Ryan Seacrest told us early on last night that the final results might shock us, so right off the bat we knew that someone big, someone key to the entire Idol early prediction process, would face the judges. When it came down to Alexis Grace and Michael Sarver in the bottom two, it was Alexis who had gotten the lowest number of votes and had to sing for her young life. The oil-rigger was safe, but it’s okay because he pulled at our heartstrings earlier in the night talking about his daughter. After reprising “Jolene,” it turned out Alexis wasn’t worthy of the elusive Judges’ Save like all those blogs were saying. Maybe this show isn’t rigged after all. Wait a minute, rigged…oil-rigger…holy crap, is Michael Sarver this year’s American Idol?? Here’s our five favorite moments.
5. I’m A LITTLE Bit Country. But Not Much.
We’re not the worlds biggest country fans, and having a bunch of amateurs sing music they’re not thrilled about, arranged in ways we’ve never heard before can be trying. But the lesson we learned last night is that country music when done right can be good. Brad Paisley, who we’re not all that familiar with but who has a nice stage presence, performed “Then” (with no sitars), and later Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis debuted their duet “I Told You So” that was so good that it made a bird sit very still on Carrie’s head for the entire performance without flying away. Really though, it was nice to hear a couple of songs written and performed by people who really knew what they were doing in this genre and didn’t muck it up.
4. Megan’s Smile (And Cough) Are Infectious
Even getting out of bed can be trying, so kudos to Megan Corkrey for being in the hospital all week but also for shooting yet another lame Ford videos (“Here It Goes Again,” which is exactly what we thought when it started. Are they only allowed to use one set to shoot all their videos? Last week’s video featured the same backdrops, right?), and for showing up to perform for two nights in a row with her illness. Kudos also to the cast and crew that made it so fun for the rest of us — Ryan showed a video of Megan walking around with her head enscarfed like she was the elephant man and all her fellow contestants wearing face masks around her. But most of all, thanks to Simon who provided a much needed laugh when, during the group song, he literally rolled his chair away from Megan as she approached him and rolled it back into place as she walked away. Simon ain’t catchin no flu!
3. Don’t Get Too Comfortable
It’s nice to see all the contestants getting along with one another and showing real emotion when others are voted off. We got a peek into what goes on after contestants are eliminated with footage of a farewell dinner for last week’s losers, Jorge Núñez and Jasmine Murray, and even though Jasmine (and her new besties Lil Rounds and Allison Iraheta) were taking it a little hard, Jorge had this gem to share with his competitors: “Don’t stay too comfortable because we’re not the only ones who are going to get eliminated.” He then proceeded to stare down Alexis Grace. (Okay, not really).
2. Parental Guidance
So many of the contestants this season have kids, it’s understandable that being far from them is taking a huge toll. Ryan spoke to Michael Sarver about what it’s like to be away from his three-and-a-half-year old daughter McKenna and, in a move sure to make everyone from Octomom to even perpetually childless Jennifer Aniston teary, he said McKenna asked him, “Why don’t you want to be with me anymore?” This made Megan Joy start to weep and really, the entire audience lost it for a second too with a collective “Awww ohh!” Why must you make it so hard on the children, Idol??
1. Alexis Grace: She Was Pissed
Everyone thought Alexis had a few more weeks in her — all the people on the Internets were buzzing about how she was definitely going to the final four and this is what the Judges’ Save was all about. So maybe she had her hopes up. Maybe she was just annoyed that Randy Jackson accidentally called her Allison. Maybe she watched the playback from last night and was shocked by her mom-hair. Whatever it was, when she found out she was in the bottom three, she seemed pretty surprised and, rightfully, a little upset. (But so did Allison Iraheta for that matter, but we were too in her case – if we’re comparing the two, our vote has always been for Allison). Simon Cowell told Alexis before she started to sing “Jolene” again, “You were the one we were thinking about saving so it’s all going to come down to this performance.” But alas, her nerves and shaky voice didn’t help matters (or maybe Simon and the judges had been reading the blogs all day too and wanted to throw us for a loop), and they didn’t save her. A little stunned, Alexis bowed out, true to her name, with grace (but you could tell she wanted to punch a wall).
Final Thought:
Thank you, Simon, for saying that you thought Adam Lambert‘s performance was even worse on the second viewing.
