I’m not going to spoil it for you if this is accurate but Joes Place already has 22 of the 24 semifinalists supposedly leaked. You can read it here if you dare.. There is at least one Atlantan on the list and I’ve met her. Plus, a Brittenum twin told me she’d be the winner. And a former Atlanta resident is on the list, too, who I’ve talked about, um, very very recently. Plus, some Irish gal who’s gotten a bit of press, too.
Fox held a phone press conference with Ryan Seacrest yesterday to promote his involvement in the pre-show red carpet at the Super Bowl Feb. 3. Seacrest will interview celebs before the game.
Seacrest is a big football fan and actually played the game throughout his childhood.
I started playing for the Atlanta Colts, the Pop Warner league. I was really young. I played at Peachtree Junior High, offensive guard. Went to Dunwood High School as a strong safety. I actually played the state semifinal senior year in Valdosta, Georgia. I did grow up … believe it or not, it sounds crazy — in the weight room training for the season or out on the field after school.
What was your playing weight?
My junior year in high school. I was second string, started as a senior. I was a stocky kid wearing husky. I weighed 170 and was short. Then I lost some weight, gained some speed.
I called his mom Connie for photos of him from his football days but she said Ryan already asked for those photos and she mailed them to his office in Los Angeles. Sadly, she didn’t have any duplicates readily available for us to post.
Connie said she always worried about her son getting hurt in high school and was relieved when he escaped unscathed. “I think he really gets a kick out of doing the Super Bowl,” she said. “He can talk the talk. He knows the lingo.”
He wouldn’t say who he was rooting for but his best football memory is wearing a Refrigerator Perry jersey as a kid back in the mid-1980s.
And he has yet to see the Paula Abdul/Randy Jackson video that will debut that day for her song “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow.” But she did debut the song on his show a few days ago.
“She’s not nervous. She’s elated. She brought the single to me a couple of days ago and we premiered it. I had 200 calls in a row supporting her, thrilled she was releasing a record. More than that, I’m very much looking forward to Randy Jackson dance. She is choreographing Randy. I’m being serious. He’s been training. He’s been doing some sort of private pilates, it’s so demanding.
We also got final ratings for the third ep of “Idol” Tuesday. The show, according to final numbers, drew only 29.3 million. I’m using “only” figuratively but that’s down 10 percent from a year ago, about the same percentage as the dropoff of last Tuesday’s ep. The rather dull Wednesday night episode drew a preliminary figure of 26.8 million, down a whopping 20 percent from a year ago.
And how about this for an idea who’s time probably shouldn’t have come: Idol Chatter reports that Wal-Mart and iTunes will release four compilation volumes of “Idol” alums who never released any major albums. The first volume, out Feb. 5, features Jon Peter Lewis (eighth place, season three), Stevie Scott (semifinalist, season five—photo included— ring a bell?), Ryan Starr (7th place, season one) and A.J. Tabaldo (semfinalist, season six). I vaguely remember Stevie and A.J. but just barely. And I’m supposedly an expert on this stuff.
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And volume two supposedly has four more semifinalists: Alaina Alexander, Rudy Cardenas, Patrick Hall and a dude I thought deserved to make the final 12 season five, Gedeon McKinney (remember him in the photo?)
Finally, Ken Barnes over at Idol Chatter also got the sales numbers for Carly Hennessy’s album: 2,400 copies and 26,000 copies of her two singles. He also tracks downloads and Jordin’s “Tattoo” is at 1.1 million and her second single “No Air” is already up to 139,000. In terms of CD sales, the record industry hit a low in the January doldrums with Daughtry the top “Idol” seller with 19K sold and 3.69 million copies and Carrie’s “Carnival Ride” at 19K, too, with 1.76 million sold. Her first CD sold another 10K and is now at a whopping 6.22 million. Jordin’s CD is now up to 449K after selling another 12K. Others include Kelly’s Breakaway (5.96 mil) and My December (744K), Kellie at 706K, Elliott at 488K, Bucky at 320K, Fantasia at 503K, Mandisa at 69K, Bo at 38K, Kat at 366K, Clay at 522K, Ruben at 236K, Constantine at 24K, Taylor at 700K, Kimberley at 18K and Paris at 21K.
And I’m watching a Zaxby’s commercials featuring… Diana DeGarmo. “You have to lick your fingers when eating wings,” she says. “Don’t waste it on the napkin. Just use what God gave ya. It’s your own in-house napkin system.” Melinda did one, too.
