Narrowing It Down to 11
No big surprises tonight in terms of the bottom three.
Syesha and
David H. both gave pretty lackluster performances, and
Kristy was downright awful.
At least the
Horton Hears a Who promo to kick off the night was a lot cuter than the
Jumper one last month, and Jim Carrey was a much better sport about it all (including making fun of the blatant cross-promotion) than Hayden Christensen. The other "celebrity" in the audience tonight was
Sanjaya Malakar, who was there with his sister, though they never identified him and the camera only lingered on him for a moment. Oh, and
Danny Noriega, I suppose returning the favor of Ramiele's song dedication to him last night, was sitting with her family and wearing a T-shirt with her face on it. It's all so... teenage-BFFs, isn't it?
The medley of "All My Loving," "I Feel Fine," "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Help," had some tough spots;
Amanda, for one, continues to stick out like a sore thumb during the group songs. Oh, and her hair was especially odd tonight, I thought - it was like they took all the dark parts and piled them into a mini-beehive on the top of her head, and left the light parts dangling down. Don't know what that's about, but I hope the stylists convince her to try something else with it soon.
The night's filler consisted of highlights from last night (including a disturbing number of Ryan-Simon nonsense moments); the first Ford commercial, an odd election-themed skit to "The Distance"; calls from viewers (which led to a comment about Ryan wanting to fight Simon in mud); and
Katharine McPhee singing George Harrison's "Something," which was at best boring and at worst icky. Oh, and one other thing: The 29 million votes cast last night was a much lower number than in weeks (and seasons) past; could it be that people are already tired of this season's batch of songbirds? Or was it just this week's performances that inspired a less-than-enthused response?
Among the bottom three, I was so glad that Syesha got to sit down first. Boy did she ever show why she deserves to still be in the competition when she sang "Got to Get You Into My Life" again - she lost some of the reservations that were holding her back yesterday, and as a result we got to hear that powerful voice we know she has. Even Kristy was much better than last night; she was a lot more relaxed, and though I still hate the arrangement and the concept behind the thing, at least she herself sounded a bit better. In the end, David H. - who failed to ever make a connection with the audience, despite (or maybe because of) his stripper mini-scandal - was sent home. The only surprise was that the first finalist eliminated was a guy, when it's clear that there are more girls who are obvious choices to go in the weeks to come.
One note about my predictions: Some of you guys pointed out that Kristy should have made my list for those who were at risk last night. I thought Kristy's performance was far and away the worst of the bunch, but I also thought that her fan base would keep her around, whether she deserved it or not. In other words, just because I'm predicting that someone is in jeopardy doesn't mean I think they deserve to go (and just because I think they're safe doesn't mean I want them to stay). I'm commenting more on how I predict America will vote than how
I would call it.
TVGuide.com Power Rankings poll:
The Top 11 - Who's Your Idol Now?
What do you think?: Did America get the vote right? Who needs to step it up next week to stay in the game? And any predictions on which Lennon-McCartney songs we'll be hearing next week?
