« American Idol Season 8 First 12 – February 17, 2009 | Main | 2009 Oscar Broadcast – The Worst Ever? »
American Idol Season 8 First Group Results Show – February 18, 2009
By PopSavant | February 18, 2009 | 
Email This Post
Hello America. Last night we suffered through the worst two hours in Idol history. Who will survive the carnage? Let’s find out.
Ryan thanks us for our tremendous support, telling us that there were over 24 million votes last night. Asked if they were pleased by the first show, Randy said “Uh, yeah, some people stepped up to the plate.” Kara and Paula also thought things went well. They must’ve been watching a different show than the rest of us were.
The group number comes at 4 minutes into the hour… tonight it’s I’m Yours by Jason Mraz. It’s on par with all the other Idol group-sings; it’s passable, but all in all you’d rather have heard the original version. Big reaction from the audience, though.
Ryan tells us the show was “raw” last night, and they launch into a highlight reel showing performance clips. It isn’t any better in retrospect than it was during the first viewing. They also change up the order of the clips to group the especially weak stuff together and try to paint Tatiana as “the one who turned it all around.” They’re seriously pushing her out to the front this year.
A little banter with the contestants is next. Jackie gives her performance a 91; Anoop says he’s “the most nervous he’s ever been.” Ryan eventually brings Casey out to center stage and she says that she’s just “really lucky to be here.” Randy says Casey shouldn’t be in the competition based on her performance last night… and America agrees. She’s history.
Stephen is up next, saying he was out to “show a different side of himself… you can’t say I sounded bad” bringing snickers from the audience. Apparently America did think he sounded bad, and it’s goodbye to him.
Alexis Grace is up third… and she makes it into the top twelve. That’s one correct decision America. Alexis gives us a reprise of her song from last night. She’s choked up and it starts out rocky, but she gets on track. I like Alexis, but I’m wondering if she’s going to keep it up long term… there have been a lot of one night, flash-in-the-pan performances on Idol. Hopefully she won’t turn out to be one of them.
Ricky and Jackie come out next. Jackie “didn’t think I blew it at all” and disagrees with Simon “one hundred percent.” Simon responds “we’ll see.” We do see indeed, and Jackie’s gone. For his part, Ricky doesn’t even get the courtesy of an interview question before Ryan tells him to take a hike.
Ryan brings Anoop and Michael Sarver out. Ryan prompts: “Michael, I know this means a lot to you…” which would be cruel except for the fact that he quickly follows up by telling Michael he’s safe. Anoop, on the other hand, is out. Michael gets another chance to sing, and he actually does better than he did last night, probably because the pressure is temporarily off. The backup singers are no less annoying tonight, however. Ryan tells us that only 20,000 votes separated Michael from Anoop.
The show takes a moment to plug the new American Idol Experience at the Walt Disney World Resort, which could be fun if you’re into theme parks (I am.) That leads to an appearance by Carly Smithson and Michael Johns from last season… they perform The Letter, and the whole thing serves to remind us why they didn’t make it to the finals. Michael tells us that he has an album coming out soon. Carly appears to be turning into Elizabeth Taylor.
Ann Marie, Brent, and Stevie don’t even get to take center stage… Ryan has them stand in place and unceremoniously gives them all the axe. Good riddance, they all sucked last night.
That leaves us Danny Gokey and Tatiana Del Toro… by bringing them out together, Idol is clearly trying to fuel public outrage with either possible departure. Ryan asks Paula who deserves the top spot: “With this show, it’s hard to say” which doesn’t answer Ryan’s question at all. She finally forces the word “Danny” between her teeth, which is of course the right decision. Does it really matter, though? I’m betting the odd one out gets a wildcard slot anyway, so it may only be a temporary setback. The show cuts to a commercial to build suspense.
Out of the break, a little meaningless banter, and Danny gets the vote. Tatiana’s out – for now – and Danny gets to go through, which is the right decision. Tatiana stumbles around a bit before the other Idols shepherd her back to the seats. Danny gets to sing Hero again, and similarly to Alexis he starts out rough before getting on track, although his performance is all in all worse than the one last night.
Tatiana cries her way through the performance… and unlike past scenes, she doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of comfort from her fellow Idols.
So, to sum up, going through to the next round: Alexis Grace, Michael Sarver, Danny Gokey.
And that’s it. On to the second group of twelve next week. See you then.
Topics: American Idol | 1 Comment »
February 19th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Why in the world would you think that Tatiana would be back at all? She obviously is just way too much for anyone to like. I bet that she received the least amount of votes just based on personality. I’m not sure how much of Idol I can stomach if she is up there whining and laughing on stage every week.