On tonight’s American Idol, it’s double-elimination time — and we’ll finally learn about this twist that Simon Cowell alluded to last night.
Why does Randy Jackson boo Simon every single episode? No one else is booing during introductions.
So what’s the new twist? It’s called “the judges’ save”: From now until the Top 5, the judges can save one contestant from elimination just once. It has to be unanimous, and they can’t use it again. The week they use it, no one will be eliminated, and the next week, two people will go home. This is, host Ryan Seacrest says, in response to eliminations such as Jennifer Hudson, Chris Daughtry and Katherine McPhee.
After that explanation, we get a montage of the contestants moving into a very insane mansion — bowling alley, pool and more outright excess. Then we’re treated to the week’s group sing of Jackson 5 hits, which includes, for unknown reasons, a dance break by Danny Gokey complete with pelvic thrusts toward the camera. That was awkward.
Is anyone besides the finalists amused by the commercials they’re forced to do? They laugh hysterically; I’m bored.
Then we start with the results:
Michael Sarver is safe. Allison Iraheta is, too. Jasmine Murray is asked to come to the center of the stage and wait. Matt Giraud is asked to stand up, and he starts walking to the center of the stage, but they stop him because he’s confused. He’s safe. Kris Allen, who is suddenly reminding me of Freddy Rodriguez, and Megan Joy Corkrey are asked to stand up. Kris finds out he is safe, and Megan joins Jasmine on the stage, only to find out that she, Megan, is safe, and Jasmine is going home unless the judges decide to save her.
Jasmine sings the song that got her ousted, “I’ll Be There,” and closes with a big note just for kicks, and then Randy tells her that no, they are not saving her. Which is not a huge shock — why would they introduce the twist and then use it right now? She cries, and Ryan talks quietly to her to reassure her that everything is going to be fine and calms her down. Awww. We get out first hearing of this year’s buh-bye song, Carrie Underwood’s cover of Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet Home.”
Then it’s time for Kanye West to perform — he’s doing “Heartless.” That was probably Jasmine’s only chance to be his opening act.
More results now: Scott MacIntyre is safe. Alexis Grace is, too. Danny Gokey has a lot of different pairs of glasses, and he is also safe. Anoop Desai heads to center stage, and he knew it was coming. Adam Lambert is safe. Jorge Nunez and Lil Rounds are last to learn their fate. Jorge heads to center stage; Lil is safe. Jorge and Anoop have to wait through the break to find out for sure. Well, actually, they have to wait through a performance by Kelly Clarkson. Ryan mentions that a former Idol will be performing every week.
Ryan talks with Kelly for a bit about her new album, which came out yesterday. She performs “My Life Would Suck Without You. I like Kelly, but, um, I think she could have used some help from the show’s stylists tonight. She just looks a little bedraggled.
(Side note during the break: These new semi-animated deadpan Comcast commercials are terrible. It’s like it’s trying to rip off the freecreditreport.com commercials, but why would you want to do that?)
Results time: Ryan says 33 million votes came in and … finally … after dragging it out … that Anoop is safe. That leaves Jorge to sing and then find out for sure if he’s going home. (Um, he is.) This new twist is just extra-cruel. (Also kind of mean is that Randy and Simon 
are totally talking to each other during Jorge’s sing-out. Paula is dancing, of course, and holy moly, what is she wearing? Flapper gone wild?) After he sings, Simon doesn’t mince words: They aren’t saving him.
So, buh-bye, Jorge and Jasmine. You were both pleasant enough, but pretty boring.
What do you think about the ousters? How about the twist?
dariusknighty
