Coming immediately on the heels of the always emotionally taxing Hometown visits, each of Season XIII's remaining Idols performed three songs on Wednesday's penultimate performance show. The first round was made up of songs suggested by the surprisingly not-worthless 'full-time' mentor, Randy Jackson. The next round was songs that the judging panel of Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez, and Harry Connick Jr. selected, and the final round consisted of songs the Top-3 had previously performed on the show and were determined by their hometown fans (and by hometown fans, I mean the show's producers).
After Top-11 Week, when the remaining contestants get to spend their summer on our, this is the most important reward for IDOL finalists surviving elimination. The Top-3 will quickly depart Hollywood and head to their hometowns for the annual Cry-Fests, so tonight's elimination has even more riding on it than normal.
To make sure that the viewers make fully informed decisions, the finalists performed three songs each; a break-up song, a dedication (a la Casey Kasem), and then a make-up song. As always with IDOL Season XIII, the results were a mixed bag. There were some painful performances and one that I believe will go down in the IDOL Hall of Fame.
Tonight's AMERICAN IDOL celebrates the agony and the ecstasy of music's greatest theme as the final four take to the stage in the 'Love: Break-ups and Make-ups'-themed performance show
On last night's AMERICAN IDOL, the finalists were faced with a new twist as they were forced to vote between sending a fellow contestant home, or allowing the remaining singers to stick around for next week's show in which two of them would be eliminated.
Next week, we celebrate the agony and the ecstasy of music's greatest theme as the final four take to the stage in the “Love: Break-ups and Make-ups”-themed performance show
As first reported by TVLine.com, AMERICAN IDOL's Top-4 Week is going to take a very IF/THEN look at love with the theme 'Love: Break-Ups and Make-Ups.' So, after last night's elimination of personality vacuum Sam Woolf, IDOL's Final Four; Jena Irene, Caleb Johnson, Jessica Meuse, and Alex Preston, will each take their turns with two songs each that 'celebrate the agony and the ecstasy of music's greatest theme.'
Oh boy! Tonight's elimination episode kicked off with Ryan Seacrest teasing a 'shocking twist' that none of the idols will see coming. After last week's absolutely not-shocking 'shocking' elimination, I was more than a little weary of trusting Ryan. Next he said that each finalist will have a difficult decision to make. I wasn't sure if this would actually end up being 'game-changer' or just another in a long line of IDOL swerves.
Well, now it's time to get serious. AMERICAN IDOL has navigated through a tumultuous Season XIII to get down to a fairly acceptable Top-5. Perhaps last week's goodbye to the tonally deficient C.J. Harris has erased my disappointment in the early eliminations of Majesty and Malaya, but for the most part, the five finalists have all shown something that warrants their inclusion.
In last week's AMERICAN IDOL recap I mused that some enterprising theatre producer should snag the stage rights to the Jack Black movie SCHOOL OF ROCK and cast IDOL front-runner Caleb Johnson in the lead role. In addition, earlier in the season, I said that Caleb should cover a song by Meat Loaf, a Broadway vet three times over. So, that got me thinking, if I were going to fantasy cast the AMERICAN IDOL Top-5 in classic and "potential" musicals, what shows would work best?
As the countdown to the finale continues, find out who moves ahead in the competition on next week's results show, airing Thursday, May 1 (9:00-9:30 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed), and tune in to see a special performance by AMERICAN IDOL XIII judge and country superstar Keith Urban.
Now that we've had a week of live show competition between NBC's THE VOICE and Fox's AMERICAN IDOL, I am reminded what it is about each show that I like, and what it is that I don't. Since day one of the Blind Auditions, it has been clear that the talent on THE VOICE dwarfs that of IDOL, as it has for a number of years. As I make very clear in my AMERICAN IDOL recaps each week, I am not delusional in thinking that the vocal abilities of the IDOL finalists in any way rival those of their VOICE counterparts. In fact, early in the season, I ventured to guess that only three or four of IDOL's Top-12 would even get a chair turn, let alone four. That fact notwithstanding, for me, IDOL is still a much more satisfying and entertaining television experience.
I always get a little nervous when American Idol starts advertising a 'shocking' result, and after C.J.'s horrendous performance last night, anyone going home other than him would be a shock. So, I braced myself for the worst tonight.
On this week's Top-6 edition of AMERICAN IDOL Season XIII, we were “treated” to not one, but two, songs by each competitor. The theme, “A Little Bit Country, a Little Bit Rock 'n' Roll” gave the contestants an opportunity to channel their inner Donnys and Maries. Speaking of the beloved Osmond sibs, nothing about them screams either Country or Rock 'n Roll to me. But I digress; in most cases tonight, the double your pleasure set-up resulted in an extra helping of awesome, but (as is expected from this season) there was one singer whose combined performances resulted in confusion with a side of frustration.
After a night of 20th Century Fox cross-promotion, we opened this week's results show with THE FOLLOWING's Kevin Bacon stealing Ryan Seacrest's signature line, "This is American Idol."
