ScarletDevilCCX

I'm still waiting for our first Avril performance on Idol. A lot of the most popular songs probably don't work well for a singing competition but I could see someone having a moment with "I'm With You".

ALANIS! WELCOME BACK GIRL! Pity it had to come in the Danger Zone. Also, what an interesting outfit...

We can only hope. (Well, for Chayce knocking out Hunter, anyway. I'm still hoping Alanis can reclaim some of her old swagger, though not at Casey's expense.

Two best performances so far tonight.

Agree. Also, I think having Beane as one of the possible choices all but ensures that Colin is leaving, since those two are most likely to be splitting and Beane's the superior singer.

Ouch. First real shocker.

Yes, that's correct; no alcohol tonight; I've got a bit of an upset stomach right now and I had a brief dizzy spell at around 1 PM so I'm just going to have some lemon ginger tea...oh, wow. Luke tested positive for COVID so he's resting at home and instead we have a guest judge...Season 1-8 judge Paula Abdul?! Wow, that was unexpected. Paula and Ryan catch up, and she takes a shot at Simon's age. They put up a photo of Paula and Ryan in Season 1. Mom says that the judges don't have anything to decide, and I tell her yes they do, tonight's wild card night. The first person to take center stage is Casey Bishop, and after pausing so long that I half expect him to send it to a commercial break with her standing there, Ryan informs her that she is in the Top Ten. She's singing "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals. Well, she's no Haley Reinhart, but this is good, if a little shouty. 84 seems right. ...Wait, Ryan, the five that will sing for their lives? Did, uh, did someone drop out? Colin Jamieson is up second and he's already hyping up the crowd, and he's not in America's top ten. He's singing "Waves" by Dean Lewis, and it's actually good. Best performance I've seen out of him; I give it a score of 69. I also get confirmation that Wyatt Pike has dropped out, for reasons still unknown. DeShawn's up third, snazzy as ever. He's in the Top 10. He's going uptempo with Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" and wearing a suit reminiscent of fifties groups--my mother name-checks The Platters. This is...just okay. 60. Up fourth is Cassandra Coleman. She's singing "Light On" by Maggie Rogers--oh, this song! I know this song. Again, not blowing me away, but very good, 73. Caleb's up fifth; Ryan jokes that he doesn't recognize him without the hat. He'll be doing an original that he'd been working on when he first auditioned. Ryan's squinting at the card. But Caleb is advancing. The song is called "Nowhere", and of course, he's better on an original than he is on a cover. 74. We need another person for the Danger Zone, but instead, we get another commercial break. The reunion tour continue with Randy Jackson joining via FaceTime. He's hardly recognizable with how much weight he's lost. Paula makes a weird joke about STDs and then makes the letters stand for something else. Madison Watkins is up sixth...oh no, she's in the Danger Zone. And double oh no, she's singing Drake's "Hotline Bling". Of course, it's a huge reimagining, so it becomes acceptable. 67. Ava August is up next, looking ready for prom. She's in the Top Ten, singing "Love of My Life" by Queen. Ugh, a slow ballad. 78, because I can tell it was good, but I'm never going to be a fan. We get an anecdote about the mailman in Ava's neighborhood hearing her singing from her bedroom as he delivered the mail when she was a little kid. We get some of Luke's comments from home messaged to Ryan. Beane's up eighth and has not been put through. He's singing "Grow as We Go". 88! Beane was robbed! Chayce Beckham's up sixth, and he'll go through...yes, he does. He's singing "What Brings Life Also Kills" by Kolton More and the Clever Few. Even better than Beane, I think, so we'll go with 89 to top it. Ryan finally announces the twist that we here at IDF have known about for over a week. Then he announces that Alyssa Wray is safe, and singing "Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston. Please no. 26 even with the impressive big notes. Ryan quickly makes with the pimpage, mentioning that Jennifer Hudson was DM-ing Alyssa. My mom said she liked Alyssa's version better than Whitney's...really? That's one of "the songs", the ones that I'll always critique harshly because my mother sang them to me when I was a kid. ...What the hell are you wearing, Alanis? She is not in the Top Ten. She's doing Demi Lovato's "Heart Attack". And despite the ridiculous outfit, that's a 96. Amazing. Sadly, my commentary for the next few singers got eaten by improperly saving data when I got a PM. I loved Willie and Grace, a 94 for the former and a 92 for the latter. Hunter was not bad, but not great and it was a weird song choice, I gave him a 54. Graham is the last one in the Danger Zone, and he gives another old-fashioned performance, very pretty. 70 seems right. The judges seem to love him, though. The judges made their choices over the commercial break. I quickly count up the gender breakdown of the Top 10, it's 5 and 5. So probably one guy and one girl. Lionel says that they're judging them only on tonight's performances, and on that note, their first pick is...Madison Watkins?! Holy crap that's a bad take. Katy says that the three judges all chose the same two contestants, and the other one was...Beane.

Loving Ava's prom dress. But even when they're sung well, as Ava's doing, I will rarely be a fan of these types of slow ballads.

...Hotline Bling? Really? That better have been chosen with the expectation of getting in. Like the way she reimagined it into something wholly unrecognizable as being a Drake song, though.

We can only hope.

Detective Pikachu! Still need to see that movie; game was pretty good though I found that it seemed to be catering more to Pokémon fans than to VN fans, making it so easy that it wrapped right back around to being difficult for an Ace Attorney/Zero Escape veteran like myself. Happy with all of these results so far. Wyatt's absence is...less than ideal, but it does increase the likelihood that all of the contestants I really care about advance.

Yeah...Season 4 was the first year they had a "Year You Were Born" week, seems crazy that people born during that season are on Idol now. We haven't had one of those since S16, right? We're probably due for one this year; they usually trot it out every few years. ...Actually, looks like they used to do it fairly frequently, sporadically. The record shows that the seasons with that theme are...4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 16. *quickly looks at years of birth for the two rock chicks* ...damnit, 2001 and 2005. I...honestly can't think of anything up their alley from those years. 2002 and 2004 would be so much better. Then again Casey's mostly been singing songs originally done by guys anyway, so she should be fine. I think. ...Oh dear. Please don't let there be a "Year You Were Born" week; I'm looking at the top songs from that year and I think Casey's best option is to commit the cardinal sin of American Idol. (You know, covering Kelly Clarkson when not being forced into it by a stupid theme week?)

You know, you might be right. Loved Angie back in Season 12; can't believe she never got a 5-star performance on WNTS.

Yes, I'll add you to them! Also, according to the Idol contestants stories, tonight they will reveal the Top 16 and they will perform, then we will vote. Then tomorrow, the Top 10 will be revealed and will perform. I assume tomorrow is when the "twist" will also be revealed. So, the way this is going to work for the redo: I will post the Top 16 show tonight. Voting will stay open until Wednesday. Then on Wednesday, I will close the Top 16 polls, reveal the Top 10 and post the Top 10 performances + the twist. Then voting for that will stay open until Sunday, right before the next show, that way, there will be about 4 days to vote for each show. I will tag everyone who voted in last week's shows to make sure you vote before the deadline. Excuse you, I had her first!

1. Madison Watkins - “Gravity” (Sara Bareilles) 2. Casey Bishop - “Black Hole Sun” (Soundgarden) 3. Willie Spence - “Set Fire to the Rain” (Adele) 4. Grace Kintsler - “Elastic Heart” (Sia) 5. Beane - “Searching For a Feeling” (Thirdstory) 6. Cassandra Coleman - “Wicked Game” (Chris Isaak) 7. Ava August - “2002” (Ann Marie) 8. Hunter Metts - “Skinny Love” (Bon Iver) 9. Deshawn Goncalves - “Feeling Good” (Nina Simone) 10. Chayce Beckham - “Waiting in Vain” (Bob Marley and the Wailers) 11. Graham DeFranco - “That’s Life” (Frank Sinatra) 12. Alanis Sophia - “The Story” (Brandi Carlisle) 13. Colin Jamieson - “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” (Tears for Fears) 14. Caleb Kennedy - “Midnight Train to Memphis” (The SteelDrivers) 15. Wyatt Pike - “Use Somebody” (Kings of Leon) 16. Alyssa Wray - “Killing Me Softly With His Song” (Roberta Flack) Each space represents a gap of at least five points in my WNTS rankings. And yes, that does mean that my #8 was slightly closer to my #1 than to my #9 (95 - 80 - 64)

Hey, even I'll concede that she had a down night last week. But a down week for her was still better than the train wrecks that Caleb, Colin, Hunter, Jason, and Madison put up last week. Group B was a nightmare--if I actually had to pick the eight finalists who were most deserving solely on those performances, Colin actually squeaks in at eighth place despite being the weakest pure vocalist of the Top 24 solely on the strength of his stage presence on his solo. And note that I'm not disappointed to see Liahona go despite not listing her in the "train wreck" category. Hopefully America will give Caleb, Colin, and Hunter the boot, though I'm not sure if it's possible for the voters to screw up royally enough that the judges don't save Hunter. (Madison advancing I'm fine with. I didn't like her last week but she killed it this week. She didn't get that much screen time though so I was surprised to see her advance. TBH, Hunter performed well tonight too so I won't be too disappointed as long as he's not advancing at the expense of my favorites, but it was really painful to give him a quality rating tonight because as soon as the song choice was announced I was ready to elevate him back to Public Enemy #1 over Caleb.)

Yeah, I should probably ask to be added since I've consistently called him "my favorite male contestant". Tonight was a bit weird, but still good.

It was neck and neck between Casey and Madison for best of the night; narrowly gave Madison the edge. Willie was the best of the guys.

Colin and Graham are the most obvious choices. Madison I think is probably gone though she doesn't really deserve to go out of this group. I think the fourth will be either Alyssa, Ava, or Caleb; hoping it's the last.

Really Chayce? You're making me regret throwing my support behind you. So pissed that Hannah and Mary Jo are gone; they both deserved it far more than Caleb, Colin, or Hunter. Especially the first two.

Jameson tonight--not wasting any time, since if the spoilers I saw were correct, I'll need it. First to be declared safe is Alyssa Wray, which based on last week's performances is encouraging--she's a PoC and one that "stands out", visually, so she doesn't seem like what middle America wants even if she is from Kentucky. Based on tonight's rendition of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song", on the other hand? Maybe not so much. I'd give it a 27; that was pretty bad. Second to get into the Top 16 from the Sunday night show is Graham DeFranco, who's performing "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra. Uh...not exactly the song choice to dispel my lone complaint about you last week, Graham! But "too old-fashioned" is not a complaint I have about him this week as he's made it his own and brought it into the 21st century. Bravo, Graham! The performance itself was just passable, maybe a 54, but even though from a singing standpoint it was a step back from last week, the fact that he took an old song and made it new is a step forward from last week, where I'm still not even sure if he was singing old songs but they sounded old. Grace Kintsler Kinstler (damnit, not again) is the third to be revealed in the Top 16. No surprise there. Don't approve of the wardrobe choice; I know you know how to dress for your body type because I've seen you do it before. The performance of Sia's "Elastic Heart", on the other hand, has no flaws. 88 seems right. The judges love her and how she took the advice Joss Stone gave her to heart. Alanis Sophia is our fourth advancer. I didn't vote for her last week, but I hope she can come back and put up a good performance. She's doing "The Story" by Brandi Carlisle and...nope, gonna have to cut bait. So sad that a contestant I literally started the fan thread for has fallen out of favor with me...wait, what's this? THERE WE GO! Still needs some work, but there's at least something to work with. 47. Willie Spence is also in the Top 16, and he's Setting Fire to the Rain. Well, that's an interesting song choice...I like it. I'm sensing a moment coming... nope, faked me out. He didn't go for the big note...wait, there it is! Way to justify your "favorite" status! 90. Lionel has no shortage of superlatives, saying God took control of him and comparing him to Marvin Gaye and Luther Vandross.wheelhouse DeShawn Goncalves! Unlike the others, Deshawn's advancement wasn't considered a lock. Unfortunately, he's sending his Repeat Factor through the roof with Nina Simone's "Feeling Good". It's very...sedate, and the glasses and bowtie make him look like a professor. He gets up from the piano at the end and there's the theatrics, those are some incredible notes and instantly jack it up by more than ten points. 64. He's joined in the Top 16 by Wyatt Pike, which is...a choice? I'm not sure I like this choice. He's doing "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon, and...it's better than Eddie Island did? It actually started out seeming like it might be a good performance, but that quickly went away. 30; it was at least better than Alyssa's performance, but this was not good. Cassandra Coleman is the last of the first night's group to make the Top 16. Not horrible, not great. Alana and Andrea getting cut is criminal, though the former is expected, but Cassandra's not the one I have a problem with...actually, TBH, I'd rather take 9 from Group A and 7 from Group B, maybe even 10 and 6. She's doing Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" and it's pretty amazing; I'd give it an 85. Caleb Kennedy is the first from Group B to advance and already we have a problem. He's not one of the 6 or 7...or 8, or even 10. He's doing Chris Stapleton's "Midnight Train to Memphis", and he's...better than last week, but that's not saying much. 34. And it just keeps getting worse! Colin Jamieson is our second one in, and he might be the worst pure vocalist of the Top 24. He's still a top-notch performer but his voice is still lacking. Way too airy. He's doing "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears. Actually, it gets better. 41. "Emo is short for emotional", Katy says. Luke says "Early on you were really breathy and we talked you out of it"...what are you listening to, Luke, that was the breathiest performance ever! Ryan's helping the judges hype him up...oh Lord. Casey Bishop is the third to be announced from this group, instantly making the results infinitely better. She's doing Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun". They showed the judges calling her a potential winner during her audition. I am in favor of this notion. Everything about her is amazing, from her look to her pipes. 94. Luke says "why you chose rock, I'll never know, but it's your thing". Lionel compares her to Janis Joplin--my mother compared her to Stevie Nicks during the performance--and Katy says it was the best performance she's heard from Casey. Madison Watkins is the fourth one through. She's doing "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles. It starts out like a ballad, which seems to be in her wheelhouse, but it's Sara Bareilles so I'm not expecting it to stay that way. But it only gets better! She's getting emotional. I think that makes it even stronger. 95. Way to bring it back, Madison! Beane is up next, and he's gotten rid of the "Mr. Rogers" aesthetic. Now if only he could come up with a consistent identity. Still, he's good in a lot of different genres, so sure, keep going. 87. Katy still can't help but mention "Mr. Rogers", even as she's saying that it's a new side. Ryan decides that his fans should be called "Beanie Babies". Disappointingly, but unsurprisingly, Hunter Metts is also in the Top 16. He's doing Bon Iver's "Skinny Love", which is already a minus. This performance...isn't even that bad. I'd give it an 80, though I still hate him. Ava August is our next one through...not bad, she is one of the six I wanted from this group...but she's #6, and three of the top five are still waiting on the couch for one more spot! She's doing "2002" by Anne-Marie. A great year in music, not that she'd know that since she was born in 2005. It's a good strong performance, 81 I'd say. And we're going to find out our last contestant already? ...Nope, Ryan with the fake-out. That'd be a bit better if there hadn't already been two contestants since the last commercial. To no one's surprise, Chayce Beckham is the last one through. Well, at least one of the ones I wanted got that last spot, and probably the strongest of the three last week. He's doing a Bob Marley and the Wailers song. Oh, come on, Chayce, don't make me regret throwing my support behind you. 55.

Oh me too. Though honestly, it's already pretty obvious who deserves it more.

Wait, there was a second season? Anyway, I...didn't dislike this performance from Hunter. I still want him gone though.

Ugh. I knew it was inevitable he'd make it through but it doesn't make it any less infuriating.

Nothing important.