In addition to sending Lil Rounds, Scott MacIntyre, and Jorge Nunez through to the Top 12, last night’s peppy-for-an-elimination-episode edition of American Idol set the field for tonight’s Wild Card round. And… well, it’s more than a little disappointing. People who completely botched their initial performance—Matt Giraud? Jasmine Murray??—made it through while the velvety-voiced Ju’Not Joyner, who actually sang well on Tuesday night and brought something different to a Dullsville track, sat on the sidelines. Could he be this year’s Alex Lushington, an R & B smoothie who was just too understated for Idol? Given that Tatiana Del Toro, who seemed to have been driven back to madness (perhaps from staring at the nightmarish collision of patterns splashed across her dress for too long), also made it into tonight’s pool, I’m going to say “Probably!”
There was one pleasant surprise in last night’s mess of affairs—Jesse Langseth, who proved to be something of a corker in her initial performance, was granted entry to the Wild Card round. I was somewhat surprised that last-minute replacement Felicia Barton didn’t sneak her way in, either; maybe the producers realized that a 33% worship-leader quotient would have been too much?
And now, my odds for tonight’s show, which will feature one performance by each contestant and be capped by the judges sending three people through to the finals:
Anoop Desai. EVEN. Something tells me that the judges carried over the whole “pimp spot” concept to the Wild Card announcements. I have no problem with this at all, honestly.
Megan Corkrey. 2-1. I like her. The judges like her. She got the secondary pimp slot. She’s pretty much golden.
Jasmine Murray. 5-2. I have a bad feeling about her, to be honest. She can’t sing very well and her personality is blander than bland, but Kara can’t stop going on about how she’s a “package artist,” and how she should sing Rihanna because they look vaguely alike. Plus, I suspect the producers are nervous about the male-female balance, since right now the top 12 has six men and three women. (Dear Idol: Can you please stop calling them “girls”? Thanks.)
Matt Giraud / Ricky Braddy. 3-1. One of them will make it. Not both.
Jesse Langseth. 5-1. Love her, but she’ll probably only break through if both Megan and Jasmine really blow their performances tonight.
Tatiana Del Toro. 10-1. She’s definitely going to be the last person eliminated, though.
Von Smith. 30-1. Sorry, dude. Here’s hoping you get a copy of Punch-Out!! as a consolation prize.
American Idol [Official site]
[Grab courtesy MJ's video rip]
Jasmine Murray. A total waste of a spot. Ju’not Joyner. Totally robbed. He took a cortisone shot in the ass for nothing!
If Von Smith manages to stick around…well, no. It’s not even worth it just because I enjoy calling him Pee Wee’s Bad Kid Puppet Randy.
@Rob Murphy: The radio version of the track has that edit.
@Audif Jackson Winters III: Thanks! I was wondering about that. I haven’t listened to much radio recently, I must admit.
@Rob Murphy: I just happened to hear it the other day in a convenience store.
Why was the caveat “and we all agreed” thrown out there before they announced Tatiana’s name?
Jasmine. Unbelievable.
Von’s hair last night took my breath away. Words still fail me.
He looks like the Shoney’s Big Boy.
@brasstax: Holy shit, you’re right!
Ju’Not should get signed by, I don’t know, someone. That shit ain’t right.
I’m thinking it will be Tatiana (guh), Megan, and either Jasmine or Anoop.
I have a hunch that the judges have already picked out the three they want and that will only change if one of the picks totally biffs their performance. I think this will be a case of a good performance won’t get you in but a bad one will kick you out.
Agreed on all above, including the disappointment re: Ju’Not. (One year later, I’m still pouring my 40 out for Alex Lushington.) Also agreed on Jesse being the happy surprise. Hey Kara! You want cute and youth-friendly? Right over there.
One thing I perversely like about having Kara as a judge is that the show has gradually gotten more meta and shamelessly industry-centric. Kara’s entire lens on this show and its mission reflects her own career disappointments as an artist (pre-songwriting career) and her understanding of what the business is looking for — and cute matters; package matters.
On the one hand, that frequently makes the show look more desperate. They’ve gotten the memo about the ratings demographics and the memo about how their last few victors have done on the charts, and they are determined to anoint a cross between Kelly and Jordin — the latter’s age/mien, the former’s polish. This naked desperation explains about 90% of what we all complain about around here.
On the other hand, I not only enjoy the show getting more bizzy, since that’s what interests me; I appreciate the no-bullshit approach to the contestants and the viewing audience. They’re no longer implying what they want, they’re bluntly telling what they want. One of the things I’ve hated about Paula every season prior to this one, besides her seemingly drug-induced loopiness, was her up-with-people sunniness, which papered over the need to produce someone who has the total package and could sell records. What I’m liking about Paula this season is that she’s developed a bit of a spine and is being as blunt as Kara and Simon about what these kids need to do to Make It, which after all is the point.
In short and in other words, the whole show is getting more Simon-centric, i.e., his view of the world/industry, which is fundamentally right and sensible. Even if it makes the show, in frequent spots, rather soulless.
@Chris Molanphy: OTM w/r/t Kara and desperateness.
and the other stuff. i’d never thought about all of this that way, but you’re right.
As usual, Chris nails it. I’m so angry about Ju’Not; the one person who actually tried bringing an original spin to a song and they can’t even make it to the Wild Card playoff! And Kara is sounding like a broken record when she comments on a performance. She just doesn’t add anything to the proceedings.
I think they’re just using Tatiana for one more night of drama before cutting her loose. Surely they learned from the Sanjaya debacle that it’s dangerous to leave a train wreck in the competition?
@Chris Molanphy:
the whole show is getting more Simon-centric, i.e., his view of the world/industry, which is fundamentally right and sensible. Even if it makes the show, in frequent spots, rather soulless.
This. I think the same thing but then he goes and says something like someone is too “old-fashioned” (a pejorative he likes to toss around a lot) and I remember that this is the guy behind Il Divo.
Sorry, I@righteousmaelstrom: Sorry, I was quoting Chris on the first paragraph. I forgot to include quotations or use italics.
@righteousmaelstrom: Re: Il Divo. Simon’s smart enough to know the difference between what makes saleable records and what makes good tv. No one would be tuning in by the millions each week to see Il Divo, but they sell a lot of records to moms and grandmas. On the show, “old-fashioned” = people changing the channel. Can’t have that happen, so he’s got to insist on keeping things contemporary enough and let Clive Davis worry about marketing them later.
@righteousmaelstrom: have you noticed he hasn’t used ‘broadway’ as a pejorative yet this season?
Von Smith looks like Jimmey Neutron
@mashpeeoc: WIN
Von Smith is cannon fodder. He only made it because no one will be disappointed when Anoop is the only male that advances.
Agreed 100% that Ju’Not got robbed. The real crime though is that Scott MacIntyre and Jorge Nunez. I guess I have to blame America and Puerto Rico, respectively, for that debacle.
My new prediction is that America will quickly turn on MacIntyre. Even the “up with people” crowd is going to get really sick of the group sings if the group can only do couch choreography.
ha i never thought i’d care this much but the fact that nick isnt coming back is so :( to me
@kevink.: lol ” :( “
I like Jorge!
“What I’m liking about Paula this season is that she’s developed a bit of a spine…”
Heh! That’s funny to me because Paula had her 15th (!!!) back surgery last Summer so that she could reduce the amount of pain medication she’s on. Her new-found super-memory can also be credited to this, I think.
I don’t see why Simon makes such a big deal about her memory. They know who’s singing each night, and it wouldn’t be hard to pull together all their past performances to watch beforehand (which I think they SHOULD be doing). Simon’s just above it.
@Chris Molanphy: Darnit, Chris, you said exactly what I wanted to say before I could.
Idol is decidedly, purposefully, urgently trying to contemporize this season. They are doing this because, as Chris so smartly notes, their ratings are catering, especially among the coveted younger viewers, and because their artists are failing to stick on the charts. 19 needs both parts of the equation — the entertaining teevee show, and the successful music artist — to succeed if their business is going to work.
In addition, Idol knows it has lost its status among younger fans as a music-taste-maker to…Disney.
The evidence of the changes the show is making to win the audiences — both the teevee audience and the music audience — back is hiding in plain sight. Among them, just off the top of my head:
* Kara DioGuardi
* more emphasis on “the complete package”
* more “younger” contestants
* more contemporary song choices
* group sings in the semifinals: Jason Mraz, Ne-Yo, Katy Perry
…and so on…
For these reasons, in part, I think Maura is undervaluing Jasmine’s odds tonite. Don’t forget that tonite’s “winners” will be chosen completely by the judges. Kara all-but-told Jasmine she’ll make it through if she competently performs a young-skewing song (Rihanna). I’ll go out on a limb and predict that Jasmine will perform, maybe, Rihanna, maybe “Umbrella” or maybe “Don’t Stop The Music” or maybe “S.O.S.”, and if she does it competently, she’s through to the finals.
@Rory B. Bellows: do you mean the country of puerto rico?
@Rob Murphy: the odds were 5-2! she could still totally fuck up her song choice, or just not sing well. as i recall she was quite gaspy during her initial performance.
side note: is it me, or are the group routines this year even more transparently fake than ever? people aren’t even, like, trying to lipsync so far this season.
@Maura Johnston: Yes. I believe that Puerto Rico must have voted in record numbers for Jorge to advance. Or Puetro Rico and brasstax maybe. :)
Ha! Didn’t vote for him.
(I did vote an embarrassing number of times for Allison last week, though…and then gave a charitable vote to Mishavonna).
@raycummings: I thought the same thing - and for all that you heard from the guys, they might just as well have mouthed along to the Katy Perry version.
Count me in as another viewer disappointed that Ju’Not didn’t make it through - I hate that Plain White T’s song, but loved what he did with it (and there was a really nice Boyz II Men falsetto bit at the end). I was also surprised that the girl who sang the Martina McBride song didn’t make it - sure, she was a bit too close to the Underwood/Pickler model, but there’s a distinct lack of country in this year’s Idol (see also the disparaging comments towards those who performed country songs, and Bucky Covington, etc.) and she looked like a pretty easily marketable “package”.
@Rob Murphy: Re: the group sing, which I had blocked from my mind until you just mentioned it…
1. The song choice backs up your point about their desperate need to contemporize, given that “Hot N Cold” has, like, a four-note range. (The opening line of the verse, which Perry…intentionally? sings in a kind of falsetto, sounded awful as a group sing.)
2. Gotta hand it to the Idol choreographers for thinking up placement of the men on the couch so as not to embarrass Scott. But it does raise the question: now that Scott’s in the Top 12, are they gonna have him seated during the group sing every week? I don’t envy him/her (the choreographer) trying to think that up week after week.
@Maura Johnston: 5-2, true, but you also ranked her odds as “third” and then went on to predict that one of the two men tied for “fourth” would definitely make it.
I’m just sayin’ that people who count Jasmine out at this point might be missing what I think is the much bigger picture.
Jasmine is the one who picked up on Kara’s cue and performed “Love Song”. I’ll bet anyone a quarter she’ll go with a Rihanna or Ne-Yo song tonite. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if Lil Wayne showed up to drop a verse on it.
I think Ju’Not got shafted because of his looks. He’s totally ordinary and unremarkable — and he could pass for a guy in his late 30s/early 40s. LOVED the song, though (and I hate the original).
I think it’s Jesse, Jasmine and Anoop tonight.
@Chris Molanphy: And did you catch Idol’s own Alabama-radio-station-censors-the-Eagles moment, with Idol’s censor of the second line:
Perry: “…you PMS like a bitch, I should know…”
Idols: “…you PMS like a girl, I should know…”
So, I guess they’re still showing some restraint…
Also, I’m just noticing that four (Jasmine, Jesse, Matt and Megan) of the eight wildcards came from week 2, which for me was the worst of the semifinal rounds. Three (Anoop, Ricky and Tatiana) came from week 1, with only Von coming from this week.
I agree with the sentiment here — and everywhere else — that Ju’Not wuz robbed.
I wonder if there’s some connection between those two points. I also wonder about the curious admission by the judges that they made an on-the-spot unanimous wildcard substitution. I’m sure the judges expected Ju’Not would get through instead of Jorge (probably), but why didn’t they save him when they had the chance?