Just about everybody, from the viewers to the judges, seems to think “Yes, this is the worst season of ‘American Idol’ ever. Top 24 week was a train wreck of bad song choices, worse performances, poor behavior from the judges and a weirdly smug look on exiting judge Simon Cowell’s face. The girls disappointed on Tuesday, but Wednesday’s performances from the boys were so bad that the girls looked like rock and roll genius’ in comparison. One blogger has even suggested, only half jokingly, that Simon has somehow sabotaged the judging process in order to push Idol’s faithful audience over to his new show, “The X-Factor” when it starts next season.
From the group number that started the results show, a painful version of Estelle’s “American Boy” that was made all the more puzzling, and embarrassing, for the fact that it was lip-synced but still sounded off key to the performances of the four cut singers, the result show on Thursday was no better. The cuts themselves were as badly chosen as everything else this season seems to have been. America had been offered a plethora of elimination worthy performances, and it seems to have lead to some odd choices for the first round of Idol cuts.
Janell Wheeler – A poor choice of an overly complicated and advanced song sent her to the bottom of the voting pile. Too bad she didn’t learn from past season contestant’s similar fates.
Ashley Rodriquez – Though she has the looks and the chops to have made it to the finals, audiences weren’t in a “diva” mood this year apparently. Rodriquez took her elimination hard, barely making it through her final performance of Leona Lewis’ “Happy.”
Tyler Grady – You would have thought this deliberately retro singer’s popularity and distinctive style would have saved him, particularly since he was hardly the worst of the boys performance wise, but the hand of the voting public is ever fickle. Grady’s poor sportsmanship in blaming the judges for not giving him enough feedback makes it difficult to have much sympathy for the eliminated idol.
Joe Munoz – Perhaps the least surprising cut, Munoz is technically proficient, but bland in the extreme. America may have simply forgotten about him, rather than voting for him.
Images by Frank Micelotta/ FOX.
