Poor Jason Castro, he made it to the top 5, but Paula Abdul’s screw up proves American Idol is no different than our US elections. It is all rigged.

No matter how Ryan Seacrest spins it, Paula Abdul continues to dig the hole deeper. Normally, I wouldn’t care what happens on American Idol, however, this season was different because their are three Latinos who are in the top 5, which includes Jason Castro. But given last nights show, Paula Abdul raises question about the the whole process. Is American Idol is fixed and it really doesn’t matter how the people vote.

Watch how Paula reads the lines she was fed by producers to say to Jason after his second performance, which she says after his first performance.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.

Paula:”Oh gosh – we’ve never had to write these things down, uh, fast enough. Jason, the first song I loved hearing your lower register, which we never really hear. Um, the second song, I felt like your usual charm wasn’t…it was missing for me, it kind of left me a little empty. And the two songs made me feel like you’re not fighting hard enough to get into the top four.”

Randy Jackson jumped in and reminded Paula that they only sang one song. Looking like a deer caught in the headlights, Paula continued, “Oh my God, I thought you sang twice! … You know what, this is hard! You know what, I’m looking at, it’s your notes, David [Cook]. You were fantastic.”

And the spin begins. This morning, on Seacrest’s radio show, Paula tries explain her so-called “flub.”

She told Seacrest, she had caught a glimpse of Jason Castro singing “September Morn,” his second song, during dress rehearsal after she dropped off some friends and family. She went on to say, that during the show, Paula, Simon, and Randy, were asked to write down their comments while Castro was singing his first song, “Forever in Blue Jeans.” She states the request was a bit caused some problems because it distracted them from judging his performance.

When Ryan brought out all five Idols after they all sang their first song, Paula told Seacrest “I got lost in my notes.” In other words, she judged Castro based her comments on his performance during dress rehearsal.

She also said that she wrote her critique of David Cook on the same sheet as Jason Castro. Looking closing, there is a small problem. During her critique of Jason’s performance, she told Jason, “you’re not fighting hard enough” then corrected herself and said it was David Cook’s notes she was reading, but seconds later, she told Cook he was “fantastic.”

This is the story the producer’s at American Idol are sticking too and are planing to downplay play Paula’s “fantastic” comment. On Entertainment Tonight Paula Abdul said:

And when host RYAN SEACREST asked the judges to quickly sum up the performances, Paula explains that she was trying organize her notes, saying, “I was trying to give my critique for Jason Castro, and scribbled Jason’s name, and that was DAVID [COOK]’s! … We all just screwed up everything.” She adds with a laugh: “This is live television. This is fun!”

No Paula, this is not fun. Not if you’re Jason Castro, who has only been in the bottom 3 once. While she can make light of her screw up, she could possibly end his run tonight.

Sorry, but, this does not pass the smell test.

Paula, did it ever occur to you how your statement alone could have shattered Castro’s confidence for the rest of the night? Let’s face it, you rattled him because his second song was far worse and seemed like he knew was going to get the ax. After his second song, Randy Jackson repeated what Paula said when she screwed up. Paula stuck to the same critique. And actually, Jason admitted he was not feeling it. If you read between the lines, you can tell he doesn’t even want to be here anymore. I wonder why? Thanks for nothing Paula Abdul.

How is it possible to judge a person’s performance based on rehearsals? Isn’t rehearsal a form of practice and not the actual performance? Could it possibly be that the reason Jason Castro did not give it his all during rehearsal was that he was saving his voice?

Or is your critique based on dress rehearsals instead of the televised live performances? If so, why have them sing live if their live performance is not accurately being critiqued? If this really is a “singing” competition, would it not make the most sense to judge the contestants based on what WE, your target audience, listen at home?

Is this irrefutable PROOF that the show is rigged? Maybe American Idol is the Root of All Evil.

Update: Jason Castro is safe after Idol producers decided to take the ole, “nothing to see here, move along” move. In fact, the didn’t even mention what occurred yesterday. However, Ryan Seacrest made a statement that there were a lot of rumors about Paula on the Internet this morning, and they’re not true. “She’s our family.” Umm … what rumors, bro?

On a side note: we are now on the Top 4 y sabes que, gente, all three made it through. Que viva la raza!

On another side note: Guess who hottie Natasha Bedingfield, who sang on American Idol, is rooting for? Our homeboy, David Archuleta, you lucky dawg you. In fact, she was willing to go to David’s prom that was until Ryan Seacrest cock blocked him, by reminding her that she has a boyfriend.

BTW Ryan, since you did mention that you are reading the blogs, nice try on the spin … ese … pero no cigar … vato.

Related posts

• American Idol Update (2)
• Idol Fans to Simon Cowell: Not so fast (0)
• The Words We Use: The Rhetoric of Race (13)
• The Race for the Texas Hispanic Vote (1)
• The Latino Challenge to Black America: Q & A With Earl Ofari Hutchinson (4)

Tags: American Idol, David Archuleta, Jason Castro, Latinos-as |  Print This Post |
functional