Idol Gives Back

Again, I think "Idol's" intent is praise worthy, but the execution is clunky.

I do wonder how they'll do - when I interviewed Nigel Lythgoe for that Chris Daughtry story a while back, he made a very astute point: Picking up the phone and making a free call is one thing, but when the show is over and fans have to go out and pay their hard-earned money for an album, it's a totally different ball game. This seems like the same situation, not to mention the difficulty 12-year-old girls may have in getting their mom's credit cards.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they'll do OK. But $20 million OK, or $100 million?

And Seacrest totally had me hooked with that "most shocking elimination ever." But after he told Melinda to sit down, I just smacked myself on the head: Nobody's going home tonight. Duh. Lame, too, although I understand the motivation.

UPDATE: Called it - although kicking off two next week seems pretty damn mean. It's not really a week off then, is it? They just messed with Jordin for no reason at all, didn't they?

Have to say, though, that Phil does the Bono thing pretty well.