American Idol' Top 20 Night, Part 2: Crystal In The Clear On Ladies' Night
Posted Wed Mar 3, 2010 7:28pm PST by Lyndsey Parker in Reality Rocks
This week "American Idol" producers made an unprecedented decision to alter the show's performance schedule to accommodate the illness of one contestant. Frontrunning female Crystal Bowersox suffered a "medical emergency" this week and was unable to perform on Tuesday's girls night as planned, so the male contestants sang on Tuesday instead, giving Crystal an extra day to recuperate. At first this seemed like preferential treatment, considering that past "Idol" contestants like David Cook, Bo Bice, and Megan Joy were all forced to perform while ill, but then it turned out that Crystal's condition was actually quite serious. (Fox reps never officially confirmed her illness, but she was reportedly hospitalized.) On the afternoon before the top 10 girls' rescheduled performances, doctors were still deciding whether Crystal was fit to perform; if medics had refused to give Crystal the greenlight to sing this week, she would have to be disqualified.
Luckily, that didn't happen, although it wasn't announced that Crystal would perform until 10 minutes before Wednesday's show actually aired live, when Ryan Seacrest tweeted the good news. And thus, the "Idol" blogosphere heaved a collective sigh of relief.
If Crystal Bowersox had indeed been disqualified, in a season when she had a very good chance of winning the whole thing, it would have been a terrible shame for all concerned. Of course it would have been a sad setback for Crystal, a single mom with a dream in need of a big break. But it would have been a major blow to "Idol" Season 9 as well. This season had already seen the exit of longtime judge Paula Abdul; the controversial hiring of new judge Ellen DeGeneres; the resignation announcement of Simon Cowell; two disqualification scandals (Michael Lynche nearly got booted when his father blabbed spoilers to the press, and Chris Golightly was cut for allegedly being under a boy-band contract); and a top 24 week that was a huge disappointment to many fans, with even early favorites like Andrew Garcia, Todrick Hall, and Lacey Brown delivering panned performances. Amid all this chaos, Crystal was a shiny, crystalline beacon of hope, one of the few promising contestants capable of salvaging this troubled season. "Idol" could not afford to lose her. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out panicked producers had hired a fleet of the world's finest doctors to pump Crystal full of vitamins around the clock, in order to get her back in singing shape.
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