"Before He Cheats": A Multi-Format SMASH!

As a HUGE fan of Carrie Underwood's I was hoping that someday her reach would go beyond that of the Country audience after her initial success in that format... Just a little more than a year and a half later, with a near 6x Platinum selling debut CD, it's safe to say that Carrie's reach has gone far beyond Country. And this morning, while doing my daily chart updates on Carrie's official site, I was pleasantly surprised to find that "Before He Cheats" had cracked the top 10 at the Pop format! The song was the 3rd of Carrie's four consecutive #1's at the Country format, and also has reached #7 on the Hot Adult Contemporary chart and #21 on the Adult Contemporary chart... it's still rising on all of the charts other than the Country one.

Way back in the early days when I first saw her audition on American Idol, I knew there was just something very special about Carrie... her innocence and values, along with being very well grounded made her someone I wanted to root for. As time has passed, I've been so impressed with her integrity and how she's handled success. One other thing many don't know about Carrie is that she graudated saledictorian in high school - that would be second in her class. Additionally, after she took time off from college to participate in Idol, she went back to school once the competition was over to get her degree and graduate with the lofty Magna cum Laude status! Yes, I guess I have this thing for intelligent women! ;)

Carrie still seems to be the same person that she was when she first began on Idol, just a little more confident and A LOT richer... just the kind of person that this world needs more of. I'm proud to call her a role model for people of all ages to look up to and I continue to whole-heartedly support her.

While on the subject of Carrie, her fanclub is having a drawing for a Fanclub party on June 5th in Nashville. I sooooooo want to go!!! On Tuesday, May 8th, I will find out if I'm one of the lucky ones that has been selected to be part of the festivities.

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Time for some sports now... the NBA Playoffs have moved into the second round as the Utah Jazz beat the Houston Rockets 103-99 last night to earn the final berth against the Golden State Warriors. Game one of that series (and suprise matchup) is Monday night. The Detroit Pistons defeated the Chicago Bulls 95-69 yesterday in game one of their second round series... Today, the Cleveland Cavaliers take on the New Jersey Nets, while the Phoenix Suns battle the San Antonio Spurs

In baseball, Derek Lowe threw a strong seven innings, striking out eight as the Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 6-3. Chien-Mien Wang of the Yankees had a perfect game for 7 1/3 innings against the Seattle Mariners until Ben Broussard broke it up with a solo homer. The Yankees ended up winning the game 8-1. Johan Santana dodged in and out of trouble in five innings, giving up only one run as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Boston Red Sox 2-1. Finally, the Chicago Cubs roughed up the Washington Nationals' John Patterson for five runs and seven hits in only two innings, and Rich Hill pitched another gem, allowing only a single run in six innings as the Cubs won 5-3. Things seem to have gone from bad to worse for Patterson as he's had velocity and control issues all year. Yesterday he had to leave with a sore biceps muscle after only making 62 pitches. A DL stint is more than likely at this point for this very talented, yet hard-luck pitcher.

In golf, the Wachvoia Championship is turning into quite the battle... Little known Rory Sabbatini has the lead at eleven under par, but some HUGE names are lurking just behind... one stroke back is the great Tiger Woods. Vijay Singh is another stroke back, while Phil Mickelson is four strokes off the pace. You can watch live final round coverage on CBS beginning at 3pm ET/12pm PT

Last night there was supposed to be a NASCAR race in Richmond, Virginia, but it got pushed back to today due to rain. Four time series champ Jeff Gordon has won three consecutive poles and looks to also win his third consecutive race in the Jim Stewart 400 today. The race begins at 1:15pm ET/10:15am PT. Live coverage begins on your local FOX station.

As you can see, there's LOTS to watch, so the remote will get lots of work today before I go to the driving range to work on my golf game and tomorrow's charity event that I'll be participating in.