Results Show 2/23/06 - And Then There Were 20

The first week of voting for Season 5 brought in "almost 40 million" votes over the 2 nights.

For the first time ever, we get a Cheesy Group Song with the whole Top 24! Plus it's an Eagles song, plus only the guys get solos! Wheee! Elliott gets to start off (pimp spot! Yay, Elliott!), then Ace (sounding awesome). Not all of the guys get solos - Kevin & Bobby are paired up, as are Gedeon (melody) and Sway (high - of course - harmony), and Bucky (melody, also sounding awesome!) and Patrick (harmony, very nice). Chris doesn't sound as good doing Eagles as I'd have thought. Taylor gets a short solo toward the end and then he & Will sing together. Mandisa does a bit of a pointy pose at the end but I think she was the only one. This was really great, looks like they heard some of our complaints about the lack of group numbers last year.

The recap of the two nights was interesting, as they grouped people together in categories, such as genre, talent level, or anything else they thought might be cute. First are those who "tried to rock their way in" - Bucky, Mandisa, Patrick, Becky, & Chris. "Others tried a country twist" - Kellie & Melissa. Then they said something about Vegas, and Bobby taking on Barry, David taking on Queen, and Paris taking on Gladys. Those who did Stevie Wonder well - Elliott - and not so well - Brenna. Some who were "great" - Taylor, Ayla, Kinnik, and Lisa. "High notes" - Stevie and Sway, and "Lows" (referring more to Simon's harsh comments) - Heather, Will, Kevin, & Gedeon. The last two ended in "style... and smouldering looks" - Katharine and Ace.

First up for elimination are the girls. There is some chatting with Brenna (who feels like a duck - don't ask), Paris (she had a dream of the finals but couldn't see who was under the falling confetti), Heather & Becky (about nerves). Ryan says we're looking for the gal who received the lowest number of votes. The back/top row: Mandisa, Kellie, Paris, Ayla, Lisa, and Katharine - are all safe. The bottom row consists of Heather, Stevie, Melissa, Kinnik, Becky, and Brenna. The first 3 are told they're safe while the others are asked to join Ryan on stage. We end up finding out that Becky is the first to go. I'm a bit surprised, since she'd gotten so much screen time and is gorgeous. But I remember the judges' foreshadowy comments ("better than we expected") and observe the timing of the press release regarding her & her twins' Maxim modeling photos, and the pieces start coming together.

Next to the guys - again a little chatting, nothing noteworthy. Their back row is Gedeon, David, Taylor, Will, Bucky, and Patrick, who are told that they're all safe (yay!!). In the front are Ace, Kevin, Bobby, Sway, Christ, and Elliott. We work our way in from the ends - Ace and Elliott are safe, as are Kevin and Chris. So it's Sway & Bobby center stage... and Bobby leaves. He is so not surprised, and mentions again doing the song for him "Gram" and how he got further than everyone back home and has that to be proud of. Oh, I should mention that each bootee gets to sing again.

Back to the girls: again the back row is safe, no surprise there. Then we start from the right as Brenna, Kinnik, and then Melissa (yay!) are told they're safe. So it's Heather and Stevie left - with Stevie going home. She does mention how she was sick (though she was classy & didn't mention it Tuesday in the midst of the criticism she received), and she sings much better tonight, probably a combination of feeling better and changing much of the song from falsetto to full voice.

Lastly back to the guys: this time the front 5 are safe, while the back 6 are told to make 2 lines of 3 on either side of Ryan. Bucky & Patrick are first, who are just told to step to the side and wait; Taylor and Will are next and both safe, as are David and Gedeon... which means either Bucky (probably) or Patrick are leaving! Boo! And, surprisingly, Bucky with his lack of screen time and bad notes is safe! While Patrick, being awesome in Hollywood, snarky in interview, and unimpressive but free of mistakes this week - is sent packing. Noooo!!! Sigh. Even though we haven't seen him play (piano), I'm positive he's one of the most musically talented guys there - definitely more than 3 or 4 others who are staying. (I do include Bucky in that, even though I like him & I'm glad he gets another week; I thought Gedeon would go.) But he repeats what the judges said Wednesday - he didn't do enough - this week - to make himself stand out from the crowd. And a *lot* of voters just started watching this week.

I did some Googling Thursday night for Patrick hall fan groups, and found only one Yahoo group with very little activity. I would love to keep up with his career so hopefully something else will pop up.

So ends our first week of viewer participation.