The pressure was on Milwaukee's "American Idol" finalist, Naima Adedapo, as she performed on the top-rated Fox show a week ago.
She had been in the bottom three the previous week. But the distinctive Adedapo knocked it out of the park during Motown week, performing "Dancing in the Street" spiced by her African dance skills. Her voice was powerful and on point. The 26-year-old Adedapo demonstrated a unique style, and her dance moves never detracted from her confident singing.
She's already earned a spot on the live "Idol" tour this summer.
But Adedapo has plenty of work ahead of her to live up to her previous performance this week in a competition complicated by last week's "judges' save" that kept Casey Abrams from being sent home.
The judges were so hot on Abrams, a 20-year-old from Wilmette, Ill., that they didn't even force him to sing a song to convince them to keep him around.
Here's the video of what could have been Abrams' last moments on "Idol":
Abrams is talented, but it's the voters who will make the rest of the decisions, now that the once-a-season "judges' save" has been used. And we can hope that Adedapo's performance has worked her out of danger for a few more weeks.
The overruling of the viewers' voting means that two singers will be cut this week, leaving nine. By the way, thanks to last week's save, 11 singers will participate in the live tour, rather than the usual 10.
The 11 remaining finalists perform from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight on Channel 6. Elton John's music is the week's theme.
On TV: A lot of the deal remains to be done -- including signing creator Matt Weiner -- but it looks like we'll have to wait until early 2012 for the next season of "Mad Men." The show may have to lose two of its regular cast members, as part of the deal.
- The president's Monday evening Libya speech, which aired before the beginning of prime time, pulled in 26 million TV viewers in the U.S., according to Nielsen Media Research.
- FX has picked up "Justified" for a third season of 13 episodes. It's also picked up "Archer." Three episodes will air this year and 13 in early 2012.
- Roseanne Barr is now on Twitter, if you've been looking for her.
- TV Newser says JuJu Chang is leaving ABC's "Good Morning America" for "Nightline," while Josh Elliott of ESPN's "Sportscenter" is moving to her morning slot.
- Robert MacNeil is returning home to what's now called "PBS NewsHour" next month for a six-part series of reports on autism. MacNeil's 6-year-old grandson, Nick, has autism.
- It looks like Fox's "Glee" will expand to 90 minutes for its April 26 episode featuring a couple Lady Gaga songs, including the anthemic "Born This Way," Michael Ausiello reports on TV Line.
A simple, well-done spot: Channel 58 has gone with a subtle take on its latest "just 10 minutes" promo, passing on the jingle and keeping the theme in a brief spot that ties in with the CBS affiliate's NCAA tournament coverage:
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
