In the wake of Monday’s shootings at Virginia Tech (Which I’m not trying to exploit here, in talking about them twice, but I really want to focus on this conundrum), American Idol felt that there should be an address of sympathy to the victims and their families. At the opening of the show, Ryan Seacrest forewent the usual bombast and drama for a subtle, well-stated message of sympathy in the wake of yesterday’s events.
However, after his performance, Idol contender Chris Richardson made special mention of the tragedy, and provided his own personal condolences. Judge Simon Cowell was very clearly upset at this, turning his head away from Richardson and seeming genuinely angry. In fact, as this picture shows, Simon was most certainly rolling his eyes.
After Chris’ comment, Seacrest noted that “All of us feel for everybody affected by that,” seemingly trying to depersonalize the statement. Later in the broadcast, after Blake Lewis had performed his song, Simon tagged on a message of sympathy from the judges specifically which had no relation to Blake’s comments.
This raises a lot of questions. While I think everyone would believe that a response from a show like American Idol is a classy move, was Richardson stepping out of his bounds in an attempt to rise above the competition? Was he just trying to gain attention, and did that attempt make the other contenders seem less sympathetic? Was Simon’s response petty, feeling that he was not personally connected to one of the apologies, or rather out of concern for the other competitors?
On a personal level, I think that the one show-wide message of sympathy is the better tactic, and that intended or not Richardson should have left it at that. I admire Simon’s effort, but he came across as really angry, which was also inappropriate considering the situation. And yet, I think that this raises a really interesting issue (Especially considering my previous post on the relationship between the recent tragedy and television), and I was wondering if anyone else had an opinion on the subject. Did Chris or Simon go too far, or is too much sympathy never a problem?
Cultural Learnings 
I do agree with you, at first I thought Chris’s plea was for votes. I was curious to know where Chris is from, as it turns out he is from Virginia (5 hours from Blacksburg) and is the same age as most college seniors. Now I don’t necessarily think he feels any worse than the other contestants. Fox did the right thing by addressing the shootings, it puts everything into perspective, American Idol is simply a competition.
I still think he did it for votes, going into night he was probably the mostly likely to get voted off (him or Phil) and is grasping for anything to get him through. Ironically Lakisha’s hometown is closer to Blacksburg than Chris’s home.
I just watched the full performance (I’m on the west coast) and heard what the judges said. He did it for votes, it really wasn’t the platform or the setting. He interrupted Ryan to get in his comments, and honestly it didn’t feel very sincere! Hardly any emotion in his statement.