Idol Post-Predictions

My DVR decided to not have enough room to record all of the first American Idol results show of the season (though I was sure it did), so I didn’t see most of the watered down wildcard portion of the program. I saw through Stefano Langone’s rather impressive performance, and then read about the rest here and here.

As I mentioned, the wildcard process this year has been grossly diluted in that the judges chose wildcard contenders only from the Top 24 they had selected previously rather than from all the contestants thus far as I recall they have in the past. By only selecting from the 14 contestants that America chose as losers, they are implying that only America could have made a mistake, and that the judges are infallible. However, it is clear that as a group, their judging skills are tepid at best, paling in comparison to those of a judging group containing both Simon Cowell and the somewhat Cowell-esque Randy Jackson. Of course, Cowell is not perfect either, and I certainly didn’t always agree with him, but I did always respect his opinion because he always had one other than “wow you’re spectacular.”

I’m not just saying these things about the new wildcard process because it inherently removed any possibility that I could be right about who the wildcards would be, or because it inherently meant that the two pre-Top 24 contestants I was most hoping to see as wildcards, Colton Dixon and Chris Medina, couldn’t possibly be selected. It is the arrogance implied in the new wildcard process that bothers me most.

With all of that being said, I am generally happy with the Top 13. The Top 24 contestants that I loved most made it through (Thia Megia, Lauren Alaina, Scotty McCreery, and James Durbin). A couple of the contestants that I liked made it through (Naima Adedapo and Jacob Lusk), as did the contestant that I newly like, Stefano Langone. I was sad though not heartbroken to see Brett Loewenstern and Rachel Zevita go. I was obviously thrilled to see the evil and untalented Clint Jun Gamboa get voted out. Finally, of the Top 13, I only really dislike two contestants, Paul McDonald and Ashthon Jones.

While Paul McDonald simply has the kind of voice and musical preferences that don’t generally appeal to me, Ashthon Jones is just not that good in my opinion. I admit that she is all right, maybe even sort of good, but I really don’t like the tone of her voice, and I find her arrogant attitude absolutely irritating. The judges think she is confident, but in my opinion, she ran past confidence a long time ago and resides deep in the depths of arrogance. I might like her a little better if she realizes she’s not as great as she thinks she is.

SPOILER ALERT – Glee Season 1 is briefly mentioned below.

Speaking of over-praised contestants, I’m rather puzzled by the judges’ reactions to Pia Toscano’s rendition of “I’ll Stand by You.” I thought it was good, but not great, and I really can’t understand what greatness they saw in that performance. I think Pia’s standing ovation might have been a delayed reaction to Thia’s performance, since the mix-up is understandable considering the rhyming names. However, assuming the ovation was intended for Pia, perhaps my perception is unfairly biased. I was not only comparing Pia’s performance to the original Pretenders version of “I’ll Stand by You,” but I was also comparing it to the greatest version of that song that I ever heard: Cory Monteith as Finn singing it to what he believed was his unborn baby on Glee. If that is in fact why I stared stolidly at the TV during Pia’s performance, then the TV has gone full circle and has begun to eat itself. American Idol gave rise to Glee, and Glee has reduced what might have been a great American Idol performance into a somewhat-better-than mediocre one. Perhaps this is a sign of the Apocalypse.

UPDATE March 9, 2011

Well, it seems that Ashthon Jones took my advice and tried to show a less arrogant version of herself tonight…and now I like her even less.  Her attempt to soften her image came off as blatantly fake, and her arrogance still seeped out from her essence, along with her obscene lack of talent.  I don’t think she sang a single note on key, and I’m pretty much tone deaf.  The judges frantically tried to make sense of their horrible decision to keep her in the competition by praising her alleged ability to find her way back when she went off key, and they tried so hard to make that sound like a good thing.  I suppose it is a good thing, but I don’t think it’s so great when she had to spend the whole song doing it repeatedly.  If she had any real talent, she wouldn’t have had to spend more time finding her way back to the right notes than she did on the actual notes.