Hell Week continues
Apparently the solo round with instruments was not very interesting, as we go back to the “groups in rooms” format from back when they did rounds instead of the semifinal knockout rounds. The very fact that they did this on a Tuesday instead of giving us on Selection Wednesday is a bit of a red flag – why are they doing this now? The sad part about this, of course, is that I still sat around and watched the whole doggone thing.
Anyways, there was certainly drama as we saw contestants sitting. And standing. And pacing around. We got highlights of several singers, and the judges deliberating about who stays and who goes. Tatiana got moved to another room in a rebalancing effort (I’d guess that this was not the only time) but got put in the same room as Nick “Norman Gentle” Mitchell, which I’m sure did not make that room happy. If Mitchell makes it through to the voting stages he will be a first ballot VFTW hall-of-famer.
Room 2, which Tatiana was moved from, gets through. This includes the gay guy with the snake bite piercings, and the oil rigger AJ Styles lookalike. Room 3, which has Jason Castro’s brother, and the judges “deliberated through the night” over, is sent home. Room 1 has Danny and his buddy and is quite obviously through, because this is not Superstar USA. So that leaves Room 4, which has both Tatiana and Nick. And they also make it through, meaning that they cut things down to around 55 contestants.
And now, they head to the Rock Star Mansion so that they can find their fate. I have to sit through an hour of this? Nuh-uh – I checked the on screen display, and I have to sit through TWO hours of this.
Well, bottom line is that they’re going from 54 to 36, meaning that you’ve got a 33% chance of going home, and really they probably coulda went home at the end of Hollywood week but the producers needed to milk this baby just a wee bit longer, and thus we get this long drawn out process to determine the semifinalists. Some of the obvious people, like Danny, Anoop and a bunch of 16-year old girls that don’t look 16, make it through. Others, like Danny’s buddy Jamal and the blonde that Simon liked who sang better than Kristin, do not. Jamal is encouraged to come back next year, and if he does I’d expect he’ll go far similar to Twitch on SYTYCD.
Tatiana makes it through and does Mary Murphy-like screams. Nick Mitchell makes it though and you have to think that the reversion to a “Top X Advance” format is to prevent guys like Nick from getting through to the Top 12. But of course this could’ve been prevented if he’d been cut previous to this. Now, we probably got a producer in here who thought he’d make good TV and so he gets to sing in front of a live audience when really he could;ve given the Superstar USA “contestants” a run for their money. And a bunch of people that forgot their lyrics also make it through.
OK, so Act II of the Idol process is over, and now it’s on to Act III and the semifinal knockout rounds. As I understand it, there will be three groups of 12, with the top guy and girl advancing as well as the person with the next highest number of votes. Presumably the 3-4 contestants with the next highest number of votes will go to the Wild Card round, where the judges and judges only will choose the final three finalists. So you’re guaranteed a minimum of 3 guys and 3 girls in the Top 12. Also, who you’re singing against in your group of 12 becomes very important, as a killer group could see an excellent singer (like, say Anoop, who is at a disadvantage because he’s Brown.) get eliminated, whereas a weak group could see someone like Kristin go through.
With that being said, my picks at this point to make the Top 12 are Danny, Matt the Welder, Michael the Roughneck, Ju’Not, the blind guy, Joanna and Taylor. If it seems like I don’t remember the women all that well, it’s because I don’t.
Kevin Wong writes for Reality Dish, Prime Time Pulse and Inside Fights. He’ll try to remember names for next week’s episodes.
