I know they want to jazz “American Idol” up a little bit in a season of sagging ratings, but who would expect Ryan Seacrest to begin by saying: “THIS is sudden death and THIS is American Idol.”
For the first time, they’ve wedged in a Las Vegas “sudden death” round where they are throwing around terms like “battleground” and introducing a live audience for the first time, as if to add elements from “The Voice” and “The X Factor” that they were missing.
With the Top 40 from Hollywood performing in groups of 10 in the next four shows, it’s up to the judges to whack fully half of them each night in order to deliver a Top 20 to live shows where viewers can actually vote.
So far, just about half of the finalists or more haven’t been featured very much from the auditions or Hollywood, so the first rundown of names of women performing Wednesday wasn’t exactly teaming with star power.
And while some singers were obviously not doing their best, more than half seemed deserving to advance, though only five of the 10 could.
Vegas also gave the first opportunity for judges to deliberate in front of an audience for a first time. Keith Urban for one adjusted very quickly to embedding his criticisms into compliments. He praised one singer for the control “which you mostly had.”
Nicki Minaj kept being amusing calling one singer a ladybug and lavishing praise and the phrase “my darling” on a woman who was being eliminated. She seemed a little shy about getting boos for criticisms, but she reacted the wrong way, starting off her critiques by saying things like “Get ready to boo.”
Randy Jackson, the only veteran of the bunch spoke in the kind of declarative sentences meant to get cheers: “That’s what I’m talking about!” He seems to have evolved such that even to a woman with pitch issues, he avoided using his formerly favorite phrase “pitchy.”
By the time we get to Mariah Carey’s comments, we’re already tired of hearing the judges, the contestants are tired of keeping the fake smile pasted on their faces, and she just goes on and on. In a two hour show featuring just 10 songs, nobody was trying to cut her off.
Wednesday was the first appearance of Jimmy Iovine, the mentor who in recent seasons has been the only voice of honesty since Simon Cowell split. Iovine was on hand to break any ties should any appear on the judges table, but in the end there weren’t any.
And considering how they’d milk the tension out of single eliminations for most of the rest of the season, it was something to see five singers’ dreams dashed in the episode’s final 10 minutes.
Country singers seemed to take it the hardest. Among the first to get booted was show opener Jenny Beth Willis at least had an upbeat song in Trisha Yearwood’s “Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love.” She had a broad smile to thank the judges for their time and then she melted in tears as she moved off stage.
The sin of Brandy Hotard was to smile during an another wise stirring performance of romantic desperation, Travis Tritt’s “Anymore.” It made her performance look insincere or what Nicki called “pageanty.” Out she went too.
And another country singer whose “Idol” odyssey ended was Christina Isabelle, who has opted to go with her last name as her moniker. Isabelle burned on Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child” but Randy dismissed it as old fashioned.
The only country singer to make it through to the Top 20 semifinals was Kree Harrison, a demo singer in Nashville, who nonetheless leaned more to gospel to deliver a stirring version of Patty Griffin’s “Up to the Mountain” (MLK Tribute).” Judges kept giving her backhanded compliments along the lines of: See? You don’t have to dress up to have a great performance!”
Others who made it through largely had an R&B approach, from Tenna Torres, doing a dramatic reading of Natasha Bedingfield’s “Soulmate,” to Amber Holcolmb, whose “My Funny Valentine” was strong beyond her years (she’s 18).
Other teens making it through were Angela Miller, 18, who earned praise for her version of Jessie J’s “Nobody’s Perfect” but judges all were still talking about the original song “You Set Me Free” that she had wowed them with in Hollywood; and Adriana Latonia, 17, whose version of Aretha Franklin’s “Ain’t No Way” got standing ovations from the male judges. In the end it was either her or her friend Shuba Vedula and you can’t discount the power of two standing ovations.
Judges kept saying they were confused by the all-in version of “Born this Way” that began slowly on the piano and then busted out into a big stage presentation. It sure won over the live audience, though, and the loss of her voice (and her terrific name) will be a loss as “Idol” goes on.
Also booted was Kamaria Owsley a former professional background singer, who never got her Kelly Clarkson song “Mr. Know It All” quite together. It sounded like she was trying to catch her breath through the whole thing and there were all kinds of pitch problems, which Randy pointed out. It was the one shame about “sudden death” — she’d probably have been a good contestant, but she had a terrible night.
Thursday the first group of guys performs — Charlie Askew, Curtis Finch Jr., Kevin Harris, JDA, Paul Jolley, Johnny Keyser, Elijah Liu, Jimmy Smith, Devin Velez and Chris Watson, and five of them will be obsolete by the end as well. Which gives you the illusion things are really moving on “Idol,” when in reality they’d leave Hollywood with a Top 20 in a past, not twice that.