10 Thoughts On… American Idol‘s Detroit Auditions

10 Thoughts, Reviews, Top Story

1. Is there any doubt that Marrialle Sellers is winning the show this year? After I initially suspected exiled X Factor contestant Jillian Jensen as the 2014 Idol champ, it now seems clear that producers want things to go a different way. The Rihanna lookalike has now been featured on two separate American Idol audition episodes, and got a solid 7 minutes of airtime on last night’s program. She clearly does big things in Hollywood and I can assure you that she makes it to the live shows based on tonight edit.

2. The Harry Connick Jr. schtick was funny last week, but he definitely seemed like he was being forced down our throats this week. Less Harry makes his witty one-liners much more poignant.

3. Those twins were absolutely terrible. I couldn’t believe it.

4. For that new Idol twist where they play a few seconds of someone’s audition and then ask viewers to tweet their guess as to whether the singer will advance or not seems unnecessary cruel. Am I the only one that feels that way? Als, I had a feeling that tonight’s performer was toast since last’s week’s contestants both advanced.

5. I don’t know about you, but I do not miss Steven Tyler’s creepy one-liners at the under 21 singers at all. Remember his comments to Lauren Alaina?

6. My favourite singer of the night was the first one we saw. Keri Lynn Roach’s cover of “Radioactive,” was stunning and even her speaking voice radiated with a gritty sound. I have high hopes for her in the competition.

7. I am not a big fan of kids in general, but Maurice Townsend’s were probably the cutest I have seen. The father of four became instantly likeable when his four childen popped on-screen and his smooth cover of John Legend’s “So High” was fantastic. For some reason, I don’t see him making it past Hollywood but I am certainly glad he at least got his golden ticket.

8. Another standout of the night was 17-year old Jena Asciutto, I thought she sounded great and there was a particularly originality about er voice.

9. It seems like the new norm on American Idol is being a repeat contestant. The message is that you must tryout, get cut, work hard, and then come back to try again. Do you think that this might dissuade potential future contestants? I recognized many of the contestants last night.

10. Can’t wait for tonight’s episode!

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.