“American Idol” Establishes The Save Statistic

noah | April 16, 2009 9:30 am

Last night’s American Idol was supposed to be the episode where the well-meaning, Timberlakeish Michigan native Matt Giraud got sent home for making the United States’ viewing public sit through a second Bryan Adams song in the space of one hour. But he was granted a week’s reprieve thanks to the brand-new “judges’ save,” which basically allows for even more drama next week, when two people get banished from the couches. (Honestly, did anyone think that he wouldn’t get to sing for his life next week, given the way Paula Abdul and Kara DioGuardi practically climbed over the table to prove that, yes, he really did know how to love a woman?)

Anyway, all this has resulted in next week being extra-suspenseful, because now the bottom two will be sent home instead of just the lowest vote-getter. It is also “disco week,” which garnered the predictable grousing from Simon at show’s end. Were this crop of singers a little better overall, I would probably try to be contrarian toward Mr. Cowell and say that while the whole concept of a “disco week” that doesn’t have James Murphy involved in 2009 is probably going to come off at least a little dated, the genre has been historically undervalued, and that even Idol‘s inept licensing team will be able to find at least a couple of diamonds for the kids to sing. But then the image of Danny Gokey flapping around to “Disco Duck” takes over my mind, and, well, yeah.

American Idol [Official site]