Top 24 Results - First 4 Eliminations...

Let’s say goodbye to Ashley Rodriguez, Janell Wheeler, Joe Munoz and Tyler Grady.

Wow, that week was awful wasn’t it? I think almost everyone was in danger of elimination. It was a week that created such apathy among people voting that there was probably a very smalls spread among the contestants, leading to people like Ashley and Tyler (who both actually had pretty good buzz going into this week) getting knocked out in the first round. (With no wildcard to save them…) Half the contestants were doomed from the moment the song choice was announced. Idol needs to do a better job of mentoring the contestants in week 1. I understand the judges, etc. don’t want to manipulate too much, but to allow the contestants to walk on stage and sing these dreary songs that have no chance of being good is inexcusable. (Example: John Park. He picked a song that skewed terribly old, didn’t fit his voice, and that was dreary. Other than that is was perfect). Why allow that? It had zero chance of being even mildly entertaining.

Were the people eliminated the four worst? It’s hard to tell, so many people were bad. But I can’t complain about any of them as all four had bad performances worthy of being eliminated. Hopefully it is a wakeup call for the contestants. If it continues this way no one is safe, and we may find ourselves with a very watered down Top 12. Hopefully everyone steps up to the plate and puts some thought into their song choices and their rehearsing this week.

There is no where to go but up, right?

Top 12 Men Perform!

Top 12 men in 7 hours! Should be good, I have higher hopes for the men in this year's competition than the women (even higher than before this week started after yesterday).

BTW, skating was GREAT last night. Basically Mao-Chan (the japanese skater) gave the performance of a lifetime (with the pressure of going right before her rival who is only the best skater in the world), which was followed up 5 minutes later by Kim Yu-Na giving a performance for the ages, only the highest rated performance ever. Back to back you may never see something like that again. (Having two people like that at their best as clear rivals makes for great drama - think Clay/Ruben - easily the best Idol season.)

See you at 8!

4 minutes till showtime...i'm going to blog as much as i can - kate's last hour awake is 8 to 9 so it's hard.

Todrick Hall, our resident Diva is first. He's singing SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE as a R&B song. It's not bad. It's not really showing off his vocals but it's entertaining, and it's a good look at who Todrick Hall is, which most of the girls did not give you yesterday. Good start to the show. Judges do not agree. Simon says he murdered the original song. They agreed with my criticisms but took it ten steps further.

Aaron Kelly next. If he follows the (incorrect) path of our other resident teens he'll be singing from Barry Manilow's songbook. He is singing Goodbye. (Tempting faith are we....) It's a country song. He isn't tearing it to shreds, but it's not bad. I definitely think he gets through to another week. Judges pretty much liked it but said he lacks confidence.

Note: Reading a story about the whale who killed someone today in Sea World. It's the second death he is definitely responsible for, and possibly the third. Exactly when are people going to stop climbing in the tank with him?

It's Jermaine Sellers, actually our resident diva. Sorry I blamed you Todrick. (Todrick is Fantasia's running buddy on Broadway.) He is singing GET HERE. It's a ballad, and he sings almost too softly. Eh, I didn't like it, it skewed too old and it wasn't sung that well either. Judges concur.

It's Tim, the person who replaced Chris Golighty after he was disqualified. I missed what he is singing. (It's One Republic - Apoligize I think...). I don't really like his voice on this song. I am not feeling this. Worst of the night so far, and the judges concurred. He better hope there are some bad and not memorable performances so the other people go out instead.

It's Joe Munoz. Remarkably so-so. Ellen liked it. I thought it was all over. (It was a Jason Mraz song btw.) Kara liked that he picked a song that she didn't think he would sing, and that he was up front and center, but she's not saying it's great, but it was the most consistent. Jeez, ramble much? Simon doesn't think he's a star. Eh...boring...

Next it's Tyler Grady with American Woman. I think the guitars are a little loud. Tyler was born 40 or so years too late I think. Reminds me a little of the singer of the Black Crowes. I thought it was ok, he will be remembered and he will make it through. I didn't really want him to do this song, it didn't seem very naturally. The judges seem to agree with me (I am agreeing with Simon these last two shows to a frightening degree.)

It's Lee Dewyse boring the hell out of me. (It actually picked up a lot midway through.) Ehh...I'm not really feeling this. It was slightly above average. Everyone agrees except Simon who loves it.

It's John Park! The best part of his experience so far was Shania hitting on him. Time to see if my sources are good. Maybe not, but mostly cause the song choice was bad. He tried to sing this huge song which required some huge voice to blast out, and he has a voice more suited to other things. Hopefully he gets through to next week so we can see him sing something else because this was quite so-so.

It's Michael Lynche with some Maroon 5. He is playing the guitar (Lee was too btw.) He is the second contestant btw wearing a flannel shirt tonight, we can't do better than that? His voice is extremely nasal tonight. This was pleasant enough but nothing spectacular. (Both shows have a lot of performances that are right on the border of good and bad. If someone manages in these next few weeks to knock one out of the park, they might create a buzz that could last season long.)

Next will be Alex (not Adam) Lambert! (Is it possible we can have two Lambert's in the final two years in a row?)

Will watch remainder tomorrow...ran out of time...

Ok, i watched the remainder of the show and I don't feel like blogging about it. Basically, Andrew Garcia is safe, a few others are probably safe due to being semi popular already, and anyone else can go. Two awful shows in the book. Hopefully people learn from this week. Why can't Idol coach people better for the first show? Some of the songs they allowed people to sing, the styles they sung in were 100% going to fail. Very frustrating first week. There was absolutely nothing worth posting (video, links, etc.) It was just all weak.

See you later with results.

Top 12 Women Perform

It's time for the Top 12 women! I have seen the song spoilers, and if true there are clearly some people who have a leg up on others (one specifically if true is a total kiss of death song..). Figure Skating short program is tonight too, which is important in my household (Go Mao-chan!)

Be back later...

Back....first skater is awful so i can watch Idol...i'm lnot quite live and behind blogging....first is PAIGE! She is singing "It's All About Now" by Free. (Basically aside from when Mao-chan or Yu-Na is skating my interest in the singer will affect how much skating I see.) This is so blah. Very so-so. Terrible song choice, total wedding singer song. Simon says as much although he seems to like her. Crowd doesn't even react to criticism. Randy and Kara really like her which reinforces what I think (that she is awful). Ellen loves it - she gives a total "it's all great and i said nothing constructive" Paula-ish criticism. Not a positive sign...

Next is Ashley Rodriguez! Ooh...Leona Lewis "Happy". Simon will be really happy or really pissy. She is pretty nervous. She is having a lot of trouble, it's not very smooth at all. Crowd loved it, me much less so. Sigh...Randy captures it perfectly, if you sing a big song like that, and such a current song, you need to rip it. And she really did not. Simon says she may be in trouble (is he trying to help her?)

Next is Janelle. (I don't know her well at all.) She sings WHAT ABOUT LOVE by Heart. That is a song that you need a huge voice to sing, and Janelle did not even come close to pulling it off. YICK. This show is not going well so far.

Next is Lilly Scott! She sings a Beatles song i do not know. It's typical Lilly, it's folksy, she sings in that soft whispery voice, and it's pretty nice. There is something lacking (i can't imagine her having some spectacular performance so far) but it's by far the best of the night so far. Simon concurs on almost all my points.

Katerlyn Epperly is next with OH DARLING (it's 60's time). I liked this. It wasn't the greatest vocal, and for some reason she has tons of makeup and her hair done up and looks terrible (as Kara points out) but it was a lot of fun. I hope she goes through,

It's Haley with "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". I REALLY don't like it. It's sing-songy, she is screaming, and she has fully entered the "annoying teenager zone" occupied by Diana Degarmo and others in the past. Unfortunately it's her first week. Simon HATE it. Ellen has entered a zone herself, the "Paula Zone" of I LIKE EVERYONE. I hope she snaps out of it.

So far if we had to pick a Top 12 I want Kat and Lilly and everyone else can go home.

Lacey Brown with Landside by Fleetwood Mac. I didn't like this at all. (What the hell is with everyone?) Simon calls it depressing and indulgent, and Ellen says she hopes she is better IF she is back next week. Whoa...not good.

Crystal next with some Alanis Morrisette. She breaks out the harmonica. Not bad at all, at least she is showing some personality here. The best people this week, you got a feel for what they will do going forward. They have a style. Good vocals too. Randy liked the honesty (so he said 21,079 times). Ellen liked her (shocking!). Simon said there are thousands of people doing things like that singing outside subway stations like that. Haha...Simon wants her to be more original.

It's Sioban (apparently pronounced Shavonne) with Wicked Game, a song I despise (a song that was popular for a pretty girl in the video, let's be honest...). Strange song choice. It wasn't great but it was pretty good. (The song kind of made it hard to be fantastic.) If this was a better show this probably would have been lost in the shuffle but on this show it was not bad.

Note: Ellen is a terrible judge so far.

Next it's Michelle with Fallen by Alecia Keys. She's a very attractive girl - will her performance match? (Her look is very commercial.) I liked it. A bit safe (she probably can do more) but a very solid performance. Simon agrees she looks great and thinks she did well but it's too close to the original.

Next is Didi! One of my favorites and she is singing "The Way I Am" which I do not recognize by name. It's a bit dreary. Well sung but I won't remember this tomorrow. There are a bunch of people that I will confuse as to who sang what tomorrow. Simon agrees. Kara disagrees but agrees and rambles. Randy and Ellen I'm sure will say something pointless.

Katie ends the show with some Michael Buble. Why? 16 year olds singing Michael Buble? Eh...wrong song choice totally. She is lucky she was last, because more people remember the last performer and generally they get more votes. Kara says she hopes American gives her another shot - me too. But it wouldn't necessarily be fully deserved...

Hmm, predictions? Quite a few people are in trouble. Shows where a lot of people are so-so can sometimes cause apathy eliminations, as people just don't vote as much and everyone gets bunched together. Should be interesting...

Boys will definitely be better, they seem to be better, they had a day to watch and digest what happened, and can adjust accordingly if they are smart. See you tomorrow...

Top 12 Men Preview.....

It's the Top 12 Men on Wednesday. I am higher on the men than the women so far, but hopefully one or two of the women on Tuesday will change my opinion.

Andrew Garcia was my favorite of the men so far. I loved his rendition of STRAIGHT UP by Paula Abdul (a fitting goodbye to her). That kind of creative re-imagining of songs was a staple of David Cook, one of my all-time favorite Idol contestants and gives me high hope for Andrew. I'll be very surprised if he drops out of the Top 12.

Tyler Grady really stood out for me in his audition, and nothing I saw in Hollywood week shook my confidence in him. Again, I'd be shocked if he is not part of the Top 12.

Casey James impressed me as he reinvented himself during Hollywood Week (in the eyes of the judges). His audition got somewhat sabatoged by the shenanigans with the judges, but he really turned it on, showing a great bluesy, country style.

Despite we have heard very little of him, the buzz on John Park is very good and people who have heard him swear that he is the real deal. We will see...

Out of the rest, I think Michael Lynche is an interesting story, but I'm not sure his talent level is as big as his personality. I also think Todrick Hall has a lot of talent, but for some reason he strikes me as Top 12 out quickly fodder rather than someone who can do well. His personality alternates between boring and annoying, not exactly where you would want to be.

Who are your favorites? We will soon have a much better feel for where this competition is going.

Top 12 Girls Preview...

http://www.americanidol.com/contestants/season_9/

Our Top 12 girls will be singing Tuesday. The theme on both shows is "Top 100 Hits (on Itunes)" which is a huge choice for people to pick from. Who will make the mistake of taking an ex-idol contestant's theme song and butchering it? Who will sing a standard from the 1950's and make us frown? Who will sing some terrible obscure song we all scratch our heads with? Let the games begin.

Thus, here is my brief preview. I don't feel like I have seen enough of everyone to make any definitive predictions this year, but these are the people I think will do well, and who are my favorites. (Note: Bad work by idol that a lot of the Top 24 seem like strangers...)

Ashley Rodriguez is my favorite of the girls so far. She got very little airtime during Hollywood week (apparently she didn't throw a tantrum or act like an idiot, thus her airtime was limited. Although getting airtime for being a jerk in Hollywood week is not always a good thing...) I think she has a good look, a nice personality, and I like her voice a lot. It's also probably to her benefit as she is not white and blonde, as there are always a few blonde girls in the Top 24, and all 6 girls picked will not be blonde. (It shouldn't matter, but it does. Everything does.) She also is R&B in a field that seems like it has a lot of people who want to sing country / folk and strum guitars.

I think Didi Benami will do well in this competition. There is something about her that stands out to me over most of the other girls. There are about 4 or 5 people I put in the Top 12 as soon as I saw them, and Didi (with Ashley for the girls) was one of them. Her performances so far have been excellent, and she probably got less screen time than she deserved because of this.

Katelyn Epperly stood out to me in her first appearance and has continued to do well. Out of a lot of the sob stories I have real empathy for her because she really is in a tough position, with her mom (for reason I cannot understand) leaning on her throught her divorce. (God forbid I ever got divorced, I'm not going to use my daughter as a crutch. Parents are supposed to be the crutches, not the children.) I think she has a good look, a good personality, and stands out among the girls.

Finally Katie Stevens. There is usually at least one young girl whose voice is way beyond her years, and Katie is that person for me. If she can avoid the pitfalls of being young (which is hard for Simon who wants you to not act immature, but not act older than your age, which is kind of impossible). I think the show this year will really try to push the girls, and a young star is just what Idol would want.

I'm not as sold on Haley (the young black girl who sings country) as she was more and more nervous with every performance, rather than the other way around. Since she is only 16, i can easily see her cracking. I think Lilly Scott will make Top 12 but I am still not sure what to think of her. I wish her hair was a different color, she reminds me too much of my least favorite contestant of all time when I see it (a Mr. Taylor Hicks).

Hopefully someone will jump out from the girls as someone I really enjoy week to week and can get behind, because the last two years only the men have had contestants like that.

Hollywood Week Final Show and Top 24...

I am going to talk about the last two shows together as they were shown like that, with 90 or so minutes of the first show the final Hollywood day, and the final 30 minutes being the beginning of the Top 24 eliminations.

The final day didn't bring that many shocks, at least not in people cracking under the pressure. Some people were better or worse than you would expect, but no one who you would think would go Top 24 just out and out blew it.

The show was great until they got to the in/our section of the top 24. I find that boring, and it was worse this year becauser it felt like we got to see more of the people we had already seen. (For example, John Park was mentioned in every episode as an afterthought (and John Park went through! Why even do that?)

Of the moments that stood out, Todrick Hall blaming the band for his struggles (total Diva), Mary Powers continuing to just think so much of herself (did anyone think she'd make top 24?) stood out to me. As did Kara's horrid acting when she tries to fool people into thinking they are gone.

Note: The THREE ROOMS with one eliminated has run it's course. Invetiably if you looked around the room you can tell who is eliminated and who is not. There are people 100% are going through, if you were sitting between Ashely and Didi, chances are you were going through. Yet, they show this every year as if it's this huge dramatic moment. They should do away with it next year.

Next time I take a look at some of my favorites in the Top 24 starting with the girls. This is the time I like, when we move from reality show to competition.

POOL RULES

Please read the rules.
1) Pool cost is $10. ALL money goes toward the pot.
2) There will be a first, second and third prize. The amount (% of pot) will be set once we have a better idea how many participants we have. (I may add a fourth prize if we get beyond 60 people.)
3) We will pick the top five this year. (You will need to send me your picks for FIRST PLACE (WINNER), SECOND PLACE (First Runner Up), THIRD PLACE, FOURTH PLACE and FIFTH PLACE.) The top twelve will be mailed out March 12th.
4) Every week one of your picks remains (is not voted out) you receive points for that person depending on what place you put them in. First Place is 12, Second Place is 8, Third Place is 5, Fourth Place is 3, and Fifth Place is 2. For example, last year let’s say you picked David Archuletta to win idol. (He was the first runner up.) You would have received 12 points for him (you picked him first) for 11 weeks (he was 1 week short of the end), 108 points in total. This will be repeated for all five of your picks. Your points will be aggregated, and whoever has the most points wins. (Feel free to ask questions, I’ll send a more detailed example.)
5) All Picks and money will be due (to me) by 4:00 Tuesday March 16th.
6) The order of the eliminations is final. If two people get eliminated in the same show, they are tied, no matter what the order. (In case something happens strange…) The reason for elimination is irrelevant, if someone decided to quit the show, they are eliminated.
7) The more people we have the larger the pot is, the happier I am! Feel free to invite anyone to join the pool, in company or out.
8) Each week I will send out a sheet that has the leaders in our pool, how many points you have, etc.
9) Feel free to ask or forward me any questions you have.
10) So to recap, you should be handing me a piece of paper (or email) with your pickets for WINNER, runner-up, 3rd, 4th and 5th and $10 and a contact email. If someone is paying for you, please let me know who that is.

Hollywood Day 2 - Group Day

It's group day. I love group day, one of the great things about the seasons where we were on total Idol overkill (with 3 day weeks, 2 hours days) was that Hollywood got a lot more time. It's like a drama within the show, a day where we have fights and peformers personalities come out, for better or worse. For instance, Michael Lynche came across great, worrying about his wife in labor. And then we had Mary Powers, who is total cannon fodder if she makes it to the top 24, as she came across as a real, well we won't say it but if you saw it you know.

No one really shined who we didn't know already was good to be honest. And unlike other years, Group day didn't weed out that many people, 70% of the people who got into group day got out unscathed. I'm kind of dissapointed that they aren't showing as many different people as years past. I have a feeling that some of the solo performances will almost feel like introductions to the artists. When they announced "Some other people made it, like John Park" it felt ridiculous as he wasn't even shown (literally, even wandering in the background) on the show up to that point.

I think one of the good things of the first two days was Ellen, she wasn't really bad at all. Something that is good about her comedy background is she is just so naturally sarcastic that she can't be the Paula "I Love Everyone" judge because the comments just seem to come out. She may be ok.

Kara's contribution to western society this week was appearing in Maxim. Nice to see her embracing her inner bikini.

See you Tuesday with the solo performances.

Hollywood Day 1 - Solo Auditions

It's Day 1 of Hollywood, where each contestant has 1 chance to impress the judges. A couple of quick impressions before I get to my favorites.
-Ellen was in no way overly nice - if she was brought in to replace Paula as the nice judge she is not there yet. She is very sarcastic and pretty blunt. A lot of what she said wasn't that interesting though, but it's a first show.
-They are really limiting the number of people they are showing. There were a bunch of people I wanted to know how they were doing and they didn't even show them in passing, or showed them but just in the background.
-Kara making fun of Paula made me happy. (She'd be jumping, screaming, out of control...)
-Guitars are helpful, keyboards are not. (Note: It takes more concentration to play a song on a piano than a guitar if you are just playing the melody. Piano's are probably not a good idea for a singing audition unless you are really tight.
-And finally my DVR hates idol and chopped off the last person. It's getting annoying.

On to my favorites...

Haeley Vaughn was pretty good. She is definitely unique, a young African American girl who sings country/pop. She was very shaky in the beginning but shook off the nerves to do well. Nerves were a constant theme in the show, a few contestants I thought would do well squawked their way through songs, clearly never getting comfortable.

Andrew Garcia brought out the big guns with his ballad version arrangement of Paula Abdul's straight up. It was really good. It was something almost that could have been saved till later. Hopefully he can keep this up as that was a great start to his idol journey. Kara remarked here that Paula would have been jumping, waving her arms (acting like an idiot although she avoided those exact words).


Lilly Scott was pretty good. I don't like her look and I am not sure if I will still want to hear her a few weeks from now. Her voice has a nice tone and she seems rather polished.

I thought Didi Benami was fantastic. Along with Andrew, she was my favorite of the night. She sang a song written (performed?) by Kara. I love how she sings, and I think she is a very likable contestant. I think she is a very solid bet for the final 12, probably the person I have the most confidence in being there.

Note: We need 50 people for next week, and 24 by EOD Thursday. Right now I have 4 people I'd like there. Idol needs to show more people or the first 2 weeks or so of the Top 24 will be very flat as there will be a lot of people that are almost anonymous.

Tomorrow is the drama of GROUPS! I love group day, and I think group day is the bane for the women in this competition at times as the drama almost universally comes from the girls and at times winds up weeding some of them out. See you tomorrow.

Hollywood Week Begins Tonight!

It’s already Hollywood Week (to be followed next week by the Tuesday show weeding us down to the Top 50, and the Wednesday show weeding us down to the Top 24). It’s also the Idol debut of Ellen, as she was on hand to judge starting with Hollywood week. I’ve still not sold on Ellen, but she will probably be better than the mixed bag of judges we have had so far. And Neil Patrick Harris played it for laughs at times, serious at other times and it worked (although his taste as to who was good or not was bizarre). So maybe Ellen will work…

(BTW…I love how Howard Stern got people talking about him replacing Simon – why would the media portray that as even possible?)

Auditions were a mixed bag for me this year, I really felt like we got shown more of individual contestants, but less contestants. I will not be surprised if half of the Top 24 is made up of people I either don’t remember well, or we didn’t see. We also didn’t have a lot of home run auditions, but a lot of “good but not great” auditions, which leads me to think that Idol based who they showed on their Hollywood week performance. (Basically I’d expect a lot of so-so auditions to be very good contestants.) A couple of contestants already have a nice buzz (on the internet), Ashley Rodriquez, Katelyn Epperly, Todrick Hall, Didi Benami, among others.

I’ll send the pool rules, etc. at the beginning of the Top 24. Feel free to invite others into the pool, we have a bunch of new people entering this year. It should be a good turnout.

THE TOP 24
http://www.joesplaceblog.com/american-idol-9-contestant-listing/
Clearly don't click on this if you don't want spoilers...

Audition Show 7 - The Road to Hollywood

Today was basically the best of the rest, a show that is meant to show us another 1 or 2 people who may make it to the Top 24 and also to make the schedule more even (two weeks of Hollywood follow starting next Tuesday). Not a bad show, not a great show, just filler to be honest. As always, I try to find two people who stand out a little even though I felt it was pretty hard this time.

I liked Aaron Kelly. He was probably the only guy they showed his age which seemed good enough to move forward. I also liked that he saw his situation (being taken away from his parents to live with his aunt) as his life being improved rather than ruined. (Note: The girl who said her life was bad starting with being born early and being in an incubator was ridiculous - you don't remember that, it does not affect you.)

I also liked Didi Benami. I felt for her, going to the audition solo when she was planning on going with her friend (who died) had to be hard. I though overall she did ok, she wasn't fanastic but she was a lot better than what was on most of the show.

Yes, lackluster update on lackluster show. Hopefully next week will be better, Hollywood got 3 hours given to it instead of 2 like last year which should help a lot.

Audition Show 6 - Denver

It's Denver! Victoria Beckham is back despite doing absolutely nothing to distinguish herself the first time around. Kind of lackluster show, I'm kind of tired of hearing about how people's lives are awful and Idol will turn it around. For some people it's true, but for the vast majority of them it's the same life, with 5 minutes of tv time. Can't some people just be normal people who would like a chance to be famous? Peyton Manning (Colts QB in the Super Bowl) is a tremendously compelling figure and he did not overcome terrible tragedies. Can't people just be talented?

There were two people who stood out in the show for me.

I thought Mark Labriola was very good, although he rambled in his interview that's not what ultimately matters, right? I liked his look, the tone of his voice, and I think he'd be able to sing other types of music which is important.

I also liked Tori (her last name escapes me). It was strange she had her family friend with her, if Tori was 20 and not 16 i'd think it might be her daughter and they didn't want to mention it. The pictures the girl drew of the cast was great. Tori had a great voice and i think she is possible Top 24 material.

I also thought Nikki was good, and I respected her for how far she came (she was the girl who flew from Italy via Germany to make auditions).

One more show tomorrow! Then on to Hollywood.