Top 12 Results (3/12/08)

Well, the good news is I won't have to spend any time voting next week....

Jim Carrey is in the audience, wearing an elephant costume. The contestants went to the premiere of Horton Hears a Who which just happens to be a Fox movie.

Next week's theme is announced to be more Lennon/McCartney songs, supposedly due to a large amount of email requests they received. Hmm... I can understand that they probably got emails asking them to expand the small list of songs (25) from which the contestants had to choose this week, but that didn't mean we wanted another week of those songs.

Fortunately we do get a cheesy group medley this week; yay! Not a lot of choreography and too much Michael Johns (and not even 1 solo for Brooke??), but still fun.

After the recap, Ryan asks 4 contestants to stand: Carly, Michael, Jason, and Syesha. Carly is first safe; Michael & Jason are also safe. Syesha is in this week's Bottom 3 and gets to sing her song again.

(Note: David H is sitting one place from the right end on the lower tier, and Ramiele is on the end. I'm guessing these will be the last 2 to hear whether or not they're in the Bottom 3.)

The first Ford commercial of the year is to "The Distance," with a political-style election theme. It's not very entertaining and there's not much singing as it's more of a spoken/rap-style song to begin with.

Footage from the movie premiere & red carpet experiences. Apparently Jim Carrey is a big fan & has watched the whole season. They also got to meet REO Speedwagon (or at least the lead singer, who's also shown saying he's an Idol fan).

The next 4 contestants stand: Chikieze, Amanda, Kristy, and David C. Ryan fakes Chikieze out by asking him to come down to the stage simply to rub his head again, observe that he's not sweating tonight, & tell him that he's safe. Amanda & David C are also safe. At which point Kristy asks, "Where's my microphone?" Hee! Ryan still wants to actually read the comments about her and officially tell her she's in the Bottom 3 first, but then he gets her a mic and she sings. At least she has a sense of humor about it: she looks at the judges and says, "Sorry you have to hear it again!"

They have a new segment (one of the things added to make all the results shows an hour long this year) in which they take some viewer phone calls asking contestants or judges questions. Pretty lame (if they limited it to just the contestants it would be a little better).

This week's guest "former Idol" performer is Katharine McPhee, who sings "Something" accompanied by David Foster on piano. I guess they're doing an album together. It was ok; nice, but didn't hold my attention. Kind-of like when she was on the show.

And finally we have the last group of 4. Ryan asks David A, Brooke, David H, and Ramiele to join him on stage. David A and Brooke are, of course, both safe. (David was announced first and after hugging him we could hear Brooke tell him softly, "now go sit back down." See, she still gets to be a nanny!) Which meant I was right, and it's between David and Rami, and... Rami is safe. Ryan then asks David how it feels "in this moment," like it's not obvious. David tries to give an optimistic answer, saying they still don't know who's leaving. Anyway, he sings, but is much more low-key about it than last night (understandably).

After one more commercial Syesha gets sent back to the couch, and then Kristy is safe, and then I get all verklempt as this is the THIRD year in a row that my favorite from the Top 24 doesn't make it to the tour (Top 10). Not to mention that he's the best looking guy and one of the 4 or 5 best singers IMO of these 12. He just didn't have a large enough 'niche' of voters, where almost everyone else does (Syesha's the only black diva/belter, Kristy's the only country singer, etc.).

Well, enough for now. I'll do a tribute post over the weekend with some links & stuff. I haven't really found any fansites yet & have no clue what the talk show rounds will be since he's first out from the Top 12, but IIRC from past years he's likely to be on Regis & Kelly Monday and Ellen sometime soon as well.