After selecting the songs for the five remaining finalists on last night’s American Idol — and making some pretty good choices overall, save for a couple — viewers then had to vote to send another contestant home. America giveth and America taketh away.
We’ve had more power this week than we’ve ever had because of the America’s Request theme, but as we all know, with great power comes great responsibility. And so will voters make the right decision on who to send home? It’s obvious who should go home, but will that actually happen? Let’s run through each of the contestants and determine their chances of staying or going.
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DEFINITELY SAFE
Caleb Johnson: I can’t believe I’m going to say these words, but Caleb delivered his worst performance of the season last night with “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” Putting ‘Caleb’ and ‘bad’ in the same sentence is almost unfathomable. But not only was this one of the most predictable and safe song choices ever, but he wasn’t on his game at all. So why am I putting him in the Definitely Safe category? Well, because he got the pimp spot during round two and made everyone forget about that first performance. “Still of the Night” was the Caleb we’re used to, and he was back to putting on the Caleb Johnson Concert once again.
IN THE MIDDLE
Alex Preston: He kicked off the night with a good but not very memorable performance, which had me worried after his mediocre take on “Animal” last week. Fortunately, he stepped it up big time later on with “Say Something.” Those of us who watch all the talent shows know that within this universe, this song belongs to The X Factor winners Alex and Sierra, who incidentally are friends with Alex. (Alex is also friends with this week’s mentor, Jason Mraz, so there’s a lot of connections going around.) Alex and Sierra’s version was the best performance of that season. So it’d be hard for anybody to compete against that, but Alex more than held his own and captured the feeling of the song perfectly.
Jena Irene: Her take on “My Body” was both good and bad. The low notes were terrible — and there were a lot of them in this song, though she did improve towards the end. But it was her take on one of my favorite songs, “Valerie,” that had me back on board. I know some people like Jennifer Lopez didn’t like the arrangement — and yes, I’m used to it being more upbeat as well — but I still loved it and appreciated that she did her own thing with it. This was one of the best performances of the night. But I put her In The Middle because of some of those negative comments she received.
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BOTTOM 2 PREDICTIONS
Jessica Meuse: It’s a given who the Bottom 2 will be tonight. Jessica was here for the past couple weeks, and she’ll do it again this week. It doesn’t help that the judges love to criticize her in some way; even when they were really nice last night, there were still a couple critiques thrown in unnecessarily. What also has me worried is she was in the third spot (not counting the trio number) during the first round, and that position has spelled doom for some singers. To me, Jessica nailed both performances — and was the only one to do so. “Human” was one of her best performances in weeks.
Sam Woolf: And then we come to Sam, who hasn’t been in the Bottom 2 or 3 since the judges used their Save on him four weeks ago. But he doesn’t have that safety line anymore. And there’s no way he can escape the Bottom 2 this time, even if he doesn’t go home. His voice sounded good during both performances, but the problem he keeps having is he never has a showstopping performance that just wows everyone. And at some point, that’ll hurt him enough to send him packing.
ELIMINATION PREDICTION
Sam Woolf: No matter what happens tonight, we all know Sam deserves to go home. I am worried about Jessica’s chances, though, because she’s been in danger a lot lately. The last two people to go home were from Alabama — does that mean Jessica’s next since she’s also from there? Or will all the Alabama votes from Dexter and C.J. go to her, ensuring that she’s safe? Since America selected some good songs like “Human,” “Say Something,” “Valerie,” “Summertime Sadness” and “Still of the Night,” let’s hope the right decision was also made when it came to voting.
Who do you think will be eliminated tonight? Is it the end of the road for Sam? Or will the Alabama trend continue, with Jessica being the next victim? Take the poll below and let us know your thoughts and predictions in the comments section.
American Idol airs Wednesdays at 8pm and Thursdays at 9pm on FOX.
(Image courtesy of FOX)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
Jeff Dodge, a graduate of Western Washington University, has been a TV news editor for many years and has had the chance to interview multiple reality show stars, including Randy Jackson, Nick Cannon, Heidi Klum, Mel B and John Cena.
