Jimmy Iovine (pronounced Eye-Veen) may know a lot about the music industry, but his partial prediction missed the mark tonight (April 28) on “American Idol.”
Iovine, who is chairman of Interscope Geff A&M Records, co-founder of Beats Audio and world-renowned music producer, is an in-house mentor to the “AI” contestants this season.
In an interview on the results show, Iovine said he wouldn’t be surprised if Jacob Lusk was eliminated because Lusk had not been at his best lately. In fact, Lusk was in the bottom three tonight, but there were only six contestants left anyway. He was deemed safe by host Ryan Seacrest and was sent to “the couch” to join the two female singers — Lauren Alaina and Haley Reinhart — and outstanding rocker James Durbin, who suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome. Lusk looked a little surprised.
That move left baritone country singer Scotty McCreery (who looks similar to the kid on the cover of MAD magazine) and string orchestra bass guru Casey Abrams, who was spared by the judges’ “save” several weeks ago. Casey was not at the bat tonight, unfortunately, and was eliminated. Lusk’s mouth dropped in shock.
Grammy winner Bruno Mars, along with a stage full of his band members, was the special guest performer, singing “The Lazy Song” from his album Doo Wops & Hooligans. Last year’s runner-up Crystal Bowersox also took the stage.
Abrams had been a favorite of judge Randy Jackson, as is rocker James Durbin. On the performance show last night, Jackson jumped up, ran to the stage and pretty much announced Durbin the next winner of the contest.
Out of line, Jackson. What do those early proclamations do to the confidence of the other contestants and their families? Let the show run its course before declaring a winner. It’s supposed to be the votes of the viewers that determine that anyway … or is it? –arnell pharr
