were Anoop and Alison. Anoop goes home and also sounds great as he leaves. Disappointed for Anoop but it was probably the right decision as I cannot see him winning. If anything, he stuck around way longer than expected.

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