Thought “Idol” couldn’t get any more dramatic than last week’s Judges’ Save? Well, you thought wrong, my friends, because this week marked the return of the Master of Melodrama himself!
That’s right, last year’s runner-up, Adam Lambert, came back to mentor the Season 9 hopefuls. No the theme wasn’t pyrotechnics or dramatic entrances. As I speculated last week, the Idols did, in fact, tackle the songs of Elvis Presley. (Just call me Miss Cleo!)
Now, if you followed my musings last year, you know that I have never been a huge fan of Glambert and his guyliner. In addition, the fact that the producers even chose to feature him as a mentor at all drew a capital “WTF?” from me. With so many “AI” alums to choose from, why would they ask him? He hasn’t even been off the “Idol” stage for a full year and -- I hate to rub it in -- but he didn’t win.
What’s next? Is he going to be auditioning for Simon’s seat?
I have to say, though, that he actually did a really good job mentoring. He offered the contestants real advice and criticized them with honesty and tact, no easy feat. He lauded the Idol’s personalities and voices, saying that they just needed “a little coffee.” (Funny, I always thought Elvis was more of a barbiturate kind of guy.)
The more I thought about it, I realized that it was actually Adam’s fans, not he himself, who turned me off to him last year. They were so passionate that they were borderline rude, even calling people who didn’t worship him homophobes. In the end I don’t think it was homophobia that lost Glambert the “Idol” crown; I think it was the off-putting bravado of his fans.
He won me over right away when he first addressed the Idols and got the big question (which was “WTF?”) out of the way. “Obviously I’m just at the beginning of my career,” he said, “so what the heck do I know?” But he went on to explain that he knows exactly what the Idols are going through. And I have to hand it to him, he does know how to perform.
There were only two real gaffes during last night’s show and, not surprisingly, they came from Ryan Seacrest. The first was when Glambert was jokingly coaching him on how to sing better, telling him he had to “get the tongue out” more. Seacrest responded, “My tongue is not nearly as talented as yours.”
What?! Are you serious, Ryan? This is a family show. Save the PG-13 stuff for “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.” (See my story from Tuesday, "'Idol's' Problem Isn't Ellen Anymore, It's Ryan.")
The second comment of questionable taste? When Seacrest was announcing some of the details for next week’s “Idol Gives Back” telecast, he mentioned that there would also be celebrities participating at a second location, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. “I can announce that Brian Dunkleman will host that portion of the show.”
