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Sailor advances — in fact, everyone does — on ‘Idol’

Television viewers kept Phil Stacey on “American Idol” Wednesday night. In fact, they kept all the show’s contestants, in a surprise twist ending that seemed likely to ignite controversy among “Idol” viewers.

The revelation by host Ryan Seacrest that nobody was going home this week came at the end of a “very special” two-hour charity episode of “Idol” crammed with guest musical numbers, comedy bits and celebrity exhortations for money. The show raised about $30 million, Seacrest said, which will be split evenly by charities that fight hunger and disease in the U.S. and Africa.

There was no breakdown of how much Stacey, a musician third class with the Navy Band in Jacksonville, Fla., was individually responsible for raising, but he and his other contestants didn’t figure much in the episode anyway. They stayed offstage until in the final moments, when Seacrest revealed the week’s two lowest vote-getters, Chris Richardson and Jordin Sparks, as he does when contestants are being cut in a normal episode. When Seacrest paused for drama and then said they were both staying at least one more week, Sparks broke into tears, thinking she was being sent home.

Even apart from the “Idol” contest, the episode alternately tickled and yanked at heartstrings. Jack Black drew laughter when he was the “audience member” Seacrest “randomly selected” at one point to come onstage. But audience members fell stone-silent after a video segment in which Seacrest and judge Simon Cowell, on a trip to Kenya, were shown loading an ill woman into a truck and revealing that she later died.

With such dramatic highs and lows, “Idol Gives Back” was clearly shooting for a place with the 20th century’s top telethons. At one point, Celine Dion sang alongside a computer-generated recreation of Elvis Presley, and Seacrest told viewers immediately afterwards that they could make a donation and “own that piece of television history.”

But even with those aspirations, the broadcast was not seamless. Seacrest muffed a line and completely re-did his live introduction at the top of the show, and then later had to ad-lib when a stage manager could be heard warning him that they were “having a problem.”

And for all the generosity shown by viewers and sponsors, there was a curious detail about what Seacrest’s employer was offering. The host said Tuesday that News Corp., which owns Fox, would donate 10 cents for every “Idol” vote. But even though viewers cast around 70 million votes this week, Seacrest said, News Corp. is topping its contribution at $5 million. For comparison, that’s a little less than a third of what CEO Rupert Murdoch will earn this year, or about $17.2 million, Forbes reported.

Seacrest gave no explanation why News Corp. isn’t giving the extra $2 million.

Before the night’s nobody-goes-home shocker, “Idol” observers offered guarded praise for the show’s newfound altruism. Still, many said it could be awkward to watch the show thicken from skim to whole and then revert back to skim over the course of just three weeks.

Detroit Free Press “Idol” correspondent Julie Hinds summed up the transition thus: “Watching ‘American Idol’ tackle a serious subject is like seeing a snack cake turn into a slice of whole-grain bread.”

Previous story:

Sailor impresses again on Idol

Video:

Snippets of Stacey’s April 24 performance

Discuss:

Does Phil Stacey have what it takes to be the next American Idol?