Each top-12 finalist voted off American Idol will perform the following week on The Late Show with David Letterman. Last night, Lacey Brown was the first to appear. As he did when he used to have Survivor rejects on his show, Dave deals with these segments gingerly, a tad unwillingly. He feigns total ignorance of Idol. (“Do people call in and say, ‘We don’t want that woman?’” he asked Brown.) He rags on the show. (“That Simon Cowell, he’s insane,” he told Lacey, who wasn’t disagreeing.) And Dave let Paul Shaffer do Brown’s intro: “Here’s the first finalist to get voted off — kicked off, really — and she doesn’t have to go on the tour, that’s the best thing.”
Lacey Brown herself could not have been more polite and game, singing a bit of “What A Wonderful World” as the segment went into a commercial:
“Does this mean you’re out of show business?” Dave asked Brown.
Brown knew where to hit Dave where it hurts. “You’ve got 11 more weeks of this,” she said sweetly. Dave looked a little ill.
CORRECTION: Some readers have pointed out this is Letterman’s first time hosting the Idol cast-offs. My apologies; I corrected my mistake above. I was thinking of Dave’s amusingly uncomfortable encounters with Survivor cast-offs in previous years. Survivor, Idol – reality TV, it’s a jungle out there. Sorry.
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She sounds better here than she ever did on Idol!
Yeah, that’s so true.
Wow..no kidding… what made the difference? Relaxed nerves, better area for sound, band??
Yeah! She seems like she’s enjoying it.
I’ve watched maybe 5 minutes of “Idol” all season but a few of those minutes were Lacey singing during Hollywood Week. I thought she sounded great and was shocked to see she was the first of the final 12 booted off.
She was terrific last night, and you could tell Paul and the band were really liking her, too.
The old Dave woulda come up with a great ploy to stick it to Idol, by booking the first ousted finalist for a real gig at the end of the show! But this is The Late Show, not Late Night… so a song into the break is all we’re gonna get. But good for Lacey!
Wow, it’s like she was channeling Lilly Scott.
I can’t stand American idol either. It’s the broadcasting equivalent of a lobotomy, and it really speaks volumes that so many people watch this filth. America is getting progressively more stupid, one reality show episode at a time. Thank god people like Dave Letterman, ie, people with comedic talent, can’t stand this kind of crap either. I say Letterman should keep on ragging, it’s much more entertaining than this idol crap.
“Thank god people like Dave Letterman, ie, people with comedic talent…” LOL. Now THAT’S funny!
Are you retarded?
lol @ davey
Boo. You wh*re.
Seriously??????????????
Mean Girls reference, Kevin?
You complain about crap TV and yet you call yourself a CSI fan?
I think csifan is making a sarcastic joke about himself. Or else it will be just pathetic thinking you are better than others from your choice of a TV show.
Man, csifan, you had me until the part about Letterman having comedic talent. Letterman hasn’t been funny for well over a decade. Oh well, at least he and Paul still think he is funny. Blah.
I still don’t get why Letterman has the Idol cast offs on his show since they’re on a Fox show, not a CBS show. Ratings? I doubt most AI fans are watching that late, and if so, unfortunately they’re probably watching Jay. I remember Dave used to have the Survivor castoffs, but he hated that so much that he had that ended after a couple of seasons. I bet he won’t have them on next year.
She’s as cute as a button and has a great voice, what were people thinking by voting her off the show?! She’s great, I wish her well in her career!
She got voted off because from the start of semi-finals through her last performance, she only had one night when she actually sang well. Landslide, Ruby Tuesday and, to a lesser extent, Kiss Me, were off-key and dreadful.
Yeah, but still, there were others more dreadful than her. She should have stayed for a couple more weeks.
Despite her not hitting all the notes, she came off great with Dave. Still would not watch the tripe called American Idol, but this was a nice segment…
The boneheads that are responsible for Idol’s continued success are the same ones that give Leno such good ratings, so these failed contestants should be on Big Jaw’s show.
Exactly!
hahahaha! Love Idol, only ever watched one Leno show.
This is something new. Jay’s the one who always had the Idol cast-offs before not Dave. I thought it might have something to do with the Tonight show/Conan fiasco since Conan is now talking to Fox.
The idol castoffs had been on Leno — but so glad that letterman is actually letting them sing.
For years the Idol castoff did Jay Leno – this is the first time they have been on Dave.
I imagine it is part of a deal to get the winner on after the show ends. That was always the payoff for Leno at least.
Last night was much better than what Jay used to do with them…
Not sure if this has anything to do with it– but since FOX is wooing Conan, maybe they want to send their folks to the Letterman show. As someone else said, and I agree, Lacey sounded better on Letterman than she ever did on Idol. (Of course, Letterman has a better band.)
So, that means they don’t see Dave as competition for Conan? I would think that there is more overlap between Conan and Dave’s viewers than between Jay and Conan’s.
That’s a pretty dumb theory.
Not really dumb. NBC just prevented Conan from doing a American Idol charity event, maybe this is payback from Fox.
I don`t watch Leno but I do watch Letterman and AI. I`m glad the American Idol cast-offs are now on the right show.
During Idol’s third season, Dave would interview the losers but they were always in Rupert’s deli. They were never studio guests and they never sang.
Lacey sounded better last night than she ever did during Idol. She was more relaxed, more in tune and had a far better band backing her up.
I don’t think the band had anything to do with it.
Her performance on Late Night was great. She should’ve sung that song on the show. She didn’t sound that good on Idol.
She sang it during Hollywood Week.
I was thinking the same things as most of you. She sounded good, she looked good, she wasn’t boring in the slightest. Very odd. The 2 times she sounded the best was when it wasn’t for the audience. She sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and we only heard it over the clips they played during an episode, and then last night on Letterman. Those were her best performancees. Too bad.
idolbethejudge.blogspot.com
The Idol cast-offs used to appear on The Tonight Show the day after the results show (Thurs) and then appear on Ellen the following Monday. Dave hosting the Idols is something new.