Here are some interesting tidbits courtesy of
USA Today :
In the key of Bee Gee
The final four took another step on Tuesday's American Idol. After Bee Gees night, USA TODAY's Ken Barnes felt everything he wrote last week was off base. Kimberley Locke sounded bland, Ruben Studdard was ill-suited for Nights on Broadway (though much better on How Can You Mend a Broken Heart) and Clay Aiken was the best, especially on a stirring To Love Somebody but also on the Simon-maligned Grease. One constant: Joshua Gracin's mangling of Jive Talkin' was the evening's low point. Among respondents on USA TODAY.com, Ruben garnered 74% of more than 190,000 votes cast.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/americanidol-index.htm
For 'Idol' finalists, survival is just the start
By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY
A new American Idol won't be named until May 21, but the remaining competitors the final four already can consider themselves winners.
"We've all won, just to get this far. Even the person who leaves this week please, God, don't let it be me is No. 4 out of 70,000," Clay Aiken says. (Related item:Experts dissect the Idol final four.)
Surviving to this point is more than a symbolic victory. Based on the track record of the first Idol, odds are good that Aiken, Joshua Gracin, Kimberley Locke and Ruben Studdard will have entertainment opportunities that non-Idol singing hopefuls can only dream of.
The first Idol, Kelly Clarkson, has had a No. 1-selling single and album and has a movie due June 13, From Justin to Kelly, with runner-up Justin Guarini, who will release his own album this summer. Fourth-place Tamyra Gray also is working on an album as well as on Fox's Boston Public.
This year's finalists already have a single under their belts, Lee Greenwood's God Bless the U.S.A., with a CD of love songs in stores. Ten of them will take part in a 39-date summer tour. Top-10 finisher Kimberly Caldwell has lined up a correspondent's gig with Fox Sports Net's 54321.
"Tamyra said it the other night: There are just a plethora of opportunities," Locke says.
All four finalists, each stifling yawns Friday at the end of a long week, expressed hopes of having singing careers, along with giving acting a try. But first they're focused on the contest.
"I'm going to make sure I take advantage of every moment," Studdard says. "My goal was really to make the top 32. God has blessed me to (get) above and beyond what I imagined."
Each remaining week has a perk, too. The final three get to go back to their hometowns to shoot video for next week's shows. And the top two perform before more than 6,000 at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles May 20.
But none wants to look too far ahead. After fan and judge favorite Studdard was nearly eliminated last week, nothing is taken for granted. "Anything can happen," Gracin says. "Nobody's safe."
(Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe rejects Internet speculation that last week's vote might have been manipulated for drama. Votes are tabulated and audited by outside firms, he says. "If we were ever caught doing anything like that, we'd lose the entire franchise around the world. It isn't worth it.")
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2003-05-05-idol-main_x.htm
