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It's a Lock: How Can Sanjaya Lose With Hair Like That?
The ponyhawked Sanjaya sang No Doubt's "Bathwater."
(From TV)
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Nothing could top the Ponyhawk during the entire 67-minute broadcast. Not even Stefani.
Sure, the other nine contestants performed. Some were pretty good, but, turns out, when you're limited to songs by people who had a huge impact on Stefani, you're mostly confined to her No Doubt material, Police tunes, Donna Summer songs -- picture Melinda Doolittle singing "Heaven Knows" while looking like one of your mother's friends who'd squeezed herself into her daughter's Pucci knockoff to attend karaoke night on a cruise ship bound for Majorca -- and Haley Scarnato simpering her way through "True Colors," which was a crime against Cyndi Lauper. It doesn't make for much of a night. Thank God for Sanjaya's Hair.
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Fox says it's beefing up the "American Idol" results show from 30 minutes to one hour a month ahead of schedule in response to producers' pleas. But the change, which will expand the Wednesday show into the 9:30 half-hour, won't happen until April 11 -- the same day and time as ABC's premiere of its sitcom "Notes From the Underbelly."
This is the second scheduling shock ABC has received at the hand of Fox in just a few days. Last week, ABC discovered this week's "Idol" performance show would run seven minutes past the hour. That's seven minutes of "Idol" going head-to-head with the first results show on the new edition of "Dancing With the Stars" -- which ABC had so carefully scheduled to steer clear of "Idol."
The trades cited "sources" telling them the change would give the booted contestant a chance to sing one last time. The Booted Idolette's Teary-Eyed Swansong used to be a highlight of results night, only now the broadcast is jammed so full of Other Stuff there's barely room for the contestants.
Last week's half-hour results show, according to The Washington Post Team TV Stopwatch, offered viewers a full 15 minutes of commercials and/or ads masquerading as programming -- you know, the weekly mugging with " 'Til Death" star Brad Garrett, who just happens to be in the audience and whose sitcom just happens to follow the "Idol" results show, etc.
The Idolettes themselves were the focus for a mere five minutes of a show so crammed with plugs that the producers had to cut not only the Teary-Eyed Swansong but also the bit in which the judges recap the previous night's performances and the bit where they get to say how shocked they are -- or not -- by the voting results. Last Wednesday, the judges got 2 seconds of on-air time.
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Thanks to "American Idol," Fox last week won the 2006-07 TV season -- which doesn't officially wrap until May -- in the 18-to-49 age bracket, the one on which the broadcast networks say they base virtually all their ad sales. CBS won the week with a basketball-propped-up Friday and Saturday and actual original episodes of its scripted series.
Here's a look at the week's victors and vanquished:
WINNERS


