American Idol Top 9 Results

Who should have been eliminated: Dexter Roberts
Who I predicted would be eliminated: Majesty Rose
Who was eliminated: Majesty Rose


For the first time in years, the American Idol results show was just a half-hour long, with some semi-rushed results and no time for a goodbye video package to a former front-runner who has now exited the show much earlier than some expected. At the bottom of the hour, the new Fox sitcom "Surviving Jack" would premiere while many Idol junkies were probably a bit reeled that Majesty was not able to survive the Top 9. Could another one of the early front-runners, who made a second trip to the Bottom Three be in immediate danger moving forward?

I remain somewhat surprised that Sam Woolf has not gained as much of a following as I expected. Much of that is his fault, while there are other factors involved indicating that the Idol voting system and perhaps interest among the former most typically invested Idol fans could be drastically different this season. For now though, he is safe, but perhaps a bit of an underdog, while other singers, such as Caleb Johnson, Jena Irene, Alex Preston, and yes, even Dexter Roberts could be real threats to take it all.

Majesty's elimination after a sudden descent has to be considered a major story. As early as her audition was shown, many Idol blogger types pegged her as their favorite and gushed about her potential. She seemed quite talented and maybe even interesting to me, but I am not sure if I really bought into all that hype. Her "Rush Week" performance was given high marks, but it was pretty much all downhill after that. She just may not have been as good of a singer as some thought she was, or perhaps even more likely, the pressure and nerves of performing on a tv show just really got to her.

I was expecting that Majesty would be sticking around a while and would remind long-time viewers of Syesha Mercado, who was a good singer, but someone who came across more of an actress. Syesha used those skills to make it all the way to a Top 3 spot in Season 7, but Majesty did not even last long enough for me to make the analogy while she was still on the show.

Singing for the save, Majesty reprised her Rush Week song of "Happy", but she was clearly a bit of an emotional wreck at that point, despite her loudly proclaiming that she knew the moment was coming and begging them to give her a mic so she could do her thing. It could have been good but it was pretty frantic at parts, especially as Majesty was way off tune on some high notes. That has happened to her several times in recent weeks. She might have the same issue that Sam does in the context of this show. It could just be that they are best suited for low-key acoustic folk performances. That does not translate well to the big American Idol stage.

I did expect that Majesty might possibly be saved by the judges, but a poor performance on her "save me" performance might have put an end to that possibility. I think the Idol producers had recognized that Majesty had become a bit of an emotional mess with the competition and that factor was not going to change. All of this contributes to the impression that Idol is having another "down" season as the contestants (as a group and as a whole) have failed to really impress. It does often feel like way too much of an amateur talent show.

Majesty has already talked to the press about her Idol run and plans for the future. I will be interested to hear what she said, but I have been too busy to keep up with it so far. For whatever reason, this show just did not work for her, despite a lot of early promise and hype. Hopefully, she can find a more proper avenue to show off her musical skills and if she is as good as her early die-hard fans said she would be, she can still accomplish a lot coming off this experience.

Despite this being a pretty sub-par season for Idol, I will say that the lack of a clear frontrunner at this point at least makes the show and the competition more interesting. All but two or three of the remaining eight have been in the Bottom Three. A few of them might be more likely to be safe this upcoming week, but several others will have to not take anything for granted moving forward. Almost anyone this season can win. Hopefully, the most deserving singer will.