“American Idol” is said to have eliminated the Wild Card option this year – whomever voters choose to eliminate will stay gone.
But there is one one wild card the show is stuck with all year: Nicki Minaj.
For the first live show featuring the Top 10 Wednesday, the eccentric judge was at first nowhere to be found. Host Ryan Seacrest sat in her empty seat to make it look less awkward. He said she was stuck in traffic, though none of the other judges were particularly buying it.
She didn’t come in during the opening business, and she wasn’t there when Curtis Finch Jr. gave the first performance (which admittedly sped the judging process along). But by the time Janelle Arthur was singing her country song after the commercial break, Minaj was in place without explanation, wearing sunglasses and a hoodie as if someone had just woken her up from a nap or a jag.
Other judges were sniffing what she had in her Coke cup when she spent time during Cree Harrison’s critique talking about exactly how she likes to fix her waffles, and to bring it around to current business, compared that dish to Cree’s singing.
She also called Cree “Harry,” and had odd names for a couple of other singers. At first, Minaj would only concern herself about how the singers were dressed. Then she warmed up and called some of them like Angie Miller perfection.
“I am obsessed with that dress,” she told her. “Your legs are giving me everything I needed in life today,” she added, not stopping until she pointed out “I love the way you walk in heels.”
But she got even more from Paul Jolley, whom she said “stimulated my sexual appetite.”
When she started the season, it seemed like Minaj’s disarming comments would invigorate the show; her analysis of singers in auditions seemed more on target than those of her supposed enemy Mariah Carey. She had an endearing quality of calling all competitors “bedbug” for some reason.
By now, you wonder if she’ll even make it to the end of the season. Already she was getting bored in Las Vegas, looking at her phone for messages by the end of the shows. In that she may be more like “Idol” viewers, who have been getting bored of the show as well.