When I started writing my thoughts on American Idol this year, it was with the thought that once a week I wouldn’t need to think up actual subject matter. I would have to put some thoughts together. I would have to write about 600 to 1,500 words, maybe more. I would have to try to be entertaining. I just wouldn’t have to think of subject matter, as it would always be what happened on American Idol this week. What I didn’t expect was to get very far behind on my Idol watching, and have to post three articles in one week, and then only get two of them done. Sucketh.
I was doing ok. I watched the last audition show, and the first Hollywood show. I posted that on Tuesday. I watched the next two Hollywood shows. I posted that on Thursday. Then I watched the last week of shows before the Top 24, and just found myself at a loss. I wanted to post it on Sunday, but I just didn’t know what to say about it all, so I simply let it sit in my subconscious for a bit, and came back to it.
They started out with 61 contestants to still whittle down to 24. How did they do this? Well, they had them sing songs by The Beatles, because Idol hasn’t allowed their contestants to all but ruin enough Beatles songs yet. Then to make matters worse, they were doing these odd, less than a minute, snippets from the songs as groups. I just stopped taking notes.
About the only thing worth note is that Ashley, the girl who wants to be Britney Spears, got married, and I couldn’t be more happy. Because I saw her husband, and it wasn’t me. Then they finally cut her from the competition, thank Britney!
Then they started another show, which was odd, because it was a two hour time slot, and they normally don’t make two shows when they have a two hour time slot, but I guess they wanted to differentiate between the trainwreck that was the “Beatles snippets” show, and the actual picking of the Top 24.
They only got to ten of the choices during this first hour of choosing the Top 24. For the most part, I think they made the right decisions. The problem with the show is that there is just as much politics when it comes to voting as talent. The judges do try to pick based on actual talent, and it usually works out that way, but I think that there are a couple of people who will have very short runs based on their behaviour in Hollywood Week, and I wonder if maybe they should have given the chance to someone else based on that.
Now I know that there are some who might say, “But Chris, they have to pick the best singers. It’s a singing competition.”
Well, they don’t really pick the best singers do they? They pick the best 12 Boys and the best 12 Girls. Let’s just look at the 10 they decided on during the first hour.
Those who made it into the Top 24 were Naima, Clint, Haley, Paul and Ashton. Those who didn’t make it were Hollie, Lakeisha, Alex, Deandre, and Chris
The issue with a number of the contestants is that they’re good, but you wonder if the have enough range to make it through the next few months. I think Chris has more promise than Haley and Paul. Of course, Paul has hardly any screen time up until now, so it may just because I haven’t seen what he can do. It’s just that if Haley isn’t as good as Chris, but made it through because they needed 12 girls, then they’re not really picking the 24 best. To make matters worse, the next few weeks typically involves eliminating six girls and six guys, rather than eliminating twelve singers.
And when Chris was sent home, Jennifer lost it, and did it with a double negative, “I don’t want to do this no more.” Hey. Before you go looking for the many mistakes I’ve certainly made with grammar in this, I’m kidding. I was deflecting from the lame attempt at a cliffhanger ending they made. Because when the next show started they showed her cry a little bit, and then she composed herself and moved on. And I stood up and yelled, “He didn’t get out of the cockadoodie car!” Actually, my roommates’ kids were sleeping, and I didn’t feel like having to baby sit since it was the middle of the night.
So they continued to bring people in and crush their dreams, and when they weren’t doing that they were letting people move on so their dreams could be crushed later. Don’t worry. It’s not anything important like marrying Brett Michael. They’ll get over it.
Those who made it (with commentary) were: Karen (good); Robbie (good); Tatynisa; Julie (the girl from Columbia that Jennifer thought could be the winner from her audition); Tim (from Fort Worth… for whatever that matters); Scotty (I don’t think he’ll make it far, though he’s got a very good country voice, but…); Jovanny (good not one of my faves); Lauren Turner (I thought she was gone, but it may have been another Lauren, I mention her last name because the only Lauren I’ve considered a real contender is the blonde); Rachel (Season 6 audition who came back); Kendra; Jordan; Lauren (blonde who I think is really good); Stefano; Jacob (has got this crazy good voice); Pia; James (who needs to reel in the Adam Lambert stuff a bit); and Casey (I’m telling you, he is still the only one I’m sure of for the Top 12). This isn’t quite the end of the list. More in a moment.
Those who didn’t make it were Brittney, Jimmy, John Wayne, Tiwan, Erin, Rachel, and Jackie. Still not the end of the list. My only thought here is that they didn’t show much of Tiwan after his audition, but I thought he was good.
To keep the suspense going until the end of the show, they had two girls left, three boys left, and only space for one of each.
Thia and Jessica went back together. I was hoping for Thia. And it was Thia… and they ruined Jessica’s birthday. And Dion doesn’t have babies with asthma. I’m just saying. I apologize that maybe one of you get the Dion reference. It has nothing to do with American Idol… or anything else at that level of intelligence, which says something.
Next Jacee, Brett, and Colton went back. This is where I was looking at these three guys and wondering why Scotty was still in the competition. I would have liked to see Jacee go through, but he didn’t. Colton would have been alright too, but he didn’t. Brett made it through, which doesn’t displease me because he is good. And now we get to look forward to Simply Red week.
So do I have any predictions? Yeah. They are going to need the seven second delay for Steven Tyler. But seriously… yeah, they’ll need the seven second delay. I could take the time to arrange the 12 Boys and the 12 Girls. I could pick my six faves for each. I could even try to guess who will make it through to Top 12. The problem is that I’ve only seen what the show has shown. Some of these people I would guess for not making it to Top 12, and it would only be based on me not really knowing what they are or are not capable of. Right now I particularly like Casey, Jacob, blonde Lauren, and Thia. Maybe Robbie. And maybe Jordan just for his voice, not the diva qualities he’s exhibiting.