In an interesting turn of events, I arrived late to the John Bassett theatre. I am not sure if losing my advantageous aisle seat was a result of this, but I missed it since I was now being attacked by killer signs and unbearably loud screaming.
Tonight I was sitting in M6 in the right orchestra.
When I sat down, I noticed that there was a lot of smoke in the theatre. I have never seen smoke in the venue before so it was a little disorienting. It seemed as if a fireworks display had just gone off.
I was sitting beside the Melissa continegent and behind the Rex group.
For tonight’s show, I predicted that the bottom 3 would be the three girls. Casey, Melissa and Suzi.
Once again, we got the usual preamble with Michael Buffer throwing to Sue Brophy. Sue came out and sang… actually I meant massacred “Takin’ Care of Business” before welcoming the judges and host Ben Mulroney. I noticed that Jason Greeley (a final four contestant from the last season of the show) was in the audience.
Before the show began, I noticed Casey Le Blanc pop her head out of the door to my right. Coupled with the fact that Sue Brophy had said that the show would be opening with a group medley where the contestants would sing in the crowd, I figured they were just getting ready to go.
I looked behind me and saw Aaron Walpole and Melissa O’Neal. They both did the pretend gun thing with their fingers and “shot me.” It was funny.
The show began with a high energy group performance that the crowd was on its feet for.
Ben Mulroney came out and announced that 3.4 million votes were cast on Tuesday and introduced a recap of last night’s show. Ben flubbed a line and said “where the live is drawn” instead of “where the line is drawn.”
During the commercial break, Ben Mulroney delivered a lost cell phone to someone in the audience. I like Mulroney. While he sometimes comes off as a little cheesy, he definitely is a nice guy. That isn’t put on for the cameras.
During the same commercial break, four chairs were set-up. Obviously these were for the final four competitors who would still be singing next week.
When the show resumed, a clip was played where the kids visited Sick Kids hospital in Toronto.
When that ended, it was time for the main event.
Here’s how they lined up.
(From left to right): Casey, Melissa, Aaron, Suzi, Rex.
Casey and Melissa held hands and Rex put on his hat just as the results began.
CASEY: BOTTOM 2
MELISSA: SAFE
AARON: SAFE
SUZI: BOTTOM 2
REX: SAFE
A commercial break was taken and the Idols got their make-up reapplied. I can’t say that I was surprised. Everyone predicted that two girls would be in the bottom two this week and while I hated for it to be Suzi, it was an expected outcome.
Although I have predicted Suzi to win this competition from the first show, I will admit that I really believed tonight was her night to go. Much has been written about how far-reaching Casey’s support has been and I thought that she would once again get a pass for the week.
When the show resumed, it was time for some thoughts from the judges.
Zack: We were lucky to have them.
Sass: Every performance counts.
Farley: With Casey, it’s a story of the tortoise and the hare. It’s good to see you speend up. With Suzi, I just love you to death.
Mulroney asked the contestants for their thoughts before the final decision was read.
Casey: I am just thinking about the sick kids.
Suzi: I wish I could have shown Canada a little bit more.
It was time.
Casey was the next eliminated contestant.
Now it wouldn’t be Murtzcellanious without one of my rants about what happened, and now is the time.
I think everyone knows how journalists are supposed to retain a degree of objectivity in their reporting and I think that despite my feelings about Suzi winning, I have maintained this during the Idol season. I have applauded Suzi when she did well and been fair in my assessment of her when I thought her performance wasn’t up to snuff. I still have rarely wavered from my feeling that she was going to walk away with the title.
Tonight, I let all of that go.
You have to understand that I totally believed that Suzi was gone (for the reasons mentioned above). So when Ben announced that she was staying, I couldn’t help it. I cheered. For those of you who know me, I don’t do anything on a small-scale. Go big or go home. So when I say I “cheered”, the translation is:
An elongated scream that is noticeable in an otherwise peaceful situation.
The adrenaline was pumping and it wasn’t so much about Casey leaving as it was about Suzi staying. I realized that the moment was a sombre one for the Le Blanc fans in attendance, but I was happy. So I screamed. Sue me.
Anyway, it was clearly Casey’s night to go and it has been for a long time. Now it is time for the competition to begin as this is clearly a race now. While Rex seems to be the popular choice to win, I still don’t think it is as cut and dry as it was last season for Kalan Porter. With the Elvis Presley theme coming up next week, I really think it is anybody’s game.
Also, as a funny aside, I ran into Suzi after the show and told her the screaming story. She found it pretty hysterical.
See you next week.
