American Idol: Too bad, Stefano

Pub date April 22, 2011
WriterTim Redmond
SectionNoise

“O.M.G.! Katy Perry! O.M.G.!” That’s Vivian, dancing and cartwheeling around the living room when the special guests for the April 21 show were announced.

Yep: Katy Perry. Yep: More entertainment to fill in a full hour so that Ryan Seacrest can stretch a five-minute process (sending one contestant home) into 60 minutes with plenty of Ford ads. And she wasn’t bad; Viv and Jean liked the new song, “Extraterrestrial,” but I’m getting sick of the same old over-costumed dangers rolling around in smoke on the floor. Can the high-tech world of Idol find a new special effect?

Not a whole lot of drama remaining. We all knew Stefano and one of the two girls would hit the bottom three; I wasn’t surprised to see Jacob there, too. Haley’s better than Lauren, but Lauren somehow seems to have the teenage-girl vote, so she’s got a few more rounds to go.

Stefano? Well, he put it right, and with some class: “It’s all about giving your absolute best.” That’s what he did — his absolute best. And it just wasn’t as good as the other guys.

Next week: the songs of Carole King. How the hell is James going to rock that shit?