American Idol Top 20 Results

Change has come to American Idol, and the whole way they proceeded tonight with introducing the Finalists and the just whole vibe of the season feels different. Only time will tell if that will be a good thing or not, but there is a sense of "downsizing" in the air.

I guess there will truly only be a Top 10 after all, and after two full competition songs on television, five girls and five guys already have their tickets punched for the summer tour. Is this going to really be a very short Idol season that will end in about nine weeks? To my surprise, there was nothing that formally happened on the show tonight involving wildcards. I was expecting some kind of a twist at the end. There was something briefly mentioned about how their will be a sing-off next week between the sixth highest male and female vote-getters for a spot on the tour. So, that sounds like 11 singers will go out on tour, but whomever wins that supposed sing-off next week is not going to truly be competing to become the next American Idol anymore. If they show us a sing-off next week, I guess I will have to judge that too. We do not know who those people are at this point, so it would be a waste of time to speculate. I bet the Idol promoters would really want Elijah Liu on tour though somehow.

Of course the biggest change Idol wants to bring is having a female winner after many years of "white guys with guitars" taking the crown. That really may happen this season. If not, such a thing is truly hopless.

Tonight, the semifinalists and judges made their debut at the traditional Idol homebase in Hollywood. I am not sure why they could not just have performed there this week, but maybe there was a deal in place with the Mirage for four shows.

One by one, Seacrest went into a waiting room and announced someone who had advanced to the Finals, and then, they had to quickly gather themselves, come out on stage, and sing a new song as a victory statement. I will have to watch a recording to see just what kind of reaction shots the kids whose names were not being called were giving on live television.

Since those performances were not formally part of the competition, there is no need for me to judge or rank them. Some of them were better than they were earlier in the week while others were worse. I am somewhat intrigued as to how the contestants picked the songs they would sing for this evening. I would assume they had to believe that they had to go with their stronger option for the actual voting round and their Las Vegas performance.

Ten singers were formally eliminated tonight, and appeared to really be sort of an afterthought among all the festivities, but I guess that is the way it goes. There were no huge shockers and I do not think any of the people voted off were all that surprised either. Still, there was some potential talent that is having to say goodbye after just two performances, and that seems a bit abrupt. My favorite format is still a Top 24, where two guys and two girls get voted off over three weeks, until a Top 12 is formed.

Anyways, the good news is that the American voting public almost got it completely right this week, and my predictions were almost completely right as well. I think nine out of the ten slots went to a deserving person, while I correctly predicted nine out of the ten slots as well. It appears that Vincent Powell, whom I had ranked first last night, in an overall subpar male performance round lost his voter primary to Curtis Finch Jr. after all. In addition to Vincent and Elijah, we formally said goodbye to Zoanette Johnson, Breanna Steer, Aubrey Cleland, Tenna Torres, Adriana Latonio, Charlie Askew,  Cortez Shaw, and Nick Boddington.

Who should have made the Finals: Vincent Powell, Curtis Finch Jr, Devin Velez, Paul Jolley, Burnell Taylor, Kree Harrison, Candice Glover, Janelle Arthur, Angie Miller, Amber Holcomb

Who I predicted would make the Finals: Vincent Powell, Devin Velez, Paul Jolley, Burnell Taylor, Lazaro Arbos, Kree Harrison, Candice Glover, Janelle Arthur, Angie Miller, Amber Holcomb

Who made the Finals: Curtis Finch Jr., Devin Velez, Paul Jolley, Burnell Taylor, Lazaro Arbos, Kree Harrison, Candice Glover, Janelle Arthur, Angie Miller, Amber Holcomb

Next week, I will watch to see if I find a reason to rank any of the five guys ahead of any of the five girls.