The Final 24- Elimination Night

Thursday night was elimination night for the 24 American Idol contestants. The American public spoke with over 24 million votes and, in true Idol fashion, there was a shocker.

The show opened with all the contestants performing a group version of “American Boy” by Estelle. I liked their performance as it is obviously much harder to tell when someone is pitchy when three or more people are singing at the same time. Afterwards, show host Ryan Seacrest asked the back row of ladies to stand up as he went through their names one by one, along with the judges’ comments from the previous night. Each was told to sit down because they were safe until he got to the last two, Katie Stevens and Janell Wheeler. It was Wheeler who was eliminated, though it was Stevens who carried a horrified look until she was pronounced safe.

Seacrest did the same scenario for the front row with Ashley Rodriguez being eliminated also. I was only a little surprised at Wheeler’s elimination and not at all surprised at the elimination of Ashley Rodriguez as she was one of the two I had chosen. I am disappointed to see 16-year-old Haeley Vaughn stay as I think she is way too pitchy and untrained for the final 24.

The male contestant eliminations were apparently not as easy to predict. Seacrest again had the back row stand up as he went through the names in the same fashion, telling each one they were safe. The final two left standing were Joe Munoz and Tim Urban, who was the last minute replacement for former contestant Chris Golightly. Urban gave a pretty lousy performance and was one of the two I picked to be sent home. Apparently, though, America felt differently as Joe Munoz was shockingly eliminated. The look of shock and disbelief on Urban’s face was priceless. He also seemed convinced he was going home.

The front row elimination was, like the ladies, not as shocking. The final two guys had two of the six worst performances from the previous night, Tyler Grady and Alex Lambert. Grady was the one eliminated and he seemed less positive about his time on American Idol than the other eliminated contestants saying “I feel like I didn’t really get much constructive criticism during Hollywood week…”

The Idol producers added a nice touch to the show by having previous Idol contestant Allison Iraheta perform her new single “Scars” and American Idol season 8 winner Kris Allen performed a nice rendition of The Beatles’ hit “Let it Be.”