Apr 08 2009
Steve-O to Dance Yet Again; “Idol’s” Lil Losing Herself Even More
Rather ironically, in a dance from last week, Kym Johnson and David Alan Grier foreshadowed their Dancing With the Stars fate- the twosome said goodbye this week after scoring the lowest total from combined judges’ scores and viewer voting. (picture courtesy of ABC-TV/Kelsey McNeal)
Jackass fans yet again showed strong support for their favorite Dancing With the Stars contestant.
Despite earning the lowest judges’ score Monday evening (an 18), Steve-O and partner Lacey Schwimmer avoided the bottom two this week. Instead, actor/comedian David Alan Grier and football legend Lawrence Taylor danced-off for survival.
Grier and partner Kym Johnson actually improved upon Monday’s score by two points (24), while Taylor and partner Edyta Sliwinska held steady with a 20. When elimination time arrived, Grier got the boot, leaving Johnson with a lowly ninth-place finish (down considerably from last season, when she and partner Warren Sapp finished second).
That leaves the ABC dancing competition with four viable contenders and four mediocre (some not even) ones- to review, the contenders are Gilles Marini, Melissa Rycroft, Lil Kim and Shawn Johnson. Alongside Steve-O and Taylor in the lesser-viable group are Chuck Wicks and Ty Murray. With the way season eight is progressing, would it be shocking to see Steve-O outlast Taylor, Wicks and Murray to claim a top five finish? Not in the slightest, as the power of the people never ceases to amaze- just ask Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee, who trumped third-placer Chris Daughtry by finishing as the top two at the conclusion of FOX’s American Idol’s fifth season.
Speaking of Idol, the eight remaining hopefuls tackled songs from the year of their birth, and it again was a night of mixed results. Standouts included Adam Lambert, Matt Giraud, Allison Iraheta, Danny Gokey and Anoop Desai; Lambert infused his raw and star quality on Tears For Fears’ “Mad World,” earning the ever-elusive standing ovation from Simon Cowell; Giraud offered a funky rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Part-Time Lover”; Iraheta showed her tender side on Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”; Gokey impressed the judges with his take on Mickey Gilley’s “Stand By Me” cover; and Desai- as expected-returned to his balladeer role for Cyndi Lauper’s ‘True Colors” (the arrangement actually mixed Lauper’s original and Phil Collins’ cover versions).
A couple contestants who wowed the judges last week did not fare as well this time out. After doing well last week with a Billy Joel track, Scott MacIntyre took on Survivor’s ‘The Search is Over,” leaving the piano at home and playing some electric guitar. Cowell stressed that he made a mistake taking Paula Abdul’s advice from a few weeks back, adding that both the song and guitar playing were horrible- as usual, Mr. Cowell got it right.
Another disappointment came via Kris Allen, who took Don Henley’s “All She Wants to Do is Dance” and gave it a totally different arrangement. The problem was, that while actually a decent change, Allen got lost in the process, as the busy musical background dominated the performance.
And what to say of Lil Rounds? While still one of the competition’s best vocalists, the girl is having a serious Idol identity crisis- for three weeks’ running, she’s presented herself as more of a second-rate impersonator rather than the fresh, fiery artist she initially showcased. Two weeks ago, she was Martha Reeves; last week, a black Celine Dion; and this week, with “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” she tried to be Tina Turner, even mimicking Turner’s signature walk from the video. Then again, she caused concern early on when she perhaps sounded too close to Mary J. Blige when belting “Be Without You.”
Regardless, will the Lil of Idol past please come out of hiding? And SOON? Because if she does not, we may be without her sooner than she- and we- had hoped.
