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American Idol - Season 12 (1 Viewer)

mattCR

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Originally Posted by Patrick Sun
So tired of Kez Ban at this point already. She's just fodder. Too bad that Neeley girl got the boot.
Yeah. It would make more impact if she could actually belt. I mean, I understand what some think as a bold choice, but if Boy George or Freddie Mercury took the stage and blew the doors off, I don't think you'd have people going "WTH".. but Kez just seems like a kook and her singing voice doesn't impress me at all unless something drastically changes.
 

Yee-Ming

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I'm wondering if the producers are deliberately trying to stack the deck in favour of the girls this season. The guys have been pretty bland, not that the girls are vastly superior, but they do seem to have the edge so far. No obvious WGWG this season amongst the 5 already through, the usual 'sure-win' bet that is on a 5-season streak. Not sure there are any amongst the other 10 going through sudden-death next week. Which reminds me, I wonder if this sudden-death was ripped off, sorry inspired by, the Battle Rounds in The Voice? Not exactly the same, in that it's not a single head-to-head contest, but it sort-of is. Is it just me, or were there somewhat less 'crazy' or outright bad auditions this season in the early rounds? Another impression I got was that during Hollywood week, and in particular group round, they really seemed to focus on just a few groups, rather than trying to show more groups but in less detail. We got some pretty excruciating detail about some nonsense, e.g. Kez Ban. The effect is so far, I seem to have seen very, very little of some of the ones who have made it this far. One final observation: what on earth was the point of Jimmy Iovine's tie-breaker? He only appeared to have to decide for one single contestant -- but if the remaining 9 were already decided with 4 through and 5 gone, then there is one space to fill anyway and the guy should go through. It would have made more sense if they paired off two final contestants, with each contestant deadlocked at 2-2 by the 4 judges, in which case Jimmy would decide who progressed. Also, this seems to suggest that the judges vote 'stay or go' on each contestant separately, and a 4-0 or 3-1 decision either way is definitive, yet with 10 candidates they miraculously arrive at exactly 5 stay 5 go (at least apparently for the girls), and for the guys they ended up 4 stay 5 go with one guy at 2-2 which Jimmy decided to keep, for 5-5. Bah. It's a 'reality' show, which means it's all rigged anyway, so I shouldn't bother thinking about the mechanics of it all so much...
 

Patrick Sun

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I totally think they are stacking the deck so a girl wins this year because they are tired of GWG winning for the past few seasons.
 

Yee-Ming

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I was distinctly underwhelmed by the contestants for the second week of sudden-death. Low point for me was Zoanette going through: she's got a lot of personality (too much, IMHO) and she certainly put on an entertaining performance, but her singing seemed to consist more of bellowing than actual singing: I could never make out what lyrics she was singing. With it being 5-of-10 going through each week, if you get placed amongst several good contestants, your chances of making it through get handicapped (although one could argue the following week you'd face the best anyway). For instance, personally I though Shubha from the previous week was probably better than at least two of the girls that went through this week, but her week was a tougher group and she get eliminated. The guys still seem uniformly bland. The ones that do stand out, stand out because of their back story (Lorenzo the stutterer, Burnell the Katrina victim/weight loss champ etc) and not for their singing. Not absolutely sure how many weeks to go to the main competition, but since Ryan said the top 20 gets reduced to a top 10 in one go, I'd guess entries for our challenge open next week! And if it really goes straight into a top 10, that's quite a change: it shortens the season by 2 weeks, and changes the dynamic of the AI challenge, i.e. no dropped contestants and every one counts towards your score.
 

Phil Taylor

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I agree Yee-Ming ... seems some of the better talent was passed over for "more interesting" (and I use that term loosely) like that trainwreck Zo-Nut. :rolleyes: I do like that Charlie kid... and the strawberry blonde country girl... other than that not a lot stand out or are that memorable. Oh yeah - that one really pretty girl... don't even remember her name either -- but she was real good and they said she should team up with a few other girls and start a "girl group". The season will likely wrap up in May for sweeps - so likely will be shorter than previous seasons... just a guess...
 

Yee-Ming

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Silly me, I didn't realise this week there was an extra show a day earlier, so I've been trying to catch up but only got half-way through the guys' show, but thought I should pen some thoughts before the results later. There's little to distinguish between say 8 of the girls; Zo-Nut was well out of her depth, thoroughly exposed by trying to sing a Tina Turner song. Adriana fluffed her song choice, even though "that girl can sing". For the rest, anything could happen: perhaps the only thing I can predict is that Janelle, as the sole obvious female country singer (not sure if Kree is one either), has that vote all to herself and should therefore go through. For the guys, the first three performances were pretty poor. Charlie was just plain awkward, and looked like he was trying very hard not to cry on stage when the judges were (gently) ripping into his performance. Nick and Burnell were pretty good, but didn't close to the standard set by the better girls. By the time I next check in, the results show should be out, so assuming it is stripped down to a Top 10 -- or any extra few wildcards as Randy hinted at -- we have our Final 10/12/13/?? and our challenge starts! Get predicting!
 

Phil Taylor

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Felt bad for Charlie - was hoping he would make it thru... and SO glad that ZoNut is gone -- can't comprehend why she made it past the first auditions (except for the producers of course). Sure thought Aubrey would have made it thru... Pretty disappointed with the Top 10 -- other than Kree, Janette and the brunette Kaley Cuoco gal (don't recall her name) I don't see much to get excited about.... :rolleyes:
 

Yee-Ming

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No real surprises IMHO as to the final 5+5: I can't say there were any obvious travesties, especially if you base judgment on the semi-final performances. For the guys, while Vincent and Cortez are probably better singers than Paul, both blew their semi-final performances, especially Vincent, who was way off pitch for some notes in all those complicated runs he was trying.
Anyone else note how Briana was placed in the holding room such that every time the camera entered the room you'd get a full-length shot of her gams? That girl has some legs on her! (Sorry, had to get that gratuitous comment off my chest.)
Now that it's down to Top 10, our Challenge starts! Here's the link again:-
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/327326/the-2013-american-idol-12-htf-raf-memorial-top-ten-challenge
Now get predicting!
 

Yee-Ming

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Just a reminder: our AI Challenge is now open for entries, and even if you haven't previously participated in this year's thread on the Challenge, you're most welcome to submit an entry regardless. Just get them in before the first performance show starts!
 

Yee-Ming

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Phil Taylor said:
Felt bad for Charlie - was hoping he would make it thru... and SO glad that ZoNut is gone -- can't comprehend why she made it past the first auditions (except for the producers of course). Sure thought Aubrey would have made it thru... Pretty disappointed with the Top 10 -- other than Kree, Janette and the brunette Kaley Cuoco gal (don't recall her name) I don't see much to get excited about.... :rolleyes:
Aubrey did win the sing-off against Charlie, to win the extra spot on the tour.

Dang, that girl is tall! Then again, Seacrest isn't... I suppose "brunette Kaley Cuoco" must be Angie Miller?

I'm guessing viewership of AI this season is really, really down amongst HTF members? There seems very little interest now. Oh well.

Anyway, given it was a Beatles night, I must say I was pleasantly surprised that the song selections weren't all the obvious ones, with some much more obscure songs getting airtime. Then again, that might have hurt some of the contestants, e.g. Amber. But I suppose as long as you don't finish dead last each week, it doesn't really matter whether or not you make the top 3.

Interesting development the previous week, announcing all rankings save for the top 3, yet the following week they dropped doing that. I wonder what the producers' thinking was each of the two weeks?
 

mattCR

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Yeah. Really, the problem is, in comparison to "The Voice" AI seems really stale. Mariah Carey is terrible, and the show just seems to drift aimlessly. The real hitch is that you don't really learn much about what goes on behind the scenes. Plus, AI is too focused on people putting all sorts of runs and goofy flourishes into songs.

I thought Beatles night was hilariously bad, as you had a lot of great songs.. but then you'd have contestants say things like "I had never heard the Beatles before!" and when Mariah Carrey said "I had never heard 'She's Leaving Home' " I was.. ugh.
 

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Been following this season...first in a while...since day one. I was, obviously, sorry that Paul Jolley got booted. Same last name and spelling as yours truly.

On another note, I was part of the "Idol Across America" here in Dallas. You can see that here: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8597506

I'm the old guy handing off the mic to the cowboy who, incidentally, made it to Hollywood in Season 7.

Anyhow....at this point I think it's Kree's to lose.

We'll see.
 

Yee-Ming

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Interesting choice of genre: instead of the obvious Motown, they changed it up slightly by making it Detroit-based, which allows most of Motown anyway, and adds a few -- did not realise that Madonna was from Detroit, or perhaps more accurately that bit of trivia had been long forgotten.

Jimmy got it spot-on when he said the 3 guys would make the bottom 3. This season it really does look like it's going to be a female winner, indeed I'd say the top 4 will probably be all-girl.
 

Patrick Sun

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I always cringe when I see these young contestants be so ignorant of Beatles music and songs, but it's just a different generation be reflected back upon us on the TV screen.

Janelle just seems to want it too badly, not quite ready for prime-time, but somewhat close.

Kree is very confident in her abilities, but she doesn't really blow me away.

Angie is probably the most commercially appealing contestant, not sure if she'll be able to go the distance.

Amber might need to get a little more gritty, I just get this squeaky clean vibe about her.

Burnell has this weird phrasing where he doesn't quite sound like English is his first language and just learned the song in 2 days. It bugs me at times. But one longer notes, he voice sounds pretty solid.

Lazaro should be on a latino-version of Idol, he'd be more in his element, as he is struggling with English being a 2nd language, and can't quite sell the songs in the manner in which he sounds natural when singing unfamiliar songs (almost all of the songs so far).

Candice has good pipes, seems to lack some confidence, though. Could she be too "old-sounding" to win this season?
 

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