Did the second "Idol Gives Back" charity event Wednesday work better than the first? Did they learn from last year's earnest event to maximize the impact of the effort and boost its fund-raising capability?
Well, it wasn't any more streamlined. Starting at an unheard of 7:30 p.m., the two and a half hour event comprised mostly of the charity show thrown Sunday at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre sill ran several minutes past 10 p.m. for the longest "Idol" show in history and the biggest stretch of primetime spillage on Fox outside a major sporting event.
At least it was separated from the mechanics of the weekly show itself. Unlike last year's uncomfortable event, in which people were asked to call in and pledge amid what was supposed to be an elimination night, Fox decided to give "Idol Gives Back" its own night and put the usual business of the regular show around it -- singing on Tuesday for a results show Sunday.
Because there was more time to spend planning this time around, there were twice as many corporate sponsors, giving a cool $5 million right off the bat, and many more field trips, largely to Africa, where Bono, Annie Lennox, Forrest Whitaker, Daughtry and Alicia Keys all filed reports and met people, but also in New Orleans, which the quarterbacking Peyton Manning brothers and Reese Witherspoon revisited (separately); and Appalachia, where Miley Cyrus and her dad Billy Ray went to visit. A poor gang-infested town in California was visited by Randy and Paula.
Simon, for his part, went to New York to ride along with a mobile health care van and visit with a family that cried for its need for donations. That he is turned into a big hearted guy at least one night a year is a thing to look forward to the way we like to look for such transformations in Scrooge or the Grinch.
Either because of the state of the economy, or trends in TV programming, such sights unfortunately are not all that rare on TV any more -- families crying because life is hard and they can't quite make it; they're in pain but pained too to have to ask for help. It's seen everywhere from "Extreme Makeover -- Home Edition" to "Oprah's Big Give." Still, there were undeniably some moving moments in the telethon, but also many that weren't so different from the usual guilt-inducing Sally Struthers infomercials.
It was surprising that more stirring moments didn't come during the music.
Aside from Lennox's heartfelt "Many Rivers to Cross" played live immediately after her own Africa report, there were precious few rousing anthems.
The Top 8 were well used, I suppose, since these are the personalities that the millions who follow this show tune in to see. Their three ensemble numbers through the evening were Rihanna's "Please Don't Stop the Music" to start (with last year's "So You Think You Can Dance" finalists tumbling all around them), "Seasons of Love" from "Rent" performed live to the people in at the "Idol" studio who otherwise only got to watch them answer phones, and the straight Christian song "Shout to the Lord" (which you can think of an alternate Ruben Studdard number to end on, rather than "Celebrate Me Home").
Having them appear to answer calls back in the studio (live) gave more immediacy to the evening rather than the straight charity show from Sunday. It also allowed Ryan Seacrest to give some real time updates on the totals as well (the last one he announced was "almost $22 million").
There was a confusing part where British Prime Minister Gordon Brown came on to pledge to buy 20 million mosquito nets to protect from malaria, which Seacrest later said was worth $200 million. If a $200 million donation comes in, isn't that about the end of the telethon? Or is the exchange rate so out of whack that isn't as much as we think it is?
And while we're at it, why have the British Prime Minister come on but not the U.S. President? And where were those three taped messages from the leading Presidential candidates, which were reportedly shown to the Hollywood audience Sunday but didn't make it to air at all Monday? (They were having problems with the technical quality of the McCain clip; maybe they got rid of all three as a way to play fair).
At any rate, there were probably too many filmed clips already. No matter who the star was on them, they had the immediacy and impact of any run-of-the-mill canned network PSA. It's the live appearances that count and the star power in the whole long event was provided almost single-handedly by Brad Pitt, who came on with a microphone that had fallen (stage manager Debbie Williams got off about the best line of the night when she came on stage to pin it on him and adlibbed, "I just needed a reason to touch him").
Robin Williams was also pretty funny as a supposed "Russian Idol" named Ivan Yakinov (which he said he changed to Ivan Popinov for TV, which was not much of a change). But the bit went on a little too long, probably.
For the second year in a row, Ben Stiller's contribution was almost stubbornly unfunny. And nobody was waiting up to hear Rob Schneider's clip.
Back to the music, where were the big acts? Fergie doing "Barracuda" with Heart didn't quite make the cut, even if she did do a one handed walkover during it. Teri Hatcher doing a Carrie Underwood song sounded like a leftover clip from the "Secret Talents of the Stars" premiere the night before.
Underwood, for her part, did "Praying for Time," a George Michael song that never got as inspiring as it should have.
Randy Jackson playing bass for Mariah Carey wasn't exactly Celine Dion doing a duet with an electronically exhumed Elvis Presley, which was a climactic number last year. Miley Cyrus sang one song too many and went on a little long in an exchange with Billy Crystal (who came off as out of touch as the crotchety old host of a Bob Hope special -- though he used the body language of a Jack Benny). And yet, Snoop Dogg's contribution didn't come close to fitting in either.
One of these years, Bono is going to have to come back from Africa and just play the stage with U2 just so rock isn't represented solely by Daughtry.
But don't let it dissuade your giving. Donations go to six organizations this year: The Children's Defense Fund, Children's Health Fund, The Global Fund, Make It Right, Malaria No More and the Westport-based Save the Children. They're still taking donations at www.americanidol.com.
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