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"American Idol" Annoyance: Jason Castro
Last Updated: April 25, 2008 at 02:19 AM GMT By Ed Martin I'm beginning to appreciate Sanjaya Malakar all over again. At least he unveiled a funky new hairstyle every week.
At this point, dreary dread-locked Jason Castro is doing more harm to American Idol than Sanjaya ever did. Certainly, Jason can sing – when he cares to. But it is increasingly clear that he could care less about the competition or whether or not he remains on the show. It's as if Idol is one big goof to him. Indeed, a couple of weeks back host Ryan Seacrest was moved to ask him if he was taking the competition seriously. (It was Sing a Song From the Year You Were Born Week, I think.) Jason blithely admitted that he hadn't done much to prepare for his performance.
Tuesday it was clear that Jason didn't prepare at all for his sub-Sanjaya rendition of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Memory, from Cats, one of the best known musicals of our time. He casually commented that he didn't even know the song was sung by a cat – let alone a mature female feline. Lloyd Webber, who as this week's mentor was charmed by the other five Idol finalists, could barely conceal his disappointment with Jason, all but dismissing him during interview segments.
Last night Jason fared even worse. First, the Idol cameras happened to catch him in mid-yawn backstage. (The show is telecast live at 6 p.m. in Los Angeles. Surely it isn't keeping him up?) When Jason later took the stage to learn whether or not he was in the bottom two – where he belonged – it seemed he would rather be anywhere but there. He even exclaimed at one point that he “didn't want to sing” just then – something the two lowest vote-getters would be asked to do.
Jason, guy, the whole thing with Idol is that finalists want to sing on camera as much as possible. That's why they strive to continue for as long as possible in the competition.
Watching Syesha Mercado and Carly Smithson, who both gave performances far superior to Jason's the night before, land at the bottom while Jason sailed through to next week's competition may have been the lowest Idol moment since Season One, when the sublime Tamyra Gray was jettisoned in favor of Nikki McKibbon, a young woman of modest talent. Jason's triumph was more distressing than any of Sanjaya's successes last season. Sanjaya was only a fair singer on his best day, but his enthusiasm was infectious, and he always understood the importance of putting on a show. He wanted to be there and he respected everything about the experience. He kept his head in the game.
I'm not sure where Jason's head is at.
Idol is still TV's top show by a very wide margin. But it has suffered ratings losses this season, and I don't think Jason's ongoing involvement is doing much to help matters. He's not even the top target at VotefortheWorst.com, the Web site credited with Sanjaya's extended survival last spring. Rather, Vote has zeroed in on Brooke White, the teary nanny who flubbed her performance of You Must Love Me from Evita this week, but rebounded rather nicely, IMHO (and in Simon Cowell's, too).
I like to think that, despite the ongoing aggravation that is Jason Castro, this year's competition will come down to the two Davids – Archuleta and Cook, two of the best Idol contestants ever. But anything is possible in this era of unchecked Internet campaigns. Further, it is inconceivable that Jason will do worse in the weeks ahead than he did Tuesday night, and if his worst is behind him, he has nowhere to go but up.
Dread that thought!
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