By Tisha (Entertainment editor)

David Archuleta has had an incredible run on American Idol, cruising through every round without threat of being voted off. He seems to have won the hearts of judges and the public.

However, Archuleta’s talent and success has been marred by his dad, Jeff, who has been a tiresome presence to contestants, producers and vocal coaches throughout the entire series. This only became public this week, when Jeff insisted that David replace some of the lyrics of his first song “Stand by Me” with a verse from Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls”. Although the producers refused permission, the lyrics were changed in David’s performance.

This caused a major stir with the song’s publishers, and American Idol had to pay up. The show’s lawyers then told Jeff that he could sit in the live audience, but he was banned from going backstage. As David is now 17, it was ruled that he doesn’t need a guardian, only a ‘teacher’. Jeff Archuleta was also banned from the set of “Star Search”, in which David competed a few years back.

Parents on reality TV: Do they make or break their children?
Pushy and deranged parents have been behind star children from Michael Jackson to Lindsay Lohan. There is a fine line between providing opportunities for a child to nurture a talent and achieve their potential, and pushing a child to emotional breaking point and creating a lot of embarrassment along the way.

Simon Cowell has often criticised parents for instilling their children with false confidence about the extent of their talents, telling the parents of an atrociously bad singer on X-Factor “You are the reason why this girl is disappointed and I have to blame you guys for encouraging her to believe she’s going to do well in something when she so obviously isn’t. You have given her false hope.”

Is David Archuleta the next American Idol?
Archuleta is the close favourite to win Season 7, according to Hubdub, the news prediction game. He would be the third male contestant to win the show.

For the winner of American Idol, winning the show is hardly the end of working hard to secure a singing career. Regardless of whether this is David Archuleta, he is stuck with Jeff Archuleta as his father, and it seems that maintaining a decent working relationship with his father will be the real battle. I hope he gets through this week’s performances successfully, and can be remembered as the cute kid with a big voice rather than the child of another crazy dad.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Paula Abdul is doing a great job at proving that she is a piece of fluff on the judging panel.

Last night, when asked to give her opinion on the contestants, she made the following comments about Jason Castro’s second song: “I felt like your usual charm was missing” and “After your two songs, I felt like you weren’t fighting hard enough to get into the top four”.

Fair comment, only problem being the contestants had only completed the first round and Castro hadn’t actually sang a second song yet.

Her response, when this was s-l-o-w-l-y pointed out to her was: “Oh my God, I thought you sang twice. You know what, this is hard”. Cowell patronisingly, but appropriately brought the judging down to her level by asking: “Paula, who was your favourite?”

I have nothing against airheads. Like, Sophie Monk greatly amuses me. But you know what is hard, is being one of the kids being judged up there in front of Mr Cowell who bluntly sorts the wheat from the chaff, not remembering what songs have been sung and coming up with an appropriate (fluffy and vague) response.

Will her gaffe affect who is voted out tonight?
How much do the judges influence who will win American Idol?

Popularity: 8% [?]

By Tisha (Entertainment editor)

American Idol results tonight - there’s seven kids left and it’s time to get excited: Hubdubbers are going to be put to the test as they predict who will be the American Idol winner this year.

Despite Sayesha, Brooke and Kristy Lee being stubborn Hubdub elimination favourites week after week, Michael Johns’ shock exit last week was a stark reminder that the worst singers don’t necessarily go home first (and lots of Hubdollars were lost as a result!). There’s clearly more to calculating the American Idol results than mere talent; let’s explore some of the components of this algorithm:

1. The judges: First and most obvious thing – Paula is mere decoration on this panel, her opinions are clearly irrelevant often because they are usually not opinions at all but vague niceties, cliches of encouragement or agreement with the others’ opinions. However, how do Randy and Simon influence the voter’s opinions? There’s no doubt that Simon has professional respect in the field, but his harsh words sometimes focus on the technical to the point of excluding the charisma factor of the contestants. Randy has to spend too much energy trying to validate his opinions against Simon.

2. The curse of going first: By the time the troupe has finished spinning out their songs, the first performance is long forgotten and in the case of an average performance, has nothing to recommend a vote. This has been considered Johns’ downfall.

3. Song choice: Jason Castro covering Mariah Carey is not an image that is easy to reconcile in one’s mind. However, when the singers perform songs which seem to be out of their depth, they can create memorable performances which will tend to attract the votes.

4. Gender: Girls have won 4 out of six previous idol seasons. However, the girls have been a lacklustre group this year and don’t seem to have the unique characters that this year’s boys do.

5. Sympathy Votes: David Cook’s brother, currently undergoing treatment for cancer, flew in on a specially chartered medical jet to watch his little bro perform last night. Not to undermine the tragedy of Adam Cook’s illness, but this brings into focus the public scrutiny of the entire lives and families of the performers.

The two Davids are currently close favourites on Hubdub to win the title this year. We all have our favourite personalities and singers, but when it comes down to it, there will only be one American Idol and that is the one who knows how to play the entire game. See if you can pick it!

Popularity: 7% [?]

By Tisha (Entertainment editor)

It’s good to hear that American Idol has taken the high road in the salacious bit of news uncovered this week that contestant David Hernandez used to work as a stripper. In return for the priceless publicity American Idol has received as a result of the scandal, the directors have allowed Hernandez to continue on the show, giving him the possibility of being one of the last men standing on the show.

The show has obviously smartened up since it disqualified Frenchie Davis in 2003 for having had topless photos published on the internet. The producers seem to have realised that opening up such a competition to millions of hopefuls every year is bound to uncover some sex skeletons. More to the point, though, is the double standard encountered with Davis: after all, isn’t Simon Cowell just a rich pimp with a big band? The show tempts plucky youngsters with meteoric (if brief) superstardom, but in return exposes them in front of millions to criticise their talents, appearance and personalities while making big bucks in the process. Given the option, I think I would rather go back to giving ‘full-frontal lap dances’…

Anyway, despite Idol management’s decision and my opinion, what really matters are the phones of the teenage girls who I assume make up the paying, voting public of the show…Will they choose to back the reformed Hernandez? Here’s a sneak peek of what our viewers predict will be the outcome:
What will be the result of American Idol’s scandal with David Hernandez?

Popularity: 100% [?]