American Idol: Jennifer is history

Those of you who missed Tuesday’s American Idol and Wednesday’s results show really missed out. Seriously. With only a couple of exceptions, all the contestants were in top form. I had guessed that the “Bottom Three” would be John Stevens, George Huff and Jasmine Trias. Generally, it’s not terribly hard to guess at least two of the bottom three, but this time, I was wrong on all three.

I had just spent the past day lamenting my early prediction that George would win the competition. He and John Stevens got their butts handed to them by the judges for lackluster performances, while the women got big points, even Diana. How could George compete against powerhouses like LaToya, Fantasia and Jennifer? (Simon told LaToya he thought she could win the competition.) Incredibly, those three just happened to be tonight’s bottom three, and Jennifer got her walking papers soon afterward. She’s been getting better every week, Elton John called her the best of the group, and she hit it out of the ballpark Tuesday, so of course it made sense that she should be voted off. Yeesh…

The American public is quite fickle, so I’m trying not to read too much into these results, but I remain convinced that America doesn’t want a “diva” to win this year. After that, who’s left? Diana? Please… Jasmine? Don’t make me laugh. John Stevens? America is playing some sort of practical joke on him. He needs to go home. He knows it, we know it, everybody knows it. The only logical choice remaining is George, but he’ll need to seriously polish his singing chops from here on out. Choking once is understandable, twice is perhaps forgivable, but three times could send him packing. He’s already screwed up twice; he’s run out of mulligans. For now, I stand by my prediction that George will win this year.

I had a side note about Tuesday’s theme. I have never been a big fan of Barry Manilow, but I have to say the guy is a musical genius. Not only is he a gifted singer and songwriter, but I was really impressed by how well he directed and coached the singers. He’s the only musical guest star I’ve seen on that show who took the time to work with the contestants and make sure they sang his music the right way. Did my ears deceive me, or did the usually-bland John Stevens actually sound good for about the first 30 seconds before he ran “Mandy” into the ground?

It’s still anybody’s game, but things aren’t looking good for LaToya and Fantasia. LaToya has been in the bottom three twice now, and Fantasia barely beat out Jennifer to survive on Wednesday. Not a good situation for the supposed “odds-on favorites.”

Brian