| Idol viewers put Malcolm in Top 11 By Sarah Crosbie Wednesday, July 30, 2003 - 07:00 Local News - Talk about a wild ending. Last night was Ryan Malcolm�s final shot to make the Canadian Idol Top 10. After months and months of auditions, singing in front of millions of Canadians and getting cut up by the celebrity judges, he didn�t make the reality TV show�s coveted Top 10. But he�s still in the finals. In a surprise ending, CTV announced last night that because Malcolm had garnered such a high percentage of the 1.3 million votes, the program was changing its rules. Forget the Canadian Idol Top 10. It�s now the Canadian Idol Top 11. Idol host Ben Mulroney announced that Malcolm was too good to lose. �The results of last night�s votes are so close, it is clear Canada wants more than one of you in the Top 10 so the producers have decided to give the country what it wants [and let] a second person through tonight,� he said. Minutes after he learned that his rendition of Billy Joel�s Just the Way You Are won him enough votes to move into the finals, Malcolm told The Whig-Standard in a phone interview from Toronto that he�d thought his Idol experience was over. �Oh my God. I thank everyone who voted for me. What just happened? I don�t know what to think. Oh wow,� he said as people from CTV told him he had to hang up the phone to pose for a photo shoot. �I thank everyone for voting for me. Did I already say that? It just hasn�t hit me yet.� It was just last week that Malcolm, 23, thought his time on TV had come to an end when he failed to advance. Then, he was given another shot when he was named one of the wild-card competitors � the best of the best who deserve a second shot. Malcolm first auditioned for Canadian Idol in the spring with 15,000 other young hopefuls. Through auditions, 15,000 were whittled down to 143 competitors, then whittled down again to 30. Now, 11 contestants have a shot at a record deal with music company BMG. Last night, friends and family gathered at Malcolm�s parents� Amherstview restaurant, Nostalgia Station. When Mulroney said Malcolm had won the 11th spot, the crowd went crazy. �I�m a wreck, I�m just a wreck,� Malcolm�s brother, Reagan Smith, said. �He deserved to be there. Now that he�s in the Top 10, or Top 11, he�s got the versatility to stay ahead of everyone. He�s going all the way.� It seemed that Malcolm may have also been a bit of a wreck. He turned his back to the cameras, took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. Was he crying? �He looked like he was either go to cry or throw up,� his older sister Jordan said with a laugh. Starting on Monday, the 11 finalists will perform each week in front of a live studio audience. After the episode is over, viewers have two hours to call in to vote for their favourite singer. The results are announced live the following night at 7:30. Throughout August and September, contestants with the fewest votes will be kicked off the show until one singer is named the Canadian Idol. Melanie Rankin voted hundreds of times for Malcolm on Monday using two different phones. She also put 4,000 flyers in mailboxes in Napanee reminding people to vote. She�s plotting new ways to help her friend win more votes. Malcolm�s father, John, said his son made the finals because his three home towns � Napanee, Amherstview and Kingston � have supported him. It seems that Kingston is getting behind its Canadian Idol. A new bar, The Peel Pub, is cheering Malcolm on in its Princess Street sign and folks from the Lone Star are supporting Malcolm on the CTV message board. A message posted by Rattler reads: �All of Kingston has been following you on your journey to the top. All of us from the Lone Star are rooting you on.� Not everyone loves Malcolm, though. Minutes after he was announced as an Idol finalist, a viewer posted a message on CTV.ca telling him to ditch the Elvis Costello-style frames. �Those glasses are awful. Lose them for the show and get a better haircut. You have a good face so just show it.� Next Monday, Canadian Idol is a special two-hour edition. At 7 p.m., the show will profile Malcolm and his 10 competitors and at 7:30 p.m., the Top 11 begin competing live from Toronto�s John Bassett Theatre. Canadian Idol airs on channel 6 in Kingston. Kingstonians can see the Canadian Idol shows live by buying tickets from Ticketmaster outlets. |