From Deseret News archives:
Utahns get real
Three of four are still alive, and any baseball player would be thrilled with a .750 batting average.
David Archuleta, the 13-year-old from Murray, got things rolling with a big win on CBS's "Star Search." A defending champ in the young singer's category on the show last year, he is one of the contestants brought back for the "winner's circle" in this year's format.
The winner of last Saturday's preliminary competition, Amber Lipton, 10, of Houston, challenged David for his spot in the winner's circle. But David's rendition of the Luther Vandross ballad "A House Is Not a Home" won raves from the judges and kept him on the show.
He'll be there when "Star Search" airs tonight at 7 on CBS/Ch. 2, and he may or may not be challenged again.
John Preator, the 23-year-old BYU student, hasn't won anything yet on TV's most popular program, "American Idol," but he did take a huge step this week — he made it to the final 32.
The news wasn't good for Sandy O'Driscoll, the 19-year-old SLCC student, who didn't make the cut.
Preator's advancement means that, although he hasn't been shown much on the program to date, he'll definitely be getting some face time soon.
Exactly how soon we don't know yet. The 32 finalists have been divided into groups of eight as the competition continues, and he isn't in the first group that competes this coming week. Stay tuned. . . .
Todd Mitchell, the 26-year-old Orem native, is still in the running on "Average Joe: Hawaii" — but I'm not exactly sure whether that's good news.
Yes, Mitchell is an aspiring actor and this sort of national exposure certainly can't hurt. But "Average Joe" is just such a mean-spirited show and, like the other so-called hunks, Mitchell is portrayed as such a jerk that, well, the exposure isn't exactly an unqualified success.
Particularly given that, other than being one of many to make out with Larissa, Mitchell's major claim to fame to this point is that he's the hunk who hit one of the average Joes in the crotch in a vicious game of dodgeball.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com
