Thursday, March 26, 2009

Top 10 Results - Soul, Sweat and Oil

So...which contestant on the tour will the concertgoers be least familiar with this summer? There were over 36 million votes, the most ever for the Top 10. I'm sure they think that means people are more invested in the contestants than ever before. Whatever gets them through the night.

The group performance has video clips of Hitsville, U.S.A. accompanying it, and there are actual solos this time! Of course, the solos only make the lip-synching even more painfully obvious. It's a medley of "You Keep Me Hangin' On," "You're All I Need to Get By" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," all of which have been sung to death on this show. Seriously, "Idol." Get some new songs. Last night only one song hadn't been previously performed. Do you not see this as a problem of any sort?

The Ford commercial is set to Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine." The Idols piece together a landscape with pictures. It's very lackluster, like all the Ford commercials thus far in Season 8. First they ruin the group sings and now this. They're killing all the great result show traditions.

It's time for Ruben Studdard, here to perform his new single! As Ryan would've said back in Season 2, Ruuuuuben! He's lost some weight but still sweats a lot. In recent times he's jettisoned the 205 gear in favor of classy suits. While his current style makes him looks more sophisticated, it's probably not the best choice for keeping cool. I'm digging this song. I probably won't buy it or anything, but I hope Ruben has some success with it. He even gets the split screen of pimpage! Ruben often gets held up as an example of AI's failure to produce stars, but there's no denying his talent.

Result time. I predicted Scott, Kris and Megan for the Bottom 3 in my last post. Let's see how accurate my prediction is.

First is Adam Lambert. Like he's going anywhere. He's safe, as if there were any doubt.

Matt Giraud is next and...in the Bottom 3. Well, I guess I'm not surprised. He did go on first.

Kris Allen is, wow, also safe! Ryan tried to fake us out there. I guess I can switch Kris and Matt in my Bottom 3 prediction.

Michael Sarver and Lil Rounds next. Now Lil, you sang "Heat Wave." Kimberley Locke and Jennifer Hudson both sang it and ended up in the Bottom 3. You are...also safe! Lil is so relieved! Come on Lil, you know you're fine for now. Who's competing with you for votes? That makes Michael our second member of the Bottom 3. Man, I'm 0 for 2. I guess I'm not very good at this.

Before we find out who gets the last stool, Joss Stone and Smokey Robinson are singing a duet! It's "You're the One For Me." This isn't very interesting, but it's good to see a legend like Smokey onstage. Joss is wearing a bunch of glitter. There's something mildly disturbing about this. I'm not sure what. Could it be the 45-year age difference between these two? I'm not sure.

Back to the results.

Allison Iraheta is safe. Good.

Anoop Desai is safe. Cool.

Danny Gokey is safe. Well...I'm not surprised.

That leaves us with Megan Joy and Scott MacIntyre. The final member of the Bottom 3 is...Scott.

Randy, Ryan asks, who here doesn't deserve to be in the Bottom 3? "Matt!" yells the crowd. Randy echoes their sentiments. Matt's rocked the mic consistently, says the Dawg. Well, there was that Coldplay performance, but that was back before the judges hand-picked him for the Top 13. Someone's going back to safety, and it is...Scott. Dang it! I was wrong! At least I got his Bottom 3 appearance correct. This means Michael's leaving us, since I highly doubt it's going to be Matt.

Before sending Michael back to his oil rig though, Stevie Wonder's going to do a Motown medley. I'll bet Scott's excited about this. Here's a blind guy who loves his piano that made it big. And Scott's a better singer! First is Stevie's own "My Cherie Amour." The Idols on the couches seem to love it. Next is Stevie's own "Superstition," which Ricky Braddy previously rocked in the Wild Card round for filler's sake. Next is another Motown classic, Stevie's own "Overjoyed." Why is this being billed as a "Motown medley"? It's a Stevie Wonder medley. Why couldn't they just call it that? Finally he goes into his new tune, "All About the Love Again." I'm kind of liking it until he shouts "I love you, Barack Obama!" I really, really want to keep politics off this blog. Let's just say I wish this guy would keep politics off "Idol."

Time for the moment of truth (not to be confused with that trashy game show we always saw commercials for last season). The lowest vote-getter is...Michael. Yep. Michael totally sees it coming and keeps right on smiling through the announcement. He tells us he's nervous about reprising his performance after Stevie just went on. Trust me, Michael. In 2009 even you can sing better than him. During "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" Randy and Simon whisper to each other while Paula and Kara take in the whole thing. I'm sure they're just racking their brains trying to decide whether to save Michael. This is such a tough decision! After Michael's done the judges are still undecided. Oh, come on. This is all for show. We know he's not being saved. Finally Simon cuts through the B.S. and tells Michael he's going home. Glad we got that over with.

I can't say I'll miss Michael too much, but he seems like a nice guy, so I wish him well. Hopefully he won't have to go back to his dangerous job after all the money he makes on the tour.

Power Rankings:

9. Scott MacIntyre - If Michael can be eliminated after being in the Bottom 3 the previous week so can Scott. I highly doubt he's going to show us anything new next time, so America probably won't feel bad about not supporting him after yet another predictable performance.

8. Anoop Desai - I like Anoop, I just don't think he's as good as a lot of people say he is. This one's a gut feeling.

7. Megan Joy - She's perfect for the Sanjaya spot. If she didn't hit the Bottom 3 after this week's trainwreck she obviously has some support besides Vote For the Worst.

6. Kris Allen - His lack of personality will probably cost him in the long run, but his consistently strong performances should keep him in it for a while.

5. Allison Iraheta - She's outperformed Lil on What Not to Sing at every stage of the competition, but she's not the chosen female. It's a guy's year, so Allison gets the opposite gender slot.

4. Danny Gokey - Nothing new to see here.

3. Lil Rounds - Chosen female, only black diva.

2. Matt Giraud - If you hit the Bottom 3 this early you can't win. Diana DeGarmo and Katharine McPhee were both in the Bottom 3 this early, but neither could do better than runner-up.

1. Adam Lambert - I know a lot of people out there don't like him, but he's the most memorable contestant and a born entertainer. As he showed us this week, he can give a strong, meaningful performance that'll make people pay attention without offending them. If Taylor Hicks can win despite a lot of negatives, Adam probably can too.

I have no idea what next week's theme is, but I know David Cook is the former winner of choice at the result show. Taylor, Jordin and Fantasia are the only ones we'll still be waiting on.

4 comments:

BeckEye said...

Scott's a better singer than Stevie? I will resist the temptation to make a "deaf" joke. ;)

I'll admit that Stevie didn't sound his absolute best last night, but he was still better than Scott, and he's always entertaining. Watching Scott is like watching paint dry. Provided that the paint is making weird faces.

Ian said...

Becky - I honestly think that Scott at his best this season sounded better than Stevie did last night, however, I'll definitely give you that Stevie was more entertaining than Scott ever has been.

I love the image of paint making weird faces. It sounds like a scene from a really bad horror movie. I can picture the silhouettes of Mike and the 'bots already.

Unknown said...

I have to agree with Becky on Stevie.

I think it will be Scott or Megan hitting the road next. Both are being saved by their fans who might drop them if they have another crappy performance this week (I hope). If Anoop doesn't bring it, he'll be gone soon as well. I'm hoping that we have an Allison and Adam finale. That would be awesome!

Joss and Smokey did have the creepy vibe happening. I tune out pretty quickly.

The new lip-sync group sings have got to go!!!!! I hate them!! Maybe they will return to normal once Scott is gone. For some reason, it started with him...or at least his semi-final group.

Ian said...

Kristi - I'd love to see an Adam-Allison finale. So far they've been the strongest performers of their respective genders. After having two guys in the finale last year it'd be fun to have an old-fashioned guy-girl showdown.

I think Scott's more likely to go than Megan. Megan still has VFTW's support and is more memorable than Scott. I think Scott's already shown us everything he's capable of, which means the voters should be ready to give up on him any week now.