Canadian Idol 3: The Post Finale Press Conference

About twenty minutes after the crowning of Idol Melissa, the press conference began. There were about fifty members of the media, representing TV, radio, print and most importantly, the Internet. Scott Henderson, Senior Director, Programming Communications at CTV and my contact with Idol was the host of the event.

The first speaker was Suzanne Boyce, President of CTV Programming. She ran off a few stats, two of which were interesting. One fact is that the 3.65 million votes cast this last week was a record for Canadian Idol. The second was that of the 21 Idol finalists from the previous two years, 19 have received recording contracts! She kindly did not tell us which two missed out, so make your own guesses.

Second to speak was none other than 2004 Idol, Kalan Porter! As I was seated in row two, he was about ten feet away and still looks like a cherub. His hair is much longer than last year, though just as curly as ever. He’s still comes across as a little shy, but as he’s had a year of practice, he quickly warmed to the task at hand.

Kalan has a new, still untitled album coming out in the spring, featuring more of his own songs. His current 70-show tour is nearing an end soon, in London. He enjoyed the tour a lot, but is ready to go home.

He admitted the final minutes of the show are very stressful, telling us, “I was so glad that wasn’t me up there.” He only met Rex and Melissa a few days ago, so hasn’t had a chance to really talk with them yet. He intends to do so in the next couple of days. One “survival tip” he will pass on is that, even though there are many people around you with good advice, trust yourself and go with your own instincts.

Next up was series host Ben Mulroney. Ben told us that in the first two seasons, he had a pretty strong feeling how the final vote was going to go, but this year he really couldn’t tell.

Ben’s most memorable moment this season was the trip to Memphis. He chose to spend more time with the Idols this year in the off hours, as much as his busy schedule allowed.

His first impressions of Melissa haven’t changed – he pegged her as witty, elegant and charming right away. Of Rex, he says that initially, “I didn’t understand a word he said.” At that time, he never saw Rex getting this far, he just didn’t “stick out” to Ben. But somewhere during the Toronto rounds, it hit Ben that Rex definitely belonged.

When asked what themes he would like to see in the future, one of Ben’s responses was “a Queen night.” Ben reminded us that themes aren’t supposed to be easy, they’re supposed to challenge the singers and test their limits.

The four Judges – Farley, Jake, Sass, and Zack – were next up. There was a lot of good-natured tomfoolery initially.

When asked who they thought should win, all four said Melissa. However, Jake and Farley felt Rex might actually win, based mostly on the demographics of the voters. I can understand that, the Live shows were most heavily populated by extremely vocal Rex fans. Zack notes that Rex is charisma and really stepped up his game on the final performance night.

Jake tells us that for him, the most telling moment of the season was Rex and Melissa’s fathers hugging each other after the show.

Sass was asked about her vocal performance in this show. She credits the decision to executive producer John Brunton. It felt like a normal performance to her, and she enjoyed it. The song was directed to all Idol hopefuls.

Jake also shares with us that the song for Byrd was arranged totally by the Idols themselves, and Byrd did not help them in any way.

Executive producer John Brunton was up to the mike next. He had many fine things to say about the character of both contestants and their families. For example, he described Rex as “the best liked guy in his home town.”

When asked about preparing the look and feel of this year’s show, he said, “The journey tells it’s own story,” and, “Keep your eyes and ears open, and the stories start to evolve.” John has every intention of staying with Idol for some time yet, which is good news for all of us, because he’s the man most responsible for all the great innovations that Canadian Idol has presented.

The penultimate speaker was our runner-up, Rex Goudie. Myself, facing a media scrum of fifty is about the last thing I’d want to do at this point in time, but Rex is a better man than I.

When asked about the moment of the announcement, he humbly said, “I wouldn’t have been more excited if it had been me.” Scott asked him what he most learned from “his summer job,” and it was, “The goodness of people.”

Rex was still holding his Leafs jersey. It was #29, the number Felix Potvin wore as a Leaf a few years back. I politely reminded him, that jersey hasn’t been too lucky for the local hockey team of late, either. Everyone laughed. Rex thinks the Leafs will do fine this year, showing that Rex is always an optimist.

Rex says he was his own worst critic. He got tired of getting poor reviews from the judges, he actually said, “I got tired of being mediocre.” He worked with Byrd to get better, and I would say that four of his last five performances were his best.

Last up was 2005 Canadian Idol Melissa O’Neil and Sony BMG exec Lisa Zbitnew. Melissa signed her recording contract right in front of us. Because she’s only 17, her dad had to come up and sign as well!

Her single “Alive” was to be sent to radio stations at 1AM that night. So by the time you’re reading this, it’s already getting airplay. I still think this is one of the best Idol songs inflicted on an Idol winner in North America.

Immediately after her victory, she received a congratulatory phone call from Prime Minister Paul Martin. “That was kind of cool!” she says. She also said it was hard to hear, but caught key words like Good… Idol… beautiful... and goodbye!

Melissa believes education is important and intends to keep her studies up next year so she can graduate with her class. That’s going to be tough, but I bet she can do it.

Melissa described herself as “proud to be the first female Canadian Idol.”

When asked what one memory she will take from all of this, she has a great answer. She hadn’t seen her mom in a while, and will always remember when she saw her looking so pretty at rehearsal this week. Awww!

She also has nice things to say about her dad. She said, “My dad has been one of the most amazing people I’ve ever encountered. He instills hope in the kids he coaches. I hope I can be half of that for some kid in Canada.” Awww, all over again!

With that, the press conference ended and we disbursed for refreshments. But that’s not a story for here!

Brian can be reached atuncle_bto@rogers.com where he responds to all serious email.

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