My Take: American Idol - First Four Eliminated

So after four hours of performances, we finally get to the results show. The show opened with all 24 kids singing Sowing the Seeds of Love (Tears for Fears? I think I had that cassette single.) It was OK, the boys were good, I thought the girl parts sounded kind of lame (as in the echo-ing lyrics they had to sing). I couldn't tell if all the girls got a solo but it seemed like all the boys did. But the end was horrible with all of them raising their arms at the end - reminded me of my high school choir concerts.

Ryan announced some of the stars to join the show this season and it looks pretty good. They include: Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani, Tony Bennett, Diana Ross, Bon Jovi, Barry Gibb, country singer Martina McBride, Scottish singer Lulu and Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits. Do you think J-Lo, Gwen, and Jon Bon Jovi will act as mentors or just perform? I would love to see them interact with the kids - I think it would be cool to see that from an artist that is actually popular today (no offense to the likes of Barry Manilow). J-Lo is already in the mentoring-like role with the kids from Dancelife, maybe she could extend that here???

Now is this show supposed to be live? I'm thinking no and that parts of it were edited. Specifically, when Ryan asked Quincy Jones about Fantasia's new role in the Broadway version of The Color People. It seemed like Ryan abruptly cut him off for Fantasia's performance which would have been really rude (but not surprising for Ryan - hee) but I'm wondering if they just did a bad job of editing the Quincy Jones comments.

On to the cuts - first to go was Paul Kim - I am convinced this was primarily due to his insistence on performing barefoot and the comment about wearing the same undies on cut days. I was rooting for him until I heard that. I hope this is a lesson to everyone - most people don't want to see or hear about your bare feet. (Especially when Ryan comments that you could really use a pedicure.)

Then it was Alison Krebs which I think was a surprise to no one. The other girl to go was Nicole Tranquillo, who just tried too hard with her song. I realized it was Ryan Starr from Season 1 that she reminded me of, but even more over the top.

Finally, the last boy to go was Rudy Cardenas. And interesting that Sanjaya was revealed to be in the top 4 for the boys (I bet the other three are Blake Lewis, Chris Sligh, and Chris Richardson - although people really dug Phil Stacey, too). I think he's a sure bet for the top 12 because they've shown him so much and he appears to be a nice, sweet kid. You know, the sympathy vote that gave us Jim Verraros and Kevin Covais.

Random note - I feel really bad for Antonella Barba. I mean, the pictures (I'm not linking them, but they won't be hard to find anyway) of her floating around the internet are so horrible and they are being submitted by people she knows - freely, it seems, they're not even asking for any money for them (not that being money grubbing would make it excusable but still). She must hang out with the worst set of people - we already saw how horrible her friend Amanda is.

And did you notice that they chose a new good-bye song to replace "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter? It's now "Home" by Chris Daughtry from last season. I like it - and it should bode well for Chris because "Bad Day" was the #1 downloaded single from iTunes last year (I remember hearing that statistic on the radio). Forget Taylor Hicks and Katherine McPhee, Chris Daughtry is the true success story from last season - I always hear his songs on the radio and on TV (didn't 24 or Prison Break use one of his songs in commercials or something?) and he just has a really cool, unique voice. I personally have already downloaded two of his songs from iTunes. I wonder when Elliot Yamin's album will come out?

Finally, I thought I would mention the updated Power List from Entertainment Weekly - a lot of movement this week.

Top 5
1. Melinda Dolittle (up from #3)
2. LaKisha Jones (same)
3. Sabrina Sloan (HUGE jump from #17)
4. Blake Lewis (up from #11)
5. Stephanie Edwards (up from #13)

Former #1 Chris Sligh dropped to #6. Special mention to AJ Tabaldo who entered the list at #8 from not even being included in the Top 20 power list previously (i.e. bottom 4).