“American Idol” Pledges Allegiance To The Commercial And The Crazy

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]