American Idol 6, April 25 – Time Has Come Today

The Idols are all in white, and Ryan seems to be distracted because he screws up his lines. He mentions that every week, our votes affect an Idol’s life, but last night, our votes affected the lives of people who could really use our help. It’s time for the night we’ve all been hearing about for weeks: Idol Gives Back. Ryan says this is really the biggest Idol show ever, including “the most shocking result in our history.” I bet.

Last night, over 70 million votes were cast. Rock on. It’s a record, and after 50 million votes were cast, NewsCorp ponied up $5 million. That’s not all - other sponsors donated, so who knows what the final total is? If you didn’t get to vote last night, you can donate at www.americanidol.com.

Tonight’s guest co-host at the Walt Disney Concert Hall is Ellen Degeneres. Yay! She teases Ryan about the “shocking results” thing and asks if she’s getting voted off. Never, Ellen. She tells us some of the singers we’ll hear tonight, then sings part of her “life anthem,” Salt N’ Pepa’s “Shoop.” Hee.

The first performance of the night is from Earth, Wind, and Fire, who perform “Boogie Wonderland.” Interesting choice. I like the version from Happy Feet, though. Oh, wait, it’s a medley - next is “Shining Star.” That fits a lot better with the theme of tonight and last night. The next song is “September.” These guys still really rock after all these years. The crowd loves them, and I bet most of the people there are too young to even know who Earth, Wind, and Fire are.

Back at the main studio, Ryan gives us a clip of auditions past, New Orleans in 2004. A year later, Hurricane Katrina hit, and this time the crowds at the Super Dome weren’t auditioning for American Idol. Randy has returned to Louisiana, his home state, to show us some of the horrible devastation that still affects the area. He says it’s “like the forgotten land.” Randy hugs a woman and assures her things will get better.

Randy then stops by a FEMA park, where people are still living two years after Katrina. Because there’s a lot of poverty, there’s also a lot of violence and crime. Edna, a young woman who lives there with her six adorable kids, talks to Randy. The kids get to spend some time at a community center that really reaches out to the kids in the area and gives them a safe place to just be kids. This community center is one of the places our money is going to.

Sanjaya and Shayamali are in the audience. Keep them away from the stage!

Quincy Jones is here, and he’s written a song, “Time to Care,” just for the Idols. We see a clip of the Idols meeting him and singing together. He loves it when young people show that they care. Melinda asks Quincy’s inspiration; it’s Africa and Hurricane Katrina. The Idols sing the heck out of the song and Quincy loves it.

We get a montage of kids in Africa and kids at the Louisiana community center as the Idols sing Quincy’s song on stage (he’s conducting but they’re not watching him). Chris’ white hoodie and Phil’s white newsboy cap are distracting, but the Idols sound great together. We get more clips of Paula and Randy hanging out with kids. Ooh, they’re playing with a parachute! I used to love doing that. What’s interesting is that even with their different styles, all of the Idols sound good on this song. Also, I love the African drums in the background.

The parade of stars giving us the Idol Gives Back phone number begins with Eric McCormack from Will and Grace, who says that we could do a lot with one dollar from every person who voted for Sanjaya. Heh. After the commercials, David Schwimmer makes an appearances. Where has he been?

Ryan tells us that they’ve been trying to get a satellite hookup with Ben Stiller all day. This leads to a “funny” moment of Ben trying to make sure his hair looks good. He gives us a list of all of his movies, for some reason. Ben says he’s going to sing “Reminiscing” until we’ve raised $200 billion. A crawl begs us to call as soon as possible and make him stop. This would’ve been funnier with Sanjaya. Someone tells Ben we’ve raised $8,000. The crawls begs us to call immediately. Ben starts dancing. Uh oh.

Ryan introduces more clips of his and Simon’s trip to Africa. A group of kids sing. Ryan shows us a Kenyan slum, then takes us to the home of a kid we saw a few seconds of last night - the one whose parents died. He and his sister live in a one-room house alone. The kid is very upset (which is understandable) and Ryan tries to comfort him, getting a little choked up himself.

The kids take care of themselves completely, but they’re alone. In fact, there are almost 50,000 orphans in this area of Kenya. The kids do go to school, and it’s an escape from their harsh life. It costs $16 a month, less than a dollar a day, to educate these kids, and it’s their only hope to escape poverty. Ryan says that this 12-year-old boy is basically a dad, and this should affect any dads watching. With the money raised tonight, tons of kids like these two can go to school.

Simon and Ryan talk about the trip on stage, Simon saying they met some of the world’s nicest kids.

Ben is still singing. He gives a shout-out to Blake. “Getting close?” he asks. Nope, just $11,000. “11,000 million?” he asks.

Next in the parade of stars: Teri Hatcher. I guess she’s not too mad at Ryan, huh? Then Forest Whitaker (yay!) from Uganda, where he filmed The Last King of Scotland.

Remember how this is a results show, too? Oh, yeah! Ryan claims this will be in random order, not highest or lowest vote-getters. Melinda is called first and is safe, of course. And that’s it for now. What? It’s a two-hour show!