There's a lot to be said for brevity, as tonight's "AI" proved. Rather than subject viewers to another tortuous hour of pandering, the producers wisely gave us a quick 30 minutes in which to bid adieu to this week's four lowest vote getters.
Another welcome change tonight was the lack of any encore performances, an aspect of the show that has never made much sense. Why should we want to hear the least popular singers again? Thankfully we didn't have to tonight, as it seems to me to be rather cruel to force them to perform right after telling them that nobody wants to hear them. While some contestants have made it through these final songs without too much damage in past seasons, most seem to come very close to losing it before they're able to finish.
Last week's elimination episode, in addition to being too long, was filled with misdirection and stalling, mostly to prolong revealing which of the contestants would be leaving the show. Not so tonight--we got into it right away.
With no formalities or warning, Celena Rae was revealed to be the female singer with the lowest vote count for the week. I had pegged Celena as a likely early target last week on the overall weakness of her performance, but I thought last night might have been good enough for a reprieve. Apparently not, as we won't be seeing her on the show again.
The second elimination took a bit longer, not much. We quickly went down the row of remaining girls until only Aloha and Vonzell remained. Interestingly enough, both had sung Alicia Keys songs last night. As they took center stage, it was clear that Aloha Mischeaux knew that her number was up and, indeed, Vonzell was quickly declared safe. Aloha revealed that she had experienced some trouble with song selection this week, but she didn't use that as an excuse for her expulsion.
Onwards to the men. In like fashion, we moved right along the row, with each singer being declared safe, until only four contestants remained: Joseph, David, Mario, and Travis. Mario didn't look too worried, but the other three all seemed to be convinced that this would be their last night on "AI." Sure enough, Mario was the first to be allowed to return to the couches. Almost as quickly, Travis was declared safe, meaning that Joseph Murena and David Brown would be the next two to go. David took it in good stride, but Joe tried to make some noise about not getting enough screen time.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Davis
Bo Bice, the rocker, as American Idol. That would work; I'd do him.
Nadia too -- I've liked her since the beginning. At this point, I would be happy with either her or Bo as winner. But there are - what? - 15 weeks to go and anything might happen.
2 - Deanne
A couple of my girlfreinds think I'm crazy they are voting for Anwar. But I love BO Bice. I think for a rocker (I'm usually stictly R&B) he's got it going on. I would love to see him win or at least get a contract after all is said and done.
I haven't made up my mine about any of the girls. though I'm surpise that they kicked Ahola off. oh well.
Vasquez well all I can say is DAMN!! That boy is fine. I think he'll be around until the end.
3 - Richard
Hey, has anybody noticed how horrible the live sound mixing has been on a lot of the singers?
I have a recording studio and also do live sound, and the sound guy can make or break the vocalist just by how he presents the voice with the instrumentals and the levels of the backup singers.
The levels of some of the contestant's vocals are actually lower than the backup singers, which gives the impression of a weak performance, which wasn't the case in more than a few instances. And the whole lavish show is about music and they spend tons of money, so why the lame sound?
Between Simon bashing people (or not)and the bad mixes, I think perhaps we and the contestants are being manipulated.
All of these kids are good...we are looking at the top 24 of some 60,000 auditions. I'd take any one of these singers and make a great album with them. They all have exceptional talent. They all should have the best sound possible for every performance. Shame on Fox!
Richard
4 - Eric Olsen
thanks SCott, beauty as always - I agree with you about Janay, but fear she may be one of those stubborn anti-judge symbols who stick around way beyond their merit, since all three basically told her she sucked dog snot
5 - ZMethos
Richard--I *have* noticed the terrible mixing! (I grew up with a father who had the equivalent of a recording studio in the house, and I have a deep appreciation of such things.) I can't figure out why they keep drowning out the singers with the canned backup. I think, as you say, a lot of these kids are better than the sound guys give them the chance to be--which is why they sounded better in earlier rounds, BEFORE the backup tracks.
6 - Eric Olsen
re what you said ZM, the judges have remarked on several occasions that singers haven't shown the same magic since the audition or early performances - that could very well be factor
7 - TDavid
I, too, want to see one of the rockers win this season; it's their turn. Every season has had a rocker, but they always seem to be voted off when a rather obvious prejudice towards rockers is shown by the judges.