Adam Lambert

For many faithful fans, this year's "Idol" has exactly one contestant: Adam Lambert. Others might impress, but compared with the 27-year-old former chorus boy with the unearthly vocal range, they all fall somewhere between "average" and "decent." America may love Danny Gokey like a brother and think Allison Iraheta is pretty cool, but in Lambert, audiences confront something never before seen on the show: the kind of pop star who can change people's lives. I'm not saying that Lambert is the greatest "American Idol" ever, though his mad singing skills and confidence as a performer put him in the top tier.

Earlier this month Josh Groban's "All That Echoes" knocked Justin Bieber's new album out of the top spot on the Billboard 200, and that's not the crooner's only incursion into territory normally reserved for pop stars. The crossover artist's latest release features material by Stevie Wonder and Jimmy Webb, while a deluxe edition available at Target adds Groban's take on the Dave Matthews Band's frat-house staple "Satellite. " The album's producer? Rob Cavallo of Green Day and Adam Lambert fame.

Power ballads exist to climax. I use that final word, in all its lascivious glory, for the obvious reasons. Created to accommodate "soft" emotion in hard rockers, these flash-pot-fueled show-stoppers have to be as uncontainable as juvenile delinquent rock itself. From "Dream On" onward, that's meant one thing: an explosive ending in which the band, and especially the singer, pump blood into the vulnerability they've expressed by pushing themselves into unstoppable overdrive, straining at the song's seams, and finally breaking through with a swoon that obliterates everything else.

Tom Waits still hasn't announced any new tour dates, but his cameo appearance on "The Simpsons" will arrive Sunday, according to his record label, Anti -. The label also released of a photo of Homer and Waits in his "Simpsons" guise. The episode is entitled "Homer Goes to Prep School" and Waits, not straying too far from many of his musical characters, indeed appears to play someone a little creepy. Here's what's described in the episode summary: Homer joins the "Springfield Preppers," an off-the-grid group anticipating the end of the world.  Waits is one of the leaders of the survivalist camp, and while he isn't expected to sing in the episode, odds are pretty good his weathered, bitter-old-man growl makes an appearance.  Waits indicated that he had no plans to take his latest album, "Bad as Me," on the road  at the time of its release in 2011 , but live appearances on the  talk show  circuit with Jimmy Fallon and  David Letterman  gave some fans a glimmer of hope.

MUSIC Adam Lambert enjoys playing around with preconceived notions, and that includes proudly showing that there's depth and self-awareness beyond stereotypes. Lambert's other clear goal as a pop star is to celebrate all aspects of the word "play": pleasure, performance, flirtation, virtuosity, masquerade. His debut, "For Your Entertainment," is a polished affair, but stylistically, it shows Lambert running loose like a kid in a Comme des Garçons store. With the Hollywood pop A-list at his disposal, he chose to go for it all. Pacific Amphitheare, 100 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa.

Adam Lambert's name has surfaced as a possible judge for the next season of "American Idol," the show that made him a star. E! News reports that "Idol" execs are looking at Lambert as they continue to juggle the lineup of judges on the long-running Fox series in the face of competition from NBC's "The Voice" and another Fox music competition show,"The X Factor. " "He personifies the show, and will be a popular choice right from the start," an unnamed source is quoted telling E!

The decision by ABC to cancel Adam Lambert's upcoming appearance on the late night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and to remove him from the potential roster of New Year's Rockin' Eve performers continued to create controversy Thursday, as a conservative Christian group defended its decision to protest Lambert's sexually suggestive performance last month at the American Music Awards. The Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit public interest law firm closely tied to the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Virginia and provides legal assistance in defense of what it calls "Christian religious liberty, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family," filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission over Lambert's controversial performance at the AMAs.

Adam Lambert is humming a different refrain about the movie version of "Les Misérables" after his Twitter critique of the Oscar-covetous film went viral. Instead of damning the movie with faint praise, Lambert now is praising it with faint damns. In one of his initial Dec. 30 posts about "Les Miz," Lambert wrote: "Visually impressive w great Emotional performances. But the score suffered massively with great actors PRETENDING to be singers" A few hours ago, Lambert felt called to expand his views.

Click here to download TV listings for the week Dec. 9 - 15 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     This Morning Billy Corgan; Julie Chen, Sara Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Underwood and Aisha Tyler. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Hugh Jackman; Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne and Samantha Barks. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC Rachael Ray Valerie Bertinelli. (N) 8 a.m. KCAL Live With Kelly and Michael Hugh Jackman; Howie Mandel; Richard Marx performs.

The Early Show Buying diamonds. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Tanith Belbin; Ben Agosto; Billy Ray Cyrus. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA Good Morning America Chef Emeril Lagasse. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Good Day L.A. (N) 7 a.m. KTTV Live With Regis and Kelly Guest co-host Jeff Probst; Mariah Carey; Billy Ray Cyrus; chef Daniel Boulud. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View Anika Noni Rose; Adam Lambert performs. (N)

Adam Lambert is humming a different refrain about the movie version of "Les Misérables" after his Twitter critique of the Oscar-covetous film went viral. Instead of damning the movie with faint praise, Lambert now is praising it with faint damns. In one of his initial Dec. 30 posts about "Les Miz," Lambert wrote: "Visually impressive w great Emotional performances. But the score suffered massively with great actors PRETENDING to be singers" A few hours ago, Lambert felt called to expand his views.

Week after week, Emblem3 made teenage girls swoon as the band played sunny renditions of other artists' hit songs on the Fox competition "The X Factor. " A fusion of pop, ska and hip-hop - think Sublime, only dreamier with washboard abs and tousled hair - the young Huntington Beach trio was also a favorite of the judges. Yet in a move as puzzling as the success of the show itself, the band was eliminated, losing its potential spot in the final three to an underdog act. VIDEO: 'X Factor' vs. 'The Voice' finale   So why weren't Emblem3's members devastated by the loss?

Click here to download TV listings for the week Dec. 9 - 15 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     This Morning Billy Corgan; Julie Chen, Sara Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Underwood and Aisha Tyler. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Hugh Jackman; Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne and Samantha Barks. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC Rachael Ray Valerie Bertinelli. (N) 8 a.m. KCAL Live With Kelly and Michael Hugh Jackman; Howie Mandel; Richard Marx performs.

Singer Mariah Carey finally validated weeks of rumors that she'd be joining Fox's long-running "American Idol" talent competition show when she revealed to reporters by speakerphone at the Television Critics Assn. press tour Monday morning that a deal had been finalized. So what does this mean for the show that has already seen six judges, including Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and multitasking pop diva Jennifer Lopez, vacate their posts over the years?    With Carey aboard, “Idol” scored itself a wealth of credibility for its 12th season, a particular credibility it's lacked from Day 1, by doing something incredibly simple: hiring a singer widely recognized for her singing.

MUSIC Adam Lambert enjoys playing around with preconceived notions, and that includes proudly showing that there's depth and self-awareness beyond stereotypes. Lambert's other clear goal as a pop star is to celebrate all aspects of the word "play": pleasure, performance, flirtation, virtuosity, masquerade. His debut, "For Your Entertainment," is a polished affair, but stylistically, it shows Lambert running loose like a kid in a Comme des Garçons store. With the Hollywood pop A-list at his disposal, he chose to go for it all. Pacific Amphitheare, 100 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa.

Next week, thousands of wannabe superstars will descend on New Orleans to audition for Fox's "American Idol" in pursuit of their dream of being the next Carrie Underwood or Adam Lambert. But who will ultimately judge their fate is now a mystery. Like a baseball owner angry that his team made the playoffs but didn't win the World Series, Fox is overhauling the popular musical talent show after a season that saw its viewership fall by 23% and NBC's"Sunday Night Football" franchise surpass it as the most popular program on television.

Pop idol Adam Lambert kissed a man on national television on Sunday night. Now ABC has given Lambert the kiss-off, and CBS has embraced him. Apparently responding to hundreds of viewer complaints following Lambert's racy performance during Sunday's "American Music Awards" telecast on ABC, the network canceled its plans for a Lambert-headlined concert that would have aired on ABC's "Good Morning America" program today. The network reported on Monday that it had received about 1,500 complaints about Lambert's number, in which he kissed a male keyboard player and another dancer placed his face in Lambert's crotch during a performance of his song "For Your Entertainment" (the latter bit was edited out for the West Coast broadcast)

"Do I look like a firework?" Adam Lambert cooed from the stage at Gridlock's fourth annual New Year's Eve bash. "That was my motivation." Sporting his signature finger-less gloves and going a little heavier on the usual glitter and guyliner allotment, the "American Idol" runner-up had his work cut out for him at the Paramount Pictures lot Thursday night: executing his first full set of original music in front of about 4,500 revelers, each of...

As speculation (and uncertainty) hits the Net over Jennifer Lopez's return to “American Idol,” Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has decided he won't return to the aging competiton for a third season. “After some long ... hard ... thoughts … I've decided it's time for me to let go of my mistress 'American Idol' before she boils my rabbit,” Tyler said in a statement on Thursday. “I strayed from my first love, Aerosmith, and I'm back - - but instead of begging on my hands and knees, I've got two fists in the air and I'm kicking the door open with my band.” Immediately after Tyler inked his deal to join the show, rumors intensified that the rocker was preparing to walk away from the band he's spent nearly 40 years fronting.

Adam Lambert's name has surfaced as a possible judge for the next season of "American Idol," the show that made him a star. E! News reports that "Idol" execs are looking at Lambert as they continue to juggle the lineup of judges on the long-running Fox series in the face of competition from NBC's "The Voice" and another Fox music competition show,"The X Factor. " "He personifies the show, and will be a popular choice right from the start," an unnamed source is quoted telling E!