Weekly American Idol Recap – Top 13 Revealed

American Idol logo 2008–2011

TUESDAY FEB. 29 – Seminfinalist Men and what song they sang:

  • Colton Dixon -  Paramour’s “Decode”
  • Aaron Marcellus -  Jackson Five “Never Can Say Goodbye”
  • Chase Likens -  Hunter Hayes “Storm Warning”
  • Phillip Phillips -  Phil Collins “In the Air Tonight”
  • Eben Franckewitz -  Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain”
  • Heejun Han -  Robbie Williams “Angels”
  • Joshua Ledet  – Jennifer Hudson “You Pulled Me Through”

WED. FEB. 29 Semifinalist Women and what song they sang:

  • Erika Van Pelt -  Heart’s “What About Love”
  • Jennifer “Jen” Hirsh – Adele’s “One and Only”
  • Hallie Day – Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good”
  • Skylar Laine – Faces’ “Stay with Me”
  • Baylie Brown – Lonestar’s “Amaze”
  • Hollie Cavanagh – Christina Aguilera’s “Reflection”
  • Haley Johnsen – Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams”
  • Shannon Magrane -
  • Kathy Trocoli’s “Go Light Your World”

TOP 10 PICKED BY VOTERS:

  • Phillip Phillips
  • Hee Jun Han
  • Joshua Ledet
  • Shannon Magrane
  • Jessica Sanchez
  • Skylar Laine
  • Hollie Cavanagh
  • Elise Testone
  • Colton Dixon
  • Jermaine Jones

The judges then invited six contestants to “sing for their lives” to compete for the three remaining wild card spots: Jen Hirsh, Jeremy Rosado, Brielle Von Hugel, Deandre Brackensick, Erika Van Pelt, and Reed Grimm.

Each judge was allowed to make one wild card selection — for Randy, it was Erika; Jennifer chose Jeremy; and Steven picked Deandre, rounding out the Top 13! Next week, the guys sing Stevie Wonder songs as the ladies pay tribute to Whitney Houston, and they’ll all be mentored by Mary J. Blige.

Did you watch Idol this week? Who is your favorite in the top 13?

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Watch This With Your Kids – Who Is Simon Miller?

This Saturday, August 6th, Walmart and P&G present the newest Family Movie Night feature, Who is Simon Miller?, starring Loren Dean (“Bones”) as Simon and Robyn Lively (regular on TV & half-sister of Blake Lively) as his wife Meredith. Simon’s frequent business trips have created distance between him and his 18 year old honor student daughter Sarah and 15 year old video gamer Kevin. But this is no business trip, as Meredith and her kids learn when they discover a stash of passports hidden in a desk drawer, each with Simon’s face but a different name. And then Simon calls, but only to tell them not to tell anyone he’s gone, not even the authorities.

Meredith, Sarah and Kevin band together to solve the mystery of who Simon is and where he has gone. Who is Simon Miller? is fast-paced and exciting while remaining family-friendly in keeping with the genre. I recommend watching this with your kids this Saturday night!

TV Tuesday with Table for Five – Skeet Ulrich

TV Tuesday Table for Five Let's Talk TV

Today on TV Tuesday with Table for Five, I’m talking about Skeet Ulrich, an actor that I think is really getting a raw deal in Hollywood.One thing you should know about me is that I’m a show-killer. If I like a new series, there’s a very good chance it will get cancelled after the first season. Which is exactly what keeps happening with me and Skeet Ulrich.

He’s been working steadily since 1996′s “The Craft” (one of the many movies I can’t NOT watch when it’s on), but he has yet to find a series that sticks. His first series “Miracles” in 2003 for ABC kept getting interrupted by footage of the Iraq war and was finally pulled from the air after only 5 episodes. The 13 episodes shot for the first season are available on DVD. From the comments I’ve read on the show’s IMDb page, fans of the show think it was a shame that another network didn’t pick it up.

If you didn’t watch “Jericho”, you missed a great show that you should watch on DVD. The first season was riveting and Skeet was especially good as Jake Green, whose hometown is cut off from the rest of the world after a nuclear attack. Jake had left home for a mysterious reason (we later find out he was a sort of contractor in Afghanistan) and had only recently returned before the attack, and turned into a town leader.  When the show was threatened with cancellation after the end of the first season, fans raised such a ruckus with CBS that they agreed to do a second season, but that was it after that.

In 2009, Skeet did three episodes of CSI:NY that should have had Emmy voters showering him with every trophy possible. He was BRILLIANT as Hollis Eckhart a/k/a The Compass Killer.  But at least since I knew it was a guest star gig, I didn’t get my hopes up.

And then finally, there was Law & Order: LA.  I thought FINALLY, Skeet Ulrich will get a TV series that will stick. And at first, it seemed like it would.  He was paired with Corey Stoll, a TV guest star veteran and movie actor who was terrific in “Salt” with Angelina Jolie. On the “Law” side was Terence Howard and Alfred Molina, and with the reputation Law & Order has for multiple seasons of excellent episodes, I was sure Skeet was finally here to stay.

**SPOILER ALERT**

But then Skeet Ulrich’s character was KILLED OFF. Wha????  What has this young man done to deserve never getting to stick around? He’s a good actor, handsome, charming, has good timing – why can he not get a role he can hang on to? I would say he’s got the Christian Slater curse – poor Christian, his show “Breaking In” is so fun, but hasn’t been renewed for a second season yet (SEE?? SHOW KILLER) – but Christian Slater has NINE movies completed, in post-production or in pre-production, so he’s not hurting for work. Skeet on the other hand,  has nothing on his IMDb page to indicate any work lined up.

Come ON, Hollywood. Give Skeet a Chance. I mean seriously, look at this face!