Scoop from Wednesday's show...

So here’s some scoop from Wednesday’s show…

Apparently the biggest star of the night was Sanjaya. He and his sister, Shyamali, were some of the last people to take their assigned seats, so they had to move the seat fillers. And then, it was camera-time city. At one point, Debbie, the stage manager, asked Sanjaya if he was okay with all of the jokes about him and he said it was cool. He was then summoned to the judges’ table by Simon, who shook his hand and announced, “Sanjaya is back in the house!” Randy and Paula gave him hugs, as did Phil Stacey, who picked him up and swung him around in circles. Sanjaya also signed dozens of autographs….

And since the spotlight was on him anyway, the warm-up guy decided to do a Q&A with him during a break. When he asked him what’s next, Sanjaya replied, “I have a bunch of stuff right now, but I can’t really talk about it; you’ll just have to watch TV to find out.” The Internet is buzzing with the suggestion that someone should sign him to do a commercial for a hair product…

As for the Idols still in competition, the night was pretty tough for them. The videos and heartfelt performances were especially hard on Melinda and Chris, who teared up several times. After Josh Groban’s performance of “You Raise Me Up,” Chris left the stage. When he returned, Melinda and the others hugged him. Jordin was also in tears after that performance, which received a two-minute standing ovation from the Disney Concert Hall audience…

As for whether the Idols knew they were safe, Executive Producer Ken Warwick says they did not and he even apologized to Jordin after the show…

I wasn’t the only one that didn’t like the Celine Dion-Elvis duet. The audience in the Idol studio talked through the entire “performance.” There were also a few boos. And I was correct that you could see Sanjaya in the video. So why did they include the Idols at all? Were they so sure that Sanjaya would make it another week that they thought they could risk it?...

While we TV critics are united in our opinions about the Celine-Elvis duet, we are also united in our opinions about Annie Lennox’s fantastic performance. By the way, Lennox is a 19 Entertainment artist—just like the Idols. Which begs the question, why haven’t they involved her on this show earlier? Ken Warwick says a CD of the live performances is not out of the realm of possibility. I say release that song now!...

Interestingly, the show’s closing number, “American Prayer,” was co-written by Lennox’s Eurythmics partner, Dave Stewart (along with Bono). The song was written five years ago as a response to the AIDS crisis in Africa. The lyrics were displayed on the Teleprompter for the Idols since they didn’t have very much time to learn them…

It’s also interesting to me that most critics are commenting on Lisa Simpson’s Paula imitation (which was priceless) more than Simon’s attempt at singing…

Some other tidbits…Ryan’s flub of the opening was edited out of the West Coast feed…Simon still hadn’t taken his seat at the judges’ table when Ryan started (Maybe that’s why Ryan was distracted?). But he looked good when he got there, didn’t he?...Blake laughed hysterically when Ben Stiller mentioned him in his video…Ellen did some of her signature dance moves for the Disney crowd before the show started and got a standing ovation…The front row seats at the Disney Concert Hall cost $1000…The Idol studio audience was asked to not lift their signs or cheer too wildly since this was a “more somber show.” The Disney audience, however, got raucous several times—especially when Paula appeared on the stage with Ryan displaying her assets…The thirty million dollars was just from the East Coast feed. Look for the total to be much higher after the West Coast airing and all of the iTunes downloading (I still have some of that to do myself!)…

But the most interesting tidbit I read yesterday about the show comes from “Entertainment Weekly” writer Shirley Halperin who is now suggesting (after a reader called her attention to it last week) that Chris and Melinda have an “extra-special bond.” According to Halperin. Melinda was the one that consoled Chris when he needed it during the show, keeping her hand on his knee with his hand on hers. Halperin writes, “If it didn’t happen six or seven different time, I’d chalk it up to the hard-hitting images we all had to face, but I suspect there’s more to it.” Hmmm…