Michael Becker / FOXAmerican Idol may not have the ratings it used to, but millions are still watching those aspiring stars' every move.
Rocker Caleb Johnson, who has made it to season 13's final four and has yet to find himself in the dreaded bottom two or three among the contestants all season, may have given himself a tougher hurdle to jump this coming week.
In an interview with AfterBuzz last week, Caleb talked with host Jason Ikeler about the frustrations of having so many critics giving their two cents on social media and how he tries to block out all the excess opinions.
"[Social media] gives access to a bunch of retards to talk to me, and I don't really enjoy having to see somebody telling me what song I need to sing," Caleb said. "I think at this point in the competition I can pick and choose my own songs and represent me. I don't need 10,000 people telling me 'you should sing this, you should sing that, listen to me.' Fortunately, guys, I'm going to listen to myself, whether you like it or not."
Well, calling folks who populate social media "retards" introduced him to all sorts of new critics who bashed his use of the word.
So the following day Caleb took to Facebook to issue an apology and try to clarify his comments.
"For the record that juvenile comment I made in the interview was not directed towards my fans but to the wackos that send hundreds of hate messages a day to me!" he wrote. "You guys are amazing and I cannot thank you enough for your support. Sorry if it offended anybody it was the wrong choice of words.
"Also I greatly appreciate it when you guys give me song suggestions but it gets really overwhelming at the volume it comes in so please understand ! Rock on !:)"
He can only hope that not too many of his faithful fans were irreparably offended.
Caleb is due to perform songs about relationships ("Love: Breakups and Makeups" being the theme) tomorrow night along with fellow semifinalists Jena Irene, Jessia Meuse and Alex Preston.