{alltv} Sax with Paul McDonald

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

{alltv} Sax with Paul McDonald

"Every vote counts," reads the screen.

Unless you're voting for a woman.

"No one is safe."

Except probably Scotty McCreery

This is how life without Pia Toscano begins.

Ryan begins the Elite Eight show by congratulating Jennifer Lopez on being named the World's Most Beautiful Woman by People magazine, then cueing the spotlight and the song Frank Sinatra's The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.

Tonight, the remaining contestants will be singing music from the movies, and Paul McDonald -- sporting a new Manuel suit (with pants) -- will be first up, singing Bob Seger's Old Time Rock and Roll (from Risky Business).

"Paul's got his own take on it," says Jimmy Iovine, "and we had a great time rehearsing the song." Paul says he hopes to "leave America happy" after they hit it.

Paul's biggest problem, though, may not be his singing or his haphazard stage movements: It's the band. All you can hear is basically one guitar and a snare drum. Still, Paul's performance is karaoke-bar level, at best, and maybe not a great one of those, since he's extremely careless about where the mic is, so sometimes you can't even hear him.

Not a great way to start the night. And not a great performance for somebody in the ever-dangerous opening slot.

Steven Tyler is more impressed with the female saxophone player, but he loves his craziness. No criticism from him.

Jennifer Lopez think he's been pushing a little bit further each week. "You killed it, and you did it again this week." Yeah, whatever.

"America, you just witnessed the first number at the Paul McDonald concert," says Randy.

Well, so much for any hope that they'd start lighting into contestants after all the heat they took last week for coddling the contestants up to this point.