For some reason we had to endure Blake Lewis. He was one who came "close". He demonstrated why he lost. The song was uninspiring. He did a lot of prancing around that must have been meant to substitute for real choreography. He did a bit of his "robot" near the end. He gave the contestants the advice to listen to the good criticism of the judges. Randy then chimed in, "Its been good, yeah". The only real constructive criticism has come from Simon. Randy has too many 'dawgs' and 'billion percent' comments to be meaningful. In the past, he has given some good advice. This year it has really been rare. Paula - she is still the Lakers Cheerleader. She it lost in the past. She really needs to go if they do this next year. The audience seems to want to ruin any chance for Simon to actually give any constructive criticism. They are sabotaging the people they want to support when they shout him down as they do.
Ryan shows us the empty seats then hypes the voting to be over 36 million. The judges are introduced then we are informed that Paula's new track is number 1 on I-tunes? What's up with that? Simon had a hard time congratulating her, he is probably as incredulous as I am.
We get the montage of the guys before the first reveals are done. Ryan calls David Cook, he brags that he had talked to Lionel Richie then sends him to a stool. David Archuleta gets the next chair. Jason Castro is next up, he gets to sit too. These are no surprises as finalists.
They switch to the girls. The usual montage is followed by Brooke White being chosen first. She sits. Ryan polls the judges about Syesha Mercado then tells her to sit as well. Kady Malloy gets the be the first one sent home.
I do not know why the losers get one more chance to sing after it is over. America voted that they did not want to hear any more from them. Kady was as bad as she could be in her swan song.
David Hernandez was sent to a stool. Michael Cook was sent over quickly as well. Luke Menard gets the bad news. We get the bad news, too. We have to listen to him one more time.
The tease is given that Danny and Chikezie are left for the men. The choice there was really obvious.
Ramiele Malubay is given a small scare then passed to a stool. Carly is given a stool too. Amanda gets a quick pass. Asia'h and Kristy are called to center stage before Ryan "hates to do this" then cuts to commercial.
Ryan asks Randy who should go. His choice was not clear. He skips Paula (or tries) only to have her make yet another meaningless remark. Simon bases his idea on the song- Asia'h. Asia'h is sent home. Kristy is sent to a seat in the finals. She should not get too comfortable though.
Danny and Chikezie are kept for last. Danny gives Simon a nasty gesture when Ryan reminds him of Simon's remark. He shows himself to be the punk with a bad attitude that was emerging. The only good thing, we do not have to hear him again.
The 'gurus' seem to pick David Archuleta as the eventual winner, even though they also say he may go home early because his fans may become complacent . I guess that way they can always say "I told you do". He is good, but I still think there are three women that can beat him.
Is it me or is there a lot of self promotion of the judges and Ryan this year? There have been a lot of references to "I choreographed that" or "I produced that album". Simon is the only one that has not been shameless in this regard. Why do we have to see Paula standing and dancing? I thought it was all about the singers.
One thing we have learned, the MSNBC poll is not always even close. It did predict Luke Menard (32%) and Danny Noriega (51%). It nailed Kady Malloy (45%) as the favorite. It missed Asia'h at 5.4%. Amanda Overmyer dodged yet another bullet.
