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This has nothing to do with Kellie. I like Kellie. I wish her all the best and it's great how well she's doing. My problem is with the great folks that run this show. And I know I shouldn't be complaining like this a week after we were all excited about everything in these parts BUT...and this is probably nitpicking to a degree but still.
On Tuesday...Ryan mentioned that Kellie was going to be on not once, not twice but THREE times. He mentioned Katharine once the previous week and he didn't even say her whole name. Maybe it was because they had one extra contestant to perform and that meant a little less time and that's all it was. OK, we'll chalk it up to that.
Tonight...Kellie gets a full intro clip that makes her look like the biggest superstar in the universe! Plus, she gets to be giggly, lovable Miss Pickler from Ablemarle, NC again for anyone who didn't know. In other words, for anyone who didn't know Kellie from Season 5 and saw that clip they'd go, "Wow, she's a big deal and she's really funny & cute too!" Great for Kellie...why didn't they do a similiar clip for Katharine the week before? I could tell you what to put in it....movie, magazine covers, a couple shots from the OI & LS videos, she toured with Andrea Bocelli, she sang at the White House for Christmas (there's more but you all know it) and now here she is with 14-time Grammy winning producer David Foster.......KATHARINE MCPHEE!
And yes...Kellie didn't get to talk at all after she sang but...maybe I'm being too sensitive about it all.
But not only that...Kellie gets to pull out her year-old single and perform it? Why? I guess it's up to her whatever she was going to sing but that made things look a little weird too. Katharine comes on and sings something to fit the week's theme and then Kellie is singing RHH...maybe it was the best choice for both of them but still...ugh. I don't know. Maybe it was Kellie singing a fast song, playing to the crowd and...whatever. I guess I just felt like they made a bigger deal of Kellie.
Although to be fair...they acted like they wanted to get Blake out of the way as fast as possible two weeks ago so maybe I shouldn't be saying anything.
You are not alone Joe, I had some of those same paranoid thoughts last night. There's definitely a difference in the way Kat was treated vs Kellie. Why? All we can do is speculate.
...maybe it's the apparent hard feelings between Simon and Kat.
...maybe it's still the friction between RCA and Kat.
...maybe Foster pressured AI to put Kat on.
...maybe one of the Fox execs is allergic to KatKats.
...maybe we're crazy and all is right with the world...nah!
The fact that Kellie sang RHH isn't very sinister to me though. IMO she was probably scared to death that she would "butcher" a Beatles song on national TV. And certainly Kat is going to do nothing to promote her album now that she's broken away from RCA.
Joe, I totally agree with you on Ryan's pre-announcement on Kellie's performance, and that's exactly what I was thinking last night. Maybe that's a natural response of a Kat fan. Having said that, I think everything turned out good even though it seemed like a little unfair to Kat. Ryan did mention that Kat is working together with David Foster, which is a big news to those who are not closely following Kat. I consider that a much better promotion than Kellie's video clip. Besides, I believe everyone is tired of seeing the old season 5 stuff being repeated again and again. Regarding the song, when I heard Kellie singing RHH, my immediate response was oh no! Is that the only song she can sing? I'd definitely rather see Kat sing a Beatles song than Over It again. This proves that Kat can sing anything she wants or being asked. In addition, with David Foster's name and credibility in the music industry, a comment from him is 100X better than that coming from anyone in AI, and Kat received the highest praise from him. I could care less what Ryan said about her. Just a refresh, this is what David said in front of 30 million people, "She sings so magnificiently, it's just amazing!....". What more can we ask?
IMHO, frankly, Katharine has the more solid endorsement having David Foster with her on the show. DF and "Something" by the Beatles are the most perfect things that Katharine could bring back to AI. Once again she proved that she could be current (with the Beatles theme) and versatile. Katharine needs DF and DF is only happy to be around Katharine.
I wouldn't be envious of how Kellie got her treatment differently. However, there is a paradoxical element to be considered when someone gets endorsed by someone great. There will be a high expectation, and somehow the element of surprise is sacrificed in a way. There is another way of looking at it that I know may not be popular to even surmise but could be true and that is the fact that Katharine may not get all that sympathy from the common people upon seeing that she got a strong wall to lean on in DF.
To be a recording artist, for Katharine, being now married (to a "producer-actor"), could even be harder than before, unless she capitalizes on her musical theater skills. The group of fans that Katharine could highly benefit from at this point are the college level kind, the theater going, the professional musicians, the more mature audiences, and of course the die hard fans, etc. Therefore, it would be fitting for her to make an album that would cater to these groups of fans. After all, they are the most of fans that voted for her in season 5. They will all buy her next cd. Please don't kill me for almost sounding like Simon, but that is my honest take of this.
Whereas, in the case of Kellie Pickler, she was introduced by this promo video clip that is easily more digestible considering the path she took to where she is right now.There is a culmination in the telling of her story, and seeing her alone on stage with all the rewards she got, it certainly looked as if she got a good crack at AI with her "personality", and her singing of RHH is purely a signature song for her to sing that she ought to be proud of. People are usually sympathetic of someone who thinks less of her/himself, as to presenting her/himself alone, rather than with someone. Kellie's appearance of commonness to many people is so normal that they could easily relate to her. She has not been seen with a boyfriend nor with a walking producer beside her. She epitomizes that common person who worked so hard as a roller-skates waitress and achieved her dream with her sheer talent. There is greatness in that little story that people buy her cd.
That's a fair assessment and that's my honest 2 cents.