Friday, March 10, 2006

At last, at long last (part two)...

... our national nightmare is over: "Joey" is no more. From today's Variety:

Peacock was planning to air "Most Outrageous Moments" on Fridays, but the skein will now air Tuesdays from 8-9 p.m. -- the timeslot that was to have been occupied for the next few weeks by "Joey."

Opening for "Moments" appeared after NBC execs decided to again pull "Joey" from the lineup following the skein's disastrous return this week in the new Tuesday slot. Just 4 million viewers tuned in, with the half-hour skein averaging a stunningly weak 1.4/4 among adults 18-49.

"Joey," which had been struggling on Thursdays, will now return to Hiatusville and likely won't be back until summer, when NBC might opt to burn off the remaining originals. Net still hasn't confirmed "Joey's" cancellation, but the writing has been on the wall for some time now.

Meanwhile, "American Idol" results. I'm not enough of a masochist to sit through the results show, but I'm not entirely shocked at who went home. Kinnik and Peter Brady were easy calls, while Gedeon fell victim to Nikko Smith Disease (not a lot of pre-semis screentime and performances that were consistently in the middle of the pack, which always makes people forget to vote for you). And Ayla? Well, she was pretty mediocre this week, whereas Melissa looked so desperate to keep going that she may have gotten sympathy votes. Weep not for Ayla; now she doesn't have to give up her full ride basketball scholarship.

Oh, and when was the last time that Simon declared someone should pack their bags and they didn't go home? I'm sure it happened a few times in the first season, before he figured out the whims of American fans, but I can't remember it happening recently.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm a little disappointed that Gedeon won't be back. He can definitely out-sing that Chicken Little-looking dude. In fact, Simon paid him one of his hugest-ever compliments a week or two back when he said Gedeon was the kind of young talent Berry Gordy would've snapped up during the glory days of Motown. BUT...

... I don't know if anyone's pointed this out, or whether it had any impact on the voting... and Simon may have alluded to this in coded language when he described Gedeon's "When a Man Loves a Woman" as "cabaret"... but, might Gedeon have been a bit too "gay-seeming" to get over as a soul belter?

I mean, he certainly camped it up during "When a Man..." Then, in discussing his song choice with Seacrest, Gedeon said he had his MOM in mind while singing it. Hel-LO!? "When a Man Loves a Woman" AIN'T about the love of a son for his mother.

I can also tell you what's a little off-putting about Gedeon's toothful smile... reminds me of an item of "black memorabilia" that my aunt collects... a coon-caricatured kiddie bank that opens at the teeth, for you to put your money in. But I still think, on vocal chops alone, the guy belonged in the final 12.

As for my fave, Elliott Yamin, Simon was right as ever: his song choice this week was a "cop out." As if Yamin wanted to prove (why?) he could sing a middle-of-the-road pop-radio ballad, after setting the stage on fire with "Moody's Mood for Love."

It's not just his voice that I dig, but his SENSIBILITY... and I hope he stays truer to that in the future.