American Idol Week 2, Oscar Nominations, 90210, How I Met Your Mother, & More - January 22, 2009

Auditions continued on this week’s American Idol. Tuesday’s episode had the San Francisco auditions. Twelve people from there went on to Hollywood. I did my tally once again this week and had a count of seven good auditions and seven bad auditions. Even with the auditions being seven a piece, I thought there was more focus on the bad audtions. Highlights of the show included Adam Lambert who was told that he had a very theatrical voice but was a big hit with the judges. Paula said that he was the best they had seen in any city. Kai Kalama impressed the judges as well. His story was that he had pretty much put his life on hold to take care of his mom who suffers from a seizure disorder. Nice guy and the judges main critique of him was that he needed to show more personality on stage. Overall, the judges were pleased with San Francisco. Wednesday’s episode moved the auditions to Louisville, KY. I had a tally of eight good auditions to ten bad auditions. Alexis Grace was someone that I really enjoyed in this episode. She was the stay at home mom who had a big voice. Simon said she had a very commercial face. Likable and she got through. Matt Giraud impressed the judges with his unique voice. Simon said he reminded him a lot of Elliott Yamin. Joanna Pacitti was recognized by Kara as she had a previous record deal but it didn’t work out. She did well and moved on to Hollywood. Good story to close the show with as Leneshe Young wowed the judges singing a song that she wrote. She made it on through including a fake “no” from Paula that almost stunned the room. Nineteen people got through to Hollywood. Auditions move to Jacksonville, FL next week.

I’ll have my Smallville thoughts tomorrow as I’m waiting to watch the episode with friends.

How I Met Your Mother dealt with a major snow storm this week. Ted and Barney ended up running the bar looking to hit it off with these two girls. Their dream of running a bar ended up turning into a nightmare when the girls said they were in a band. The problem was that the band was a school band. The rest of the episode had a fun story of a tradition that Marshall and Lily had going on. Everytime they would travel, the other would get a six pack from wherever they had been while getting picked up at the airport. Each decided to stop the tradition but were talked back into it when they realized that they loved it. Nice twist at the end with them showing what we had seen had taken place over three different days. Marshall’s surprise with the band playing was a nice touch.

Here are the happenings on this week’s 90210. The drama involving Adrianna continued. It almost seems like she has become the central figure of the show at times. She continued to go to auditions but finally went to see about her pregnancy. She found out that abortion was not even an option for her as she is too far along in the pregnany so she has to have the baby. She did get good news by getting the lead in the school play. Who will be the male lead playing opposite of her? Well, that would be the returning Ty. It turns out that he is the father. That is also the Ty that was seeing Annie for a bit too. Annie was also auditioning as well but didn’t get the lead obviously. She took that really bad. Naomi stuck by Adrianna through her continued troubles. Naomi had more troubles of her own when she learned that her dad was selling the house. Her mom was taking time away to get some rest and relaxation after being conned out of money. Naomi would later catch her dad cheating on his other girlfriend with the real estate woman. Naomi announced to her dad that she would be staying in a hotel and not with her dad. Other major news of the episode revolved around Silver. Mr. Matthews returned back after the drama that occurred with him which was done to cover up for the undercover cop. He had Silver transferred out of his class. You may remember that she blasted him really bad in her blog. Kelly confronted him on it and he was talking about how he had lost his love for teaching. Silver went ahead and did the class assignment determined to make him want to keep her in the class. It all worked and he let Silver stay. They came to a peace over the whole matter. Things didn’t end well for her though when Dixon broke up with her. He finally just got to his breaking point on her attitude with things and also with him. The episode left on a major cliffhanger when Annie called Ethan to come back and pick her up for the school play party. He ran a stop sign and was hit by an oncoming vehicle as the episode ended. There was an American Idol tie in with this episode as Lisa Tucker had a small cameo in the episode as one of the students in the play.

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning and here are some of the nominations.
Best Picture: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire.
Actor In A Leading Role: Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), Sean Penn (Milk), Brad Pitt (The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler).
Actress In A Leading Role: Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Melissa Leo (Frozen River), Meryl Streep (Doubt), Kate Winslet (The Reader).
Actor In A Supporting Role: (Josh Brolin (Milk), Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt), Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight), Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road).
Actress In A Supporting Role: Amy Adams (Doubt), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Viola Davis (Doubt), Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button), Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler)
Directing: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire.
Animated Feature Film: Bolt, Kung Fu Panda, WALL-E.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Paul Blart: Mall Cop - $39.2 million. 2. Gran Torino - $25.6 million. 3. My Bloody Valentine 3D - $24.1 million. 4. Notorious - $23.3 million. 5. Hotel For Dogs - $22.8 million. 6. Bride Wars - $13.8 million. 7. The Unborn - $10.54 million. 8. Defiance - $10.51 million. 9. Marley & Me - $7.5 million. 10. Slumdog Millionaire - $7 million.

I read an article this week that discussed that My Network has now passed The CW in prime time viewers. The reason? WWE Friday Night Smackdown. You know, the show that The CW decided they didn’t want. Smackdown has been the highest rated program on the network. Other shows on the network are bringing in decent ratings as well. It is the only network that has seen an overall ratings increase this season.

House did its highest ratings of the season on Monday night on Fox.

It was fun to watch the season four version of American Idol Rewind recently that featured Carrie Underwood’s St. Louis audition including a new interview of her looking back on the experience. I liked Carrie immediately seeing her audition the night that it originally aired and knew that I had a favorite in the competition. Incredible voice and absolute sweeheart of a personality.

So, they actually brought back KARR on last night’s episode of Knight Rider? I happened to read that online today. Definitely a throwback to the original series.

I got this news to pass along to all of you about a show on Discovery Channel called One Way Out. Here is the information on it.
“The art of escape gets put to the scientific test as escapologist Jonathan Goodwin attempts to break out of bizarre and dangerous homemade contraptions. Joined by his best friend/chief collaborator Mikey Nelson and master builder/engineer Terry Stroud, there is no idea -- no matter how insane – that is out of bounds. From conception to testing to the actual stunt, Jonathan proves there is no escape too extreme or painful in his search to always find that one way out! Series premieres Monday, January 26 at 9p.m. ET/PT on Discovery Channel.”

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, January 27th. The All-New Super Friends Hour (Season One – Volume Two), Blossom (Season One and Two), You’re A Good Sport Charlie Brown, Cheers (Season Eleven), The Love Boat (Season Two – Volume One).

TV Lines Of The Week: From The Lost special before the premiere. I just had to include this cause this is still one of my favorite exchanges in the history of the show. It is of Sawyer and Hurley talking about finding the body of a Dharma worker who ended up being a much bigger player than expected. Sawyer toasted his beer on the skull of the body they found.
Hurley: “That’s not cool dude. That guy had a mom. Oh, and a name. Not Skeletor. It’s Roger Workman.”
Sawyer: “It’s work man, you blockhead. He was a Dharma janitor. “

From 90210. Dixon and Debbie talking about he and Silver’s problems and how they decided not to talk about it.
Debbie: “Did you talk about it? Does she know you’re upset?”
Dixon: “We kind of decided not to talk about it. Sweep it under the rug."
Debbie: “How’s that going?”
Dixon: “Just feels like there is something big under the rug. Someone’s going to break their neck.”

Video Of The Week: Season five music video for the premiere of Lost set to The Fray’s song “You Found Me”. Incredible music video. Just now watched this since I was afraid of spoilers that could be in it.


That is all I have for you for now. Take care and God bless!!