Wednesday, April 22, 2009

American Idol: Top 7 double-elimination

Over at NJ.com, I have tonight's instant "American Idol" results. Feel free to talk about them here, whether the Save did or didn't backfire, how happy and unafraid Young David appeared, and the wardrobe and vocal stylings of the three disco veterans.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm bummed Allison was in the bottom 3, but wasn't totally surprised by it since she's been there so many times before. It seems more likely Gokey and Kris will battle it out for second place to Adam's first place coronation (unless things backfire like Daughtery).

I'm sure everyone still hated the group performance (especially since it was lip singing again), but I thought the choreography was pretty good considering what they did during Scott weeks.

Anonymous said...

The lipsyncing was irritating, but at least in this case I could understand it since they were working out actual choreography. But, after they finally had them sing live for so many weeks it was a bummer to go back to that. They were cute, though. I'll give them that. They looked like they were having a good time instead of the usual "we're being tortured" thing they've got going on.

I hate that Anoop is gone. That really bummed me out. I was so hoping that it'd be Matt and even though I totally like Allison, I would have preferred that she be sent packing. I just *like* Anoop. He wasn't going to win, but whatever. At least Lil's gone. I ultimately don't really think that sending Matt away next week would have made much of a difference since there's a decent chance that Anoop was still the bottom vote getter.

I'm predicting that Kris will get a lot of Anoop's votes (especially since the Anoop fans I see at places like ONTD hate Danny and Adam so much), so that could be a good thing. I predict Matt next week and then Adam or Danny being the big, surprise, Daughtry vote out. Whichever one is left standing will win with Kris and Allison fighting for second and third. That prediction will no doubt wind up being wrong, but it feels good right now.

Adam said...

I like Anoop as a person, though he half-assed it last night, and he (a) wasn't going to win this competition and (b) doesn't have a future in pop music. So I was fine with this, even though it means the pimp slot is no longer all-powerful.

Weird or typical? The four white guys were safe; the South Asian male, the African American woman and the Latina teen were the bottom three.

Anonymous said...

>>I ultimately don't really think that sending Matt away next week would have made much of a difference since there's a decent chance that Anoop was still the bottom vote getter.<<

Or last week. Or something. Apologies for going into total twelve year old girl mode with that entire thing.

While the "four white guys" thing is interesting, I would have really been amazed if Allison had gone home and we were left with a top five of all men. I know teenage girls rule this particular world, but it would have felt very, very weird to have no females left at that point.

J said...

The four white guys were safe; the South Asian male, the African American woman and the Latina teen were the bottom three.I'd love to say something like, "Perhaps would-be non-white voters know better than to put up with the dull music Idol has been offering..." But Lil and Anoop were always lame, and as much as I like Allison's potential, it's not going to be realized over a matter of weeks.

Hyde said...

Amysusanne: the other factor that works against Matt next week is that for obvious reasons, he's very unlikely to pick up any of Anoop's support.

I really like Allison, but a third trip to the bottom while three of the other four remaining have still never been on the bottom seems to show that she's fatally weak with the voters. Looks like Matt and Allison are practically pro forma boots the next two weeks.

The disco medley...oh my. The '70s were a long, long time ago, weren't they?

Adam said...

J, you make a valid point: they didn't pick strong African Americans this season, period. Lil was a one-trick pony -- and she used that trick in the semis and forgot what it was. Jasmine Murray was Diana DeGarmo but without any personality whatsoever (robotic or now), and there were no African American males at all with Ju'Not and Jamar (among others) failing to make it through.

Allison's got just as much potential as Kris and Danny to make the finals, but it's time for her to make The Leap like Jordin did with "You'll Never Walk Alone."

Adam said...

err, "robotic or NOT".

Anonymous said...

I'm embarrassed to admit I kind of liked the choreography. Made me think they should give these kids more help with dancing. The show might be more fun.

LA said...

Those three "disco legends" need to go back to the past and stay there. WOW, was that bad!

Sirfuller said...

The popularity of Susan Boyle on "Britain's Got Talent" = American Idol should get rid of the age restriction. It would make the show very interesting with a more diverse group of singers.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, Sir Fuller. Perhaps we could just make this show "People who can sing Musical Numbers" or "America's Best Dinner Theater". Look - she was AWESOME. "I Dreamed A Dream" is not only an amazing song, it's also EXTREMELY difficult to sing, and she knocked it out of the park. But can she sing pop music? BC on this show that's all that matters. Sing musicals and opera on (your) own time...this show detemrines the next major pop star in America, which yes (ego in check) is also the next major pop star worldwide. A 55 year old dowdy woman aint cutting it.

Chris the TV Sage said...

We already have an American version of "Britain's Got Talent", Sirfuller.

So glad Anoop is gone. I never saw anything particularly likable about him and he's been pretty bad the last few weeks.

I could've lived a lifetime without the Archuleta or KC performances.

When you give Paula something important to do like choreography, she keeps it together pretty well, doesn't she?

KrisMrsBBradley said...

I wasn't surprised by either elimination. Anyone who thought Lil wasn't going home after the thrashing she took from the judges the night before was dreaming. I figured Matt's fans would pull out all the stops to save him and that Anoop or Allison was in trouble because of that. I was afraid Allison would go first, though (I just really like her).

The group sing, with all the dancing, would have been hard to sing live. I think it was justified to have the kids lip sync this week. Besides maybe Adam, who has experience with musical theater, I doubt any of them could have kept up with that dance and really sang well.

And mentioning Adam, they could not have created a number that let him shine more. For one, he was in the center of the end of the shot, not to mention taller than all the other contestants. And, of course, he seems more comfortable on stage and more comfortable with dancing than any of the others.

I think it's going to be Kris and Adam at the end.

Alan Sepinwall said...

Next week's theme, per the Fox press release: songs of the Rat Pack. Too bad Adam's already worn his own Rat Pack suit twice (including this week), so it won't seem quite so dramatic when he does it again.

Anonymous said...

>>And mentioning Adam, they could not have created a number that let him shine more.<<

Because he went for a whole three minutes without being the center of attention even though he was literally the center of attention?

Back on the subject of the disco folks: yeah, they were all terrible, but was something wrong with KC? I know I've seen them roll him out on various things and I don't remember him looking that bad, singing that bad or appearing to not understand how to properly use a microphone. The latter of which was clearly an issue for 2/3 of them. Although I googled Payne this morning to see how old she was and found that she's 66. Good for her getting up there in those shoes and that dress and bouncing around the stage like that. Though if she hadn't tried to use the whole stage maybe she wouldn't have run out of gas thirty seconds in.

Anonymous said...

Quickly, because I'm talking like a twelve year old girl again for some reason, the above comment about Adam sounded way bitchier than I intended it to and barely made sense since I didn't expand on how most of the group stuff they've done has seemed Adam-centric. Carry on.

Kathy said...

I agree with an earlier comment that the Salute to Disco was hard to watch. I was actually begging for it to be over! Go to Florida and retire!

I would have preferred that Matt be eliminated last night but it is just a matter of time before he and Allison are gone, so it didn't really matter.

I'd like to know why Gokey is being allowed to slide through week after week without the same critique that was leveled on Lil. His voice is ok but his use of the stage is horrible, his dance movements are clumsy...as Simon has pointed out...and he has not done an original arrangement at all. Is he getting the Scott treatment because he's a widower? I don't get it.

Dan Jameson said...

This season is laughable to me. I do not trust the producers for one millisecond. Are you telling me that after Matt was voted off last week, he now all of the sudden got the 4th highest vote total? No chance in hell.

I mean how many lives does Matt get? He was a WILDCARD and then received the JUDGE'S SAVE! That is 2 separate times America has voted him off the show...and he was saved by the judges (sans Simon).

To me, that is a slap in America's face. We vote, and we decided Matt should go home...TWICE. And now here he stands, in the top 5, without earning that spot whatsoever.

Bogus....if it weren't for Adam being the most unique, entertaining contestant this show has ever seen, I would have tuned out weeks ago.

Beth said...

Danny is not super original but his voice does so much more than most of the contestants. He has the best voice of anyone but Adam.

Also, it doesn't matter when Danny goes because he is going to make money hand over fist on his contemporary Christian album. I think I read a comment that he just wants to do a mainstream pop record and I would love to see that happen. But if he is smart, he will just make his Christian album and be the biggest selling Christian artist ever. Even I'll buy it.

Anonymous said...

Plus, Danny isn't getting the harsh treatment that Lil got because he hasn't progressively gotten suckier each week. He started out with a nice voice, a nice smile and average stage presence. He hasn't lost any of that. Others have gone up and down (Anoop has had good and bad weeks, Adam pissed people off with his lame "Ring of Fire", but bounced back nicely), but Danny is pretty consistent. He's done nothing to blow anyone away, but he's also done nothing to make people go WTF. Lil, otoh, was great at the start and then just, for whatever reason, totally cracked up. I *do* think that the advice and criticism the judges have given her has been a little vague and contradictory at times (they did the same thing with Megan) but even if she was misunderstanding what they wanted from her, consistently good vocal work would have put her in Danny territory.

J said...

Next week's theme, per the Fox press release: songs of the Rat Pack.If Allison gets the boot next week, maybe they can do a week of barbershop quartets?

Anonymous said...

Uh...correct me if I am wrong but I didn't hear Ryan say that Allison was in the bottom two, he only said Matt was "safe". Matt would have been "safe" even if he had been in the bottom two with Anoop. I think the bottom 3 were Lil, Anoop, and Matt but in order to justify the judges save and to create drama, they put Allison in there. That's a trick they used with Jordin years ago. They left her for the end, made her look like she got the least amount of votes and then said they weren't going to send anyone home in the spirit of Idol Gives Back.

Anonymous said...

That's not really the same "trick", though. Not even close, really. Ryan did refer to the chairs as being for the bottom three after Lil was sent home and noted, a couple of times, that they were revealing who else was filling out the bottom three. They've been sneaky before, but I think their careful wording is usually really obvious. Last night looked like a business as usual bottom three. And while you definitely can't take dialidol at face value what with Lil being booted after being so high over there, Allison was at the bottom and has been in the bottom before on both the site and the show. Her being down there instead of Matt doesn't really shock me that much. Matt's near miss just got his small fanbase in gear and they saved him this week. Bottom two next week will most likely be him and Allison no matter what they do on the show because that's where we are now.

Theresa said...

I'm pretty amazed that four of the top five are from the same semifinals night, especially considering I thought it was such a weak group going into that week. Weird.

Is this the point where they only announce the bottom two instead of three, or do they stop announcing it altogether?

Jin's English Tutor said...

Alan, I think "icon" is too strong a word for that performance last night. In previous years, Idol could garner big names to perform. This year's guests have been terrible. Pretty much the entire presentation has been terrible. They really need to bring Nigel back next year.

Lenelein said...

Hm, I really liked little David's performance. He seemed more relaxed and confident. However: what is up with those lyrics? "Touch my hand"? "Saw you from the stage"? "Only one chance"? I've not seen so blatant tour-promotion in - uh - a while.

Unknown said...

I forgot to mention that I thought little David did a really good job. I was not a huge fan of his last year, but he seems to have gotten the breathy thing under control, and actually looked like he was having a really good time.

And the whole "Touch my hand" thing, was cute, and just up the alley of the tween/teen girls who are going to want to go see him in concert and...well...touch his hand :O)

Nomad said...

poor Anoop; but at least he is really likable... there's a lot of other things he can well I'm sure