Simon Cowell gave his thoughts on Tamyra Gray being eliminated from ‘American Idol’ on last night’s Extra. While Ryan Seacrest brought up the race issue on the show’s message boards, that aspect wasn’t covered by Cowell. He did say, “It’s just wrong. Honestly, Tamyra? Wrong. She shouldn’t have gone. How can you let a great singer like that leave a competition? Wrong. Is it going to affect her career? No.”
EW Grades ‘American Idol’ Performances
August 21, 2002 – Jessica Shaw of Entertainment Weekly graded last night’s ‘American Idol’ performances, where each of the four finalists got to perform twice. Shaw said Tamyra Gray’s rendition of Patti LaBelle’s ‘New Attitude’ rated a B, while she scored an A- with ‘Feel the Fire.’ She gave Nikki McKibbin a B for ‘Mary Jane’ and a B+ for ‘I’m the Only One’. The full story, including her grades for the Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini performances, has since been removed at EW.com.
Simon Cowell Gets Extra Gig
August 21, 2002 – The New York Post reports that beginning today, ‘American Idol’ judge Simon Cowell will join the show’s co-host Ryan Seacrest as a special correspondent for Extra TV. Every Wednesday and Thursday, Cowell will provide a segment called ‘The World According to Simon’, where he’ll “have free reign to say what he really thinks about the summer’s biggest hit,” according to the show.
AJ Gil Complains About ‘American Idol’ Phone Slamming
August 21, 2002 – Ousted ‘American Idol’ finalist AJ Gil was on KCPQ in Seattle on Tuesday complaining about the high tech phone slamming that has been plaguing voting on the program. Gil admits the show “gave me my exposure that I deserve and I got as far as I did,” but suggested the remaining finalists got their by cheating. “People have to I guess cheat to get the ones they really like to still be in there,” he moaned. AJ added, “I’m not complaining but it kind of gets me mad that that happened.” ‘American Idol’ producers deny the phone slamming has had an effect on the contest to this point, but are monitoring its effect and may take action.