"American Idol" elimination spoilers coming up just as soon as I watch the "Take On Me" video on YouTube...What's my first rule of "American Idol," boys and girls? It's always better to be bad than to be boring. Tonight brings us a slight addendum to that rule: when the number of contestants gets small enough, it can be better to be bad than good, so long as the good people aren't the best.
We have to remove Young David Archuleta from any equations, because he defies all reason and logic. He simply is, and for his acolytes, that's enough. Now, of the other five, you had David Cook going in the pimp spot and killing with an unexpectedly traditional performances. Even if he hadn't been building momentum for weeks, he'd be safe under those circumstances, as he'd be drawing on not only his fanbase, but the casual voters.
Then we had Jason, who got dog-piled by the judges and Brooke, who looked like a candidate for heavy pharmaceuticals (legal or otherwise); both were lousy but had big fanbases from week's past who knew to mobilize at danger signs like that. Meanwhile, we had Carly and Syesha each delivering strong performances and getting their best praise in a while (for Syesha, her best praise ever), but who had never really connected with the audience and had made several trips apiece to the bottom three. Their fans, whomever they may be, may have eased off the throttle, especially given all the scorn heaped on our two singer-songwriter types, and that's how Jason and Brooke wound up on the couches of safety, Carly and Syesha wound up on the seal, and Carly wound up going home.
I never really warmed to Carly, either -- largely because of the naked desperation dripping from nearly all of her performances (except, ironically, "Jesus Christ Superstar" this week) -- but I'm going to miss what I'm sure would have been her inevitable performance of "Coming to America" for Neil Diamond Night. But considering how badly she seemed to want/need this second chance in the music biz, she seemed surprisingly, reassuringly at peace with her boot. Earlier in the year, I was worried that if she went home before at least top three, she might stick a shiv in Randy on her way out. (Not that this would necessarily be a bad thing.)
One other thing to keep in mind about Jason and Brooke's survival: Neil Diamond's songbook is going to be far better suited for them than any of the last several themes have been. Barring something weird, I figure Syesha goes next week, then we lose our two coffee house types in random order, setting up the pre-destined David v. David finale.
What did everybody else think?
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