TV Guide Network's Kimberly Caldwell (inset) weighs in on Adam Lambert and others.
Throughout American Idol's final weeks, as each sing-off signs off, TVGuide.com will be checking in with TV Guide Network hosts/Idol alums Kimberly Caldwell and Justin Guarini for their particularly qualified take on who soared, who stumbled, and which judge's review most rang true.
This week, Caldwell shares her thoughts on who from the Top 11 was more than a little bit country.
TVGuide.com: In your experience, what percentage of Idol contenders typically dread country week?
Kimberly Caldwell: I loved country week when I performed on the show [during Season 2] because I'm from Texas and that's what I grew up on, but I know a lot of people normally don't get too excited about country because it's hard to transition from any other genre to country.
TVGuide.com: Would you say that country week is when the guest mentor, this case Randy Travis, comes in most handy?
Caldwell: For sure! If you don't normally sing country it's nice to ...
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Alexis Grace and Danny Gokey
Another week, another "scandalous" (and unsubstantiated) bit of American Idol buzz.
This time, the talk is that Season 8's final four have already been decided on by producers and judges, and that two of said "chosen ones" in fact have been ruled out as possible winners.
As whispered to the New York Daily News' Gatecrasher column, a female Idol staffer is going around claiming that "the last four are going to be ...
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American Idol's Jorge Nunez, Jasmine Murray
American Idol's latest wrinkle might not have saved their bacon, but both of the Top 13's first ejected finalists say the rule change is a good idea.
On Wednesday's results show, host Ryan Seacrest unveiled the "Judges' Save," a new rule whereby Simon Cowell et al, by means of a unanimous vote, can reinstate a voted-off singer. The catch: They can only use the Save once during the season, and only until the Top 5.
Rather needless to say (yet undoubtedly to Idol producers' delight), neither of this week's bottom finishers ...
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American Idol judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Kara DioGuardi and Randy Jackson
Tens of millions of viewers or not, American Idol isn't one to let any grass grow under its feet.
Already this season, the Fox juggernaut has introduced a fourth judge (the wonderfully articulate and lucid Kara DioGuardi) and surprised us with a Top 13 (two of whom will get sent packing this Wednesday night).
But the show isn't done with the tweaks. Calling in to Idol host Ryan Seacrest's KISS-FM radio show, exec producer Ken Warwick hinted at a rule change being revealed on this week's results show that will emerge as a "big talking point" once America gets wind of it.
What's the change? Warwick ...
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American Idol
American Idol has come up with a fix to a problem that could have found viewers unwittingly calling a phone-sex line to vote for their favorite singer. "During tonight's show, they'll ...
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Ryan Seacrest
Unless American Idol producers come up with a quick fix, viewers calling in to cast their vote Tuesday night run the risk of getting a racy earful — and we don't mean of a Beyoncé cover. Get all the sordid details, after the jump.
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Anoop Desai
"We decided, recently, we're going to make this a Top 13."
With those words from Simon Cowell, the American Idol-verse erupted with applause, because it meant that fan fave Anoop Desai would proceed into the next round of the Season 8 competition.
Anoop says, "It was intense" being plucked from the ashes at the end of Thursday's Wild Card show, after believing ...
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Scott MacIntyre
First, Ryan went for the high-five, only to come up with a fistful of awkward.
And as recently as Thursday night, American Idol finalist Scott MacIntyre was oblivious to a group hug taking place on stage.
Such perceived "slights," however, neither rattle nor rankle the 23-year-old from Scottsdale, Ariz., who lives with profound tunnel vision.
"That's happened to me my whole life," MacIntyre says, reflecting specifically on Seacrest's faux pas, "so I'm the last person that would ever ...
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