Andy DehnartAdam Lambert is tonight’s mentor on American Idol 9, and he’s desperately needed: most of the finalists can sing but they can’t really perform, and they’re boring, not interesting. I’m sure Adam will be supportive and kind to them, but I hope he pushes them to improve their stage presence and performance.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly (which Lisa de Moraes hysterically calls the “celebrity suck-up mag”) executive producer Ken Warwick is asked if Adam’s presence will “shake things up and infuse the show with that added bit of drama that he generally manages to bring to the screen.”
Warwick replied, “I sincerely hope so,” but then he quickly turns it to make his response sound like he’s talking about his show helping Adam: “Because the guy is an incredible talent, and he had an incredible following. And it kind of upsets me that at the moment he’s not doing quite as well. … I don’t know what possessed him to do what he did at the AMAs, but he’s still struggling to live it down. And everybody says to me every week, ‘When are you gonna bring back Adam?’ They want to see him as he was. And hopefully we’re gonna do that for him this week, and we can start putting him back firmly where he belongs, as a major star. Because the guy is an incredible talent. He genuinely is. And it kind of breaks my heart to see someone with that much talent struggle a bit. So hopefully we can do back for him as he can do for us.”
Maybe Adam’s struggling, but the show that made him famous is definitely struggling more, and I can’t imagine they aren’t hoping Adam will both up ratings tonight and have a positively flamboyant effect on the contestants.