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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: March 22, 2005
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: American Idol, “Top 11 Perform” (Season 4, Episode 22)
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: It wasn’t easy to love Carrie Underwood during the first half of her American Idol run, specifically because it was so obvious that we were meant to love her. Humble, blonde country girl, pretty but not intimidatingly so, voice like a belting angel, and a personality so free of sharp edges that you could let kindergarteners play with it sans supervision. It was very easy to respect her talent, but very, very difficult to like her or to root for her.
And yet Carrie was unquestionably the season 4 front-runner — another reason she was tough to root for; who wants to cheer the front-runner? But with the likes of Bo Bice and Constantine Maroulis breathing down her neck, how was Carrie going to get America on her side and live up to those expectations? The answer came on the fairly elastically-themed “Billboard Number Ones” week; to her immense credit, even though she wasn’t being forced out of her country comfort zone this week, she voluntarily stepped as far outside it as she’d been all season, choosing the ’80s power ballad “Alone” by Ann and Nancy Wilson. She committed to the bit so much that she sprayed her hair halfway up to Jesus. And while she wasn’t exactly high-kicking in platform boots during her performance, the vocal — and the reminder that “Alone” is maybe the best song the ’80s hair craze gifted us with — was enough to slay America dead and have their revived corpses lining up behind Carrie all the way to the end.
After the performance, Simon Cowell made the bold prediction that Carrie would not only win the season but that she’d outsell every other previous American Idol winner. And this was after Kelly Clarkson had already made her breakthrough into pop stardom. But Simon, as most evil geniuses are, was right. Cynical, maybe, but right. And this was the exact right week to make that call, because this was the week Carrie grabbed that brass ring and never let go.
