Nikki Glaser<\/a>, who sashayed onstage singing along to \u201cOpalite.\u201d \u201cI went to 22 Eras Tour concerts,\u201d she announced. \u201cI don\u2019t have a family and I had the money!\u201d Her goal for the evening: \u201cI\u2019m looking to feel something.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tBut it wasn\u2019t that kind of night. Idol<\/em> just didn\u2019t really seem up to the occasion. The contestants struggled mighty hard with the songs. Taylor did not show up, which was a shrewd move. (She\u2019s appeared on The Voice<\/em> twice, but never Idol<\/em>.) A gaggle of her Eras dancers were in the house, according to Glaser\u2019s social media, but not so\u2019s you could spot them onscreen. The whole night was obviously scripted as a big event, yet never quite got started. This celebration could have been an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tSeacrest promised, \u201cWe\u2019ve got a show tonight that\u2019s out of every Swiftie\u2019s wildest dreams!\u201d\u00a0 But bizarrely, they ran out of Swift songs halfway through, and with no warning, abandoned the Taylor theme without a fare-thee-well, not even a goodbye in a getaway car. The second half of Taylor Swift Night became a tribute to the state of California, sponsored by the state\u2019s tourism bureau. (Not even the Taylor songs about California!) It was a little weird.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tChances are that like many of your fellow citizens, you might have slacked off in your duty to keep up with American Idol<\/em> in recent years. So here\u2019s a cheat sheet: The judges are Lionel Richie, Carrie Underwood, and Luke Bryan. Their directive is 100 percent positivity \u2014 pure Paula Abdul energy, without a grain of Simon salt in any of their shakers. (Carrie learned her lesson earlier this season when she got booed for dishing out some tough love.) They don\u2019t do coaching or pro tips, just a dazed stream of \u201camazing\u201d and \u201cI love you\u201d and \u201cI love how amazing it is to love you.\u201d It\u2019s like Project Hail Mary<\/em> if the only human language Rocky learned was \u201cwords of encouragement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tIt was bizarre to see Nikki Glaser, an expert cutthroat artist who hosts the Golden Globes, thrown into the deep end of the positivity pool. \u201cI\u2019m used to roasting,\u201d she confessed to Seacrest. \u201cI turned that part of my brain off tonight.\u201d When Glaser told contestant Braden Rumfelt that his version of \u201cCardigan\u201d was \u201cin the pocket\u201d he replied, \u201cLike Tom Brady?\u201d It seemed like a clever reference to Nikki\u2019s career-making shade at Brady\u2019s Comedy Central Roast in 2024, where she stole the show. (\u201cIt\u2019s hard to walk away from something that isn\u2019t your pregnant girlfriend!\u201d)<\/p>\n
\n\tBut for most of the night, Glaser seemed to be the only person in the room who knew any of these songs. Seacrest eventually came out in his Folklore <\/em>cardigan, declaring, \u201cI am a Swiftie!\u201d But the human element came from seeing the singers\u2019 total disconnection from the material. Nobody did any testimonials where they walk in the sunset and muse about what the songs mean to them. Only one of the singers revealed listening to Swift on their own time \u2014 Chris Tungseth, a lovably hirsute country boy in the Bo Bice\/Sundance Head mode. Back in his high-school football days, as a middle linebacker, he used to hype up before games by blasting \u201cBlank Space\u201d in the locker room.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tBrooks Rooser sang \u201cLove Story,\u201d for his fellow contestant Rae Boyd \u2014 they just revealed last week that they\u2019re a couple. But America, you are one cold and cruel little nation. I mean, Idol <\/em>gives you a real-life love story? He sings her the Romeo\/Juliet song? And you respond by immediately voting him off the show<\/em>? Heartless! (Rae got cut a couple weeks ago for singing \u201cMacArthur Park,\u201d so insert your own cake\/rain metaphor here.) Hold on tight, you two. People throw rocks at things that shine, and life makes love look hard.<\/p>\n\n\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n\n