‘Idol’ stretches to two hours for finale
“American Idol” (8 p.m., Fox) wraps up its fourth season with a two-hour spectacle that will seem 90 minutes too long.
But everything about “Idol” is outsized. It’s watched by tens of millions of viewers who use their cell phones to root for their favorites. Week after week, host Ryan Seacrest claims that 20 or 30 or 40 million have phoned in their vote. Few contests outside of presidential elections receive as many votes. But what happens when the show is over and the phones stop ringing? What kind of numbers do past stars still attract?
To measure the enduring popularity of “Idols” past, I turned to eBay, the world’s most ruthlessly efficient garage sale. I found plenty of “Idol” ephemera, but the demand was hardly staggering.
It took just a few clicks to discover a used copy of “Free Yourself,” the CD by last year’s “Idol” winner, Fantasia. It attracted just one bidder and sold for $5 plus shipping. The “Soulful” CD by Ruben Studdard was more popular: It attracted three bids but sold for a mere $1.75.
A copy of Clay Aiken’s “Measure of a Man,” with the asking price of $1.99, attracted no bids at all. But to be fair, a Clay Aiken picture bracelet got two bids and went for $10.45.
At any given time, eBay offers plenty of chances to buy the DVD of the 2003 movie “From Justin to Kelly,” featuring the cute-as-button stars of the very first “Idol.” And every time I checked, none of those auctions had received any bids.
To be fair, some of the sellers were asking a minimum price of $2.99 and up. So I set my “Watch List” on an auction where the going price of “From Justin to Kelly” was 1 cent. Surely that was priced low enough. The auction ran for seven solid days, and no one bid a single penny. Ouch.
The lesson here is that even “Idol” fame is fleeting, subject to the cruel arithmetic of fan attention span and the savage law of supply and demand. Perhaps that’s why, on a show that seems to specialize in ‘70s pop ditties, we’ve never heard potential “Idol” stars belt out the Jerry Reed lyrics, “When you’re hot, you’re hot/ And when you’re not, you’re not.”
CBS seems to be on Amber Alert. Last night, it offered viewers the wedding of reality stars Rob and Amber. Tonight, the romance quotient reverses with the sordid tale of “Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution” (9 p.m., CBS).
Starring Janel Moloney of “The West Wing,” Petersen’s story unfolds like an anti-romance novel written by a sadist. Think of “Sleepless in Seattle” with Tom Hanks turning out to be a serial killer.
A single mother thinks she’s found a Mr. Right named Scott Petersen (Nathan Anderson) only to find out he’s a liar, a sociopath and most probably a murderer.
Moloney is perfectly cast here as Petersen, who is both vulnerable and strangely robotic, as she cooperates with local authorities to build a case against her glib former lover. To add insult to injury, it seems her best friend (Paget Brewster), who set her up with Scott, may be the source of hurtful tabloid stories. Petersen also becomes pregnant (by another acquaintance, not Scott) during her legal ordeal, leading talk radio jokers to taunt her for her “Oops, I did it again” personality.
Nora Dunn (“Saturday Night Live”) stars as Frey’s lawyer Gloria Allred. Dunn’s portrayal of the cable news celebrity attorney is remarkably similar to her impersonation of cable celebrity commentator Arianna Huffington in the recent TV biopic “See Arnold Run.
“American Masters” offers the 2004 documentary “Cary Grant: A Class Apart” (8 p.m., KSPS). The film contends that Grant’s suave screen identity was both his creation and a kind of creative trap.
Other highlights
Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (8 p.m., CBS): Charges of sex abuse by a priest in Springfield, Mass.; travel secrets; a conversation with a mind reader.
A promiscuous lawyer perishes on “Law & Order” (8 p.m., NBC).
The raft contingent has a strange encounter as the islanders contend with the hatch on the two-hour season finale of “Lost” (8 p.m., ABC).
John Travolta and Halle Berry star in the 2001 thriller “Swordfish” (8 p.m., UPN, TV-14).
— A world in peril on the season finale of “Alias” (10 p.m., ABC).
A bigot targets a judge’s kin on the season finale of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” (10 p.m., NBC)
Cult choice
Jet-setters cool their heels in a London airport in the 1963 potboiler “The V.I.P.s” (10:15 p.m., Turner Classic Movies), starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Series notes
Jimmy Eat World performs on the season finale of “One Tree Hill” (8 p.m., WB) … Kibre prosecutes a cop killer on “Law & Order: Trial By Jury” (9 p.m., NBC,).