It's important to remember that "American Idol" viewers didn't pick Milwaukee's Naima Adedapo to be a finalist. It was the judges who chose her and two other singers to join the finals.
So it's her job to build on her fan base to remain in the competition for a recording contract, and that's an increasingly difficult task.
Last week, she ended up in the bottom three, based on viewer votes.
Her performance of Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do With It" didn't play to her strengths. While the "Idol" back story focuses on her work cleaning toilets, Adepapo is a trained dancer and experienced singer with a unique style. She's no novice.
When the 11 remaining finalists perform tonight at 7 on Channel 6, the pressure will be on the 26-year-old Adedapo to rise above the competition.
Here's Adedapo's performance from last week:
On TV: Entertainment Weekly's Inside TV blog reports that both Ricky Gervais and Will Arnett will star in "The Office" season finale on May 19. Don't assume either one will succeed the departing Steve Carell.
- It's official, TNT has ordered a 10-episode fourth season of "Southland."
- NBC says Helen Mirren will host the April 9 installment of "Saturday Night Live," the week after Elton John hosts.
- NBC's new "Paul Reiser Show" premieres April 14 in the 7:30 p.m. Thursday slot now held by the lame "Perfect Couples."
- Monday's season premiere of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" pulled in 22.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. But that's down 20 percent from the previous installment in the key 18-49 demographic, according the Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed blog.
- Chris Brown threw a fit after a tough interview by Robin Roberts on ABC's "Good Morning America," reportedly breaking a dressing room window with a chair. ABC's statement: "As always, we ask questions that are relevant and newsworthy, and that’s what we did in this interview with Mr. Brown." Brown's scheduled to perform on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" next week, and the latest word from ABC is that the incident won't affect that appearance.
- ABC has released its season finale dates for May, if you plan ahead. "Modern Family" wraps up on May 25.
- IFC has picked up a second season of "Onion News Network," with 16 episodes.
Where the magic happens: The cast of NBC's "Community" got the word last week that the show had been picked up for a third season and apparently Marquette grad Danny Pudi celebrated by making this video for FunnyOrDie.com (but be warned that the language is far rougher than anything you'll hear on "Community"):
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.
