ScarletDevilCCX

There's a bottle of sake in our house that needs getting rid of because we meant to buy plum wine, and one of the drink suggestions on the bottle is to make a screwdriver out of it, so there we go. Well, just when you thought there were no left sharks, er, sharks left for American Idol to jump, the rumor mill says that the Top 10 will be made a Top 11 via use of the save. I mean, yes, technically the FOX era did that twice, but both times were in seasons where they were already down to 11 finalists at the time! If this week is considered a valid time to use the judges' "one and only save", rather than merely making wild card selections (yes, plural; I still believe that if we don't go down to 10, it's because there are wild cards and we'll actually be getting 12 or 13 contestants), then it can only be logically concluded that last week's episode was, in fact, part of the Finals, not the Semifinals. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. We get a video of Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips performing his hit song, "Home", a couple days before last week's show. And "Home" is the theme of tonight's show. This time Katy Perry is dressed as toilet paper; my mom suggests these ridiculous costumes might also serve to hide her pregnancy belly, though I don't know why since we all know she's pregnant. Since everyone already had their performance, I'm sure we'll see them all. Ryan announces that, yes, the save is available this week--and only this week; if they choose not to use it now, it's gone for good. Our first member of the top ten is Louis Knight. He seems quite broken up, and maybe a little hoarse. Oh, the TP costume is gone. Everyone also got a video session with in-house mentor Bobby Bones. Louis has also been working on his physique; being told he could be a heartthrob really got in his head. He delivered pizzas to the hospital workers a few days ago. He's singing Coldplay's "In My Place", and it's a lot better than last week; I give it a 69. Luke is a bit lukewarm on it, no pun intended. Wait, did Ryan just say that voting won't be opening until the end of the show? ...He did! The voting period has been restored to its rightful place! ...This sake screwdriver is not great. The next member of our Top 11, er, 10, is Julia Gargano. This would sting no matter how many people we were getting down to, but getting down from 20 to 10 in a single week, you really hate bad decisions. Her video piece shows her sense of humor, and it's as bad as her performance of Human last week. She does Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind", and while she's no Kimberley Locke, or even Erika Van Pelt, she's much better than she was last week. We'll call it a 64...which, uh, kind of forces Louis all the way down to a 59. Having a performance from a previous season to anchor my rankings generally depresses them all across the board, unless I get to base it off a performance that I found to be wildly overrated. Maybe I should just try to keep them consistent to myself? Yeah, I feel like that's better. Louis's score stays with what I called it before and Julia gets a 74, but with a note that I liked it less than EVP's 66-rated performance from Season 11 Next week is Mother's Day/Disney theme. And we get Katy Perry and Charlie Puth talking about things, which involves more promotion of Gabby Barrett. Jovin Webb is the third member of our top 10. He's singing "Voodoo" by Allen Stone. And we're three for three on "marked improvements", which is pretty nice because unlike the first two, I liked Jovin last week! I'll give it an 81. Katy said it made her feel like she was at a bar in NOLA having a dirty martini, two things she can't do right now. Ryan gives an ad for the auditions. We're going to commercial again...I'm thinking maybe we're not going to get to hear all 20 performances? Mom always hated how they made eliminated contestants sing, even back when there were results shows, but these performances are recorded a couple of days in advance so that wouldn't really be an issue here. Grace Leer is the fourth member of the Top 10. She's back in her hometown of Danville, CA, for the shelter in place after having moved to Nashville. She's singing "Over the Rainbow". Uh...what do I do when the previous season performances were showstoppers to begin with? Oh, right, rate them for their going point for point. 90. That was every bit as good as Kat McPhee. America's two for two at putting absolutely rancid performances through to the Top 10 as Jonny West is going through, which probably means we'll be five for five in me scoring people higher than last week, if only because there's not much room for Jonny to go lower. He's singing "Faithfully" by Journey. It was...good? I can't use "the previous performances" to rate it since I missed S13 and, uh...I actually preferred KLC's 40 over Hollie's 57. Still, I'll use the latter as my gauge, since I think that it seems accurate while KLC's seems underrated, and call this a 60. It was better than Hollie's, but still the weakest performance tonight. Luke's talking to Darius Rucker. Up sixth is Sophia James. She, too, returned to her childhood home for the quarantine. She says that she's more nervous to sing from home because she and her family also have to be the tech crew. She's singing "In My Room" by the Beach Boys and she makes it her own. Her voice cracks a bit, but she makes up for it with some impressive glory notes; I give it a 76, which means we're 6 for 6 on improvements. I nearly lost my whole topic, though, so I'm submitting it now and editing. Arthur Gunn is the seventh member of our Top 10, and he's singing "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver. Man the Freshness Factor for this episode is low. Oh, but he's doing a reggae version! A little strange for a song about West Virginia, but whatever, it's good. 72. Am I just in a better mood than I was last week? Because it seems crazy to think that everybody improved this week. Wait, no it isn't; last week's episode sucked. Ryan announces that the finale is May 17. This season is just plain stupid; we're cutting down to 7 this week, and I guess from there it's down to 3? Or are we having a 4-person finale this year? Speaking of "just", Just Sam is our eighth member of the Top 10. She said she was staying in California to avoid risking getting her Grandma sick. She's singing "Grandma's Hands" by Bill Withers, and we saw the clip of when Lionel asked her if she's ever felt safe. And whoa! No second-guessing myself on this one; she kicked it up a notch! I'll have to say...81; I can't decide whether I like her or Jovin more. Lionel Richie is chatting with Stevie Wonder on the subject of songwriting. Our ninth member of the top ten is Dillon James. Ryan gives us the vote total; over 36 million. Dillon's singing "Yesterday" by the Beatles, and, uh...I may have been overrating everyone slightly. Or alternatively, I was underrating everyone last week. Because I'm left at a crossroads: I don't think it was that much weaker than Jonny, if at all, but it wasn't as good as last week! Well, I'll call it a 58 anyway, because the anchoring previous season performance for my previous low was a 57 and this is better than that, but I do like this less than the one I rated 56 last week. Ryan pretends there's suspense as to who the last member of the Top Ten is, but we all know that it's going to be Francisco Martin and it is. He's definitely a good choice, but we were already screwed when Julia and Jonny (and as much as I hate to say it, Louis) made the top 10 (My top ten for last week alone also didn't include Just Sam or Dillon, but Dillon was #11 and Sam is certainly an acceptable choice; the middle of the pack was very tight). Francisco's singing "Falling Like the Stars" by James Arthur. It's...the first one where I can concretely say that, no, it wasn't as good. 67, though, is the right place to slot it in. Katy's hormonal and crying. We still have over 10 minutes left in the show, so we know full well there will be an 11th member of the "Top Ten". They couldn't even really pretend with this format; they only have enough time for people still in the competition to sing and the eliminations came based on a previous night's performances. It's basically Season 14's elimination format, except with multiple eliminations. They have decided to use the wild card save, and for the first time in the ABC era, the wild card is white; Makayla Phillips is in the Top 11! Her father is a first responder. She's singing "The House That Built Me" by Miranda Lambert. Bobby asks her why she's singing a different genre. She said she wanted to show a different side of her. It works! 89 is the score; just a touch behind Grace for best of the night.

Marketability. They've also been pushing Gabby while pretty much ignoring both of the two who beat her.

So far I'm 5 for 5 in rating tonight's performances as better than last week's (Grace only barely, because she was really good last week too). Of course, that's also because I only agree with 2 of these 5 selections.

Oh, it was totally horrendous, and I knew it would be the moment the song choice was announced. That song just isn't right for her voice, and she's not enough of a belter to get away with having to sing it in a different key.

Pretty good analysis. I agree completely that song choice was a huge bugaboo...but I think I disagree with you on who failed it. Namely, Jonny and Julia. Jonny chose a song that is nowhere near his musical identity, and I feel like he didn't really sing it that well. And then there's Julia...I called "disaster" as soon as I heard the song title announced, because that song just does not work with her voice. She's a contestant that impressed me early, but she's disappointed quite frequently and I think a lot of her problems come down to her trying to hit notes that she just can't hit.

Yeah, I disagreed with you heavily. I agree that what Aliana was doing was "wrong for Idol", but it was a damn good performance. But seriously, seeing what you had to say about Grace and then about Julia...really? Grace sang circles around Julia. Honestly, just about everyone did, even Franklin (whose performance I found to be rather bizarre). Not DeWayne, though, and not Jonny. I'm not really sure what Jonny was going for, but more importantly, I'm not sure why he was going for it. This was a huge cutdown, and he's going way out of his lane on an open theme. And it didn't work imo.

Oh holy crap didn't even notice her absence. That's probably a shame; I didn't like her last week but that's to be expected when a contestant is covering Jessie J and I'm pretty sure that my personal tastes aside, it was a good performance. Jonny and Julia did not give good performances. I can't remember Jonny giving a good performance since his audition, which is still more recent than Julia's last good performance. But I highly doubt that they'll use a "save" at this point. "Wild Cards", maybe. But there'd be more than one of those. This is the semifinals. There are no saves.

Oof. That's painful. Granted, my top 10 on that night would've had some not-so-great contestants advancing and this sends all three of them home. But Jovin and Cyniah go home while Jonny and Julia get to stay? These rankings are awful!

Same, same. I don't know if it was because I had such low expectations for him, but Nick really blew me away, and the same goes for Aliana. Meanwhile, Jonny was nothing short of rancid tonight. Why is he going so far out of his lane on a night where half the contestants are getting cut?

With a Little Help From My Friends - Casey Abrams, Kree Harrison, Wade Cota, Jovin Webb Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Rayvon Owen, Dalton Rapattoni, Franklin Boone Run to You - Angela Peel, Jasmine Trias, Mara Justine, Aliana Jester Hey There Delilah - Ju’Not Joyner, Sam Woolf, Dalton Rapattoni, Nick Merico Mamma Knows Best - Sarina-Joi Crowe, Stephany Negrete, Lauren Spencer-Smith Warrior - Briana Oakley, Cyniah Elise Teenage Dream - Nick Fradiani, Francisco Martin Human - Jessica Meuse, JAX, Julia Gargano Cry - Mandisa, Grace Leer I Believe - Diana DeGarmo, Fantasia, LaKisha Jones, Syesha Mercado, Joshua Ledet, Curtis Finch, Jr., Just Sam What a Wonderful World - George Huff, Anwar Robinson, Chris Daughtry, Jonny West

Yeah, I think I agree with these ratings more. You've got a good grasp on this. One thing I'd like to say, though: I do feel like Arthur is the favorite, despite being non-white, because the ABC era has skewed very old classic. Per WNTS, only one winner in the FOX era had an average song age in the 30s: Taylor Hicks, at 32.9 years. Maddie broke that record with an average song age of 33.6 (they got a little lazy with the coding, so all contestants in the ABC era have a listed average song age one year younger than they actually had due to the one-year hiatus), and then Laine smashed that at 44.8--which due to the time difference between the seasons, meant he still had the second-oldest music, a mere 1.1 years younger than Taylor's offerings while competing 13 years later. Arthur performs that same style of music. So while I like him, I'm not sure if I really want him to win. I don't think he'd be the best winner. I think the problem is, the people watching this show and voting aren't the ones who they're actually trying to sell records to. We can hope that the large existing online fanbases for some of these contestants will be motivated to vote for their favorites, because the television audience isn't really meeting up with what's getting on the radio.

Sign me up.

I'm not surprised. I usually end up being a very generous scorer, but I didn't put a single performance in the 90s tonight, which is a rarity.

The #1 was correct, and I'll even cut them some slack on the #2 because I recognize that it was probably fairly good but it's just not my thing. After that...ugh. Laughable. That Jonny got a decent score is disappointing but oddly unsurprising. That Julia managed to get ahead of him is ridiculous. And I feel like preconceptions were definitely coloring the reviews even more than normal, because Run to You's song average is lower than what its low had been entering the night and I absolutely refuse to believe that Aliana was that much worse than all previous renditions. I remember that it wasn't worse than the last one. Just Sam looking at easily the best rating on "I Believe" since Fantasia and Diana gave it its world premiere.

Oh, right, and voted.

Not only that, but he sang a lot more oldies, which puts him in the same line as Maddie and Laine. For whatever reason, those throwback singers have been thriving in the ABC era, and that vastly favors Arthur.

Dang, most of the good ones are taken. Ah, well, let's go with Dillon James and Arthur Gunn.

So, here are my thoughts. Going into tonight, Aliana and Nick were the two contestants I thought belonged here the least, though Faith wasn't much above them--ironically, it was her "unseen performances" on the This Is Me that elevated her above them. Her best performances were the ones we never would've gotten to see if she hadn't made the Top 20! But tonight, Faith was solid and Aliana and Nick were outright good. I still didn't give Aliana that many votes because, yes, she did Whitney justice, but how is that relevant to today's music scene? Francisco was the best of the night. Grace, Makayla, and Cyniah were also really good, along with the two I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Sophia lagged a bit behind them, but was still comfortably in 7th place for the night. I'd say there were possibly as many as seven contestants that outright blew it on song choice. It's been well documented on WNTS that "I Believe" just doesn't work unless you're Fantasia Barrino, and I'm not sure if there's anyone who can properly cover Billie Eilish; she's just so unique. I also thought that Franklin's "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was just plain weird, and honestly Julia and Jonny were just completely singing the wrong songs for their voices. I'm guessing maybe Jonny was going for the Israel Kamikawa'ole version? He missed that, too; I think even for that, he's too much of a tenor. But even that was a better fit than Julia's alto trying to do "Human". It's just not a good song for her. What were the other ones I thought weren't good? Ah, right, Louis and DeWayne. DeWayne's song choice probably wasn't great either, but I think their problem was just not singing that well.

In It To Win It: 1. Francisco Martin 2. Nick Merico 3. Grace Leer 4. Cyniah Elise 5. Aliana Jester 6. Makayla Phillips Solid, but a step behind: 7. Sophia James 8. Arthur Gunn The muddled middle: 9. Faith Becnel 10. Jovin Webb 11. Dillon James 12. Kimmy Gabriela 13. Lauren Spencer-Smith 14. Just Sam 15. DeWayne Crocker Jr. Not so good: 16. Louis Knight 17. Olivia Ximines 18. Franklin Boone Can't spell "sing" without S-I-N: 19. Jonny West 20. Julia Gargano

Well, here we are, April 26th, and we've finally reached the live shows. I think Season 15 was already over by this point four years ago. Allegedly, this will be a voting episode, which is already cause for optimism since we haven't been given the chance to vote in the first round of semifinalist reduction since Season 14. Of course, last year's Top 20 episode was three hours long. Is this episode? We get an intro from Ryan's home in Los Angeles, which is beautiful. He introduces our judges, and Katy's off-screen, then comes into the screen in a hand sanitizer costume, except it's American Idol brand Music Sanitizer. Okay, Katy, whatever. Your antics are getting a bit over the top. Luke and Lionel's homes also seem to reflect what you'd expect from them; Lionel's reminds me very much of visiting my maternal grandparents. Voting opens, because of course it does. Kimmy Gabriela's up first, singing Leave Me Lonely by Ariana Grande featuring Macy Gray. Okay, it does appear that the numbers correspond with tonight's order, and voting doesn't close until 9 AM tomorrow, so I'll have time to compose myself. Katy remarks that she hardly recognized Kimmy, because she's had a character evolution. I have to agree; she finally looks like she's just being a teenager. Next up is Jovin Webb, singing "With a Little Help from my Friends". Oh, right, this is an official performance episode! I'm supposed to actually be rating these. Well, neither of these have blown me away; I'll give Kimmy a 50, which is my baseline for "passable but unmemorable", and Jovin a 55 because it was also underwhelming, but not bad. Katy points out the differences that you're going to get in this--whereas Kimmy was performing outdoors, Jovin was in a garage. Also, I had my drink from the start--vodka and cranberry--but forgot to mention it. It turns out that tonight's episode is only two hours long. I kind of had a hunch based on how quickly they just kind of dumped us into the performances. I guess they can do it quicker since they don't have to reset the stage for each performance. Franklin Boone is up third, singing Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". It's...strange. That's not the type of song I'd have expected out of him, and sure enough, he's made it sound very different. Technically, he did some nice things, but it just kind of felt weird and disjointed. I give it a 36. Luke pointedly disagrees and says Franklin was "definitely top 10 worthy". Olivia Ximines is up fourth, singing "bad guy" by Billie Eilish. That's an interesting choice; she's a very stylized artist, so I feel like she'd be a tough sell to cover. And sure enough, I don't think Olivia's doing a great job on it. You know, my initial instinct for Jovin was a bit higher than what I initially put, and Franklin a bit lower; let's put Olivia at 40 and bump the first two up a little bit, to 53 and 58, while knocking Franklin down to 34. Louis Knight's up fifth, singing "If the World Was Ending" by JP Saxe featuring Julia Michaels. Never heard of it, or JP Saxe. And Louis is...once again, a disappointment. He seemed so natural in his audition, but he's been in a rut. Louis comes in at 42, and Olivia and Franklin drop to 38 and 32. Makayla Phillips is up sixth, singing "Greedy" by Ariana Grande. She starts out in black-and-white, showing she's got a good command of effects, and she just blows it open. I had just been thinking that we needed a good strong performance, and Makayla came through. It didn't quite feel like a 5-star performance, but I'd probably have to start knocking everyone else down to put the proper distance between her and the first five so I'm just going to...nah, we'll put the tentative score at 79. Bobby Bones check-in time. ...Oh, I guess it just registered. We're still going to top 10 on the first week of America voting. So, basically Season 12 again, only without the guarantee of a gender-balanced top ten. Aliana Jester is singing Whitney Houston's "Run to You", and it's...a very loyal cover. Probably. I'm not as familiar with this particular Whitney song, but this is a very Whitney Houston performance. Which means that I'm unlikely to send any votes her way because it's not relevant to today's music scene, but I have to give it an 80. Lionel's praise is way too over the top, though, which pretty much seals the deal--I'm not voting for her, even though she was the technically strongest singer thus far. Faith Becnel is performing "River" by Bishop Briggs. And I think my prediction last week is bearing itself out. She didn't impress me at all until she was already into the Top 20, but she's actually not bad at all! I give this a 66. Katy gives her about a "six-and-a-half stars", so if that's out of 10, we're on the same page. Nick Merico is up next, singing "Hey There Delilah" and making it his own. I'm...wowed? This is definitely the biggest surprise ever, both from who it came from and from the song it came on. That's about the most vanilla song ever, and he made it soulful. I give it an 85. Lauren Spencer-Smith is up tenth, singing "Mamma Knows Best" by Jessie J. She also plays with the special effects; this is clearly choreographed. She's on point, but there's a hard ceiling on how high she could climb for me singing a Jessie J song. Faith gets ticked up to 67 to allow Lauren to hit the 66. Cyniah Elise is up 11th, singing "Warrior" by Demi Lovato, and it's amazing. Did they backload the Top 20 episode again? I'd give this...an 82, let's say. She might've oversung it a bit, but it was very solid. And now comes Francisco Martin, singing..."Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry? Okay, sure. Once I contain my snickering, I have to say, this acoustic version is quite impressive. 87. Awesome. performance, and Katy says that he did it justice, though she did of course have a critique because, as she said, this is a song she's sung tens of thousands of times. Sophia James (nee Wackerman) is up 13th, singing "Burning" by Maggie Rogers and accompanying herself on a...synthesizer? I'm assuming the interesting sounds in this performance are coming from the keyboard. I guess it's possible that the backing band is doing that. We've got another winner, though it was lacking that "wow" factor; I give it a 74. Luke says that he feels like the problem was that she was paying too much attention to hitting her notes on the keyboard and it was taking her out of the song. DeWayne Crocker Jr. is up next, singing "I Got You (I Feel Good)" by James Brown. It felt...hollow, and yet, I still feel like I liked it more than a couple of performances I want to rate it behind. ...Actually, never mind. I was thinking that I liked it more than Faith and Lauren, but upon reflection, I don't even like it more than Jovin or Kimmy. 48? Nah, that feels way too weak. I think I massively underrated Kimmy and Jovin, and/or overrated Faith and Lauren. Oh, I forgot to take note of what Dillon James was singing! Ryan even mentioned the group before the break and I still didn't take it down. I was too busy trying to sort out the correction for the death slot(s). Which really hurts because Dillon's caught in the muddling middle, too! I'm leaving Jovin's score where it is and moving Faith down to a 62, putting Dillon at 56, Kimmy at 54, Lauren at 52, and I guess 48 was right for DeWayne after all. It's tough; objectively, I can't give Jovin four stars, but I do have to concede that it was...more enjoyable than Faith or Lauren. But was it objectively better? I'm not sure. I feel like it isn't for Faith. Probably is for Lauren. Arthur Gunn is up 16th, singing "Lovin' Machine" by Wynonie Harris. Never heard of it, or Wynonie Harris, but I can tell that it's another oldie. It's a technically fine performance; I'll give it a 66. I'm no longer worried that they massively backloaded it, but I'm still worried that my short attention span is going to make it tough to judge all 20 performances against each other. I feel like it's lighter outside during his post-performance interview than it was in his performance? I'm wondering if these performances weren't pre-recorded after all. Julia Gargano's singing Christina Perri's "Human". Oh no...I think this was an awful song choice for her; doesn't fit her voice at all. If she can hit the big notes she might be able to overcome that mistake, but...no, I don't think she's doing it. Let's see, what's the worst I've given out tonight? A 32? And on one that I said was technically not bad, just weird. This was outright bad. I'll give it a 17. Major misstep. 18th is Grace Leer, singing "Cry" by Faith Hill. It sounded like she was having some control problems, which is a shame because it was still one of the better performances of the night. Ah, hell, let's give this an 83. There were mistakes, but she still showed that she's one of the best. Ryan again uses the phrase "if (contestant) is your number one, you can vote for them at". No, Ryan, the whole idea of this new voting method is to let you vote for multiple people. Just Sam didn't return to New York when they were dismissed, choosing instead to stay in California. Probably a good choice. Unfortunately, her other choice wasn't nearly so good; she's singing Season 3 OWS "I Believe". It was...very mediocre. 50. Another muddled middler. This time Ryan reminds voters to vote for "all [their] favorites". Jonny West is closing out the top 20, and he's got an unfair advantage because he's got another fan-favorite in his corner. But he's got some trouble identifying when to play it safe and when to take risks. The return of the Fourth Epoch's Lightning Semifinals? Not the time to go way out of your comfort zone and sing Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World". Backload my ass; this ended with a thud. 16, but not the worst of the night; Julia's score will be dropped accordingly. Final scores: Kimmy Gabriela: 54 Jovin Webb: 58 Franklin Boone: 32 Olivia Ximenes: 38 Louis Knight: 42 Makayla Phillips: 79 Aliana Jester: 80 Faith Becnel: 62 Nick Merico: 85 Lauren Spencer-Smith: 52 Cyniah Elise: 82 Francisco Martin: 87 Sophia James: 74 DeWayne Crocker, Jr.: 48 Dillon James: 56 Arthur Gunn: 66 Julia Gargano: 14 Grace Leer: 83 Just Sam: 50 Jonny West: 16 Let's lock that in!

I'd rather skip the alcohol and just inject a painkiller directly into my kneecap, but I'm going with vodka and a rather bad cranberry-lime seltzer. Ryan tells us that they will be coming to us from the judges', contestants, and his home; 25 locations in all. Wait, 20 contestants, 3 judges, 1 Seacrest...a miscount? ...Nah, we probably have to account for Bobby Bones as well. We're reminded that there was a vote between two contestants, but we're not going to find out which one of them's in just yet. In fact we're not even cutting to another member of the Top 20. But then we do--it's time for Francisco. We immediately get an unaired performance from auditions; "Use Somebody". We get reminded that they said he was "Top Ten", probably "Top Five". We shall see. But first, we're going to see another unaired performance, an original song. Luke definitely seems to feel Francisco should be the winner. Next in the "auditioners not in the Top 20" is Kyle Tanguay, Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader. He made it to Hollywood, but not much further. Now it's time for Kimmy Gabriela. Her audition was, of course, great. As was her Hollywood performance of "Say Something". And her duet performance of "Stay". She feels like she's having trouble living up to the standard the judges have for her. But her final performance of Hollywood was, of course, great. I'm not so sure about her Hawaii showcase, but she''s definitely worthy of the judges' praise. She might have trouble living up to all the hype, though. And we've got a montage of Luke fans...oh, to segue into Dewayne Crocker Jr., whose great grandmother is a huge Lionel Richie fan. I forgot about DeWayne. Oh, his biological dad hasn't been in his life...well, okay, yeah, the math says that great-grandma was only 55 when he was born. That's an average of teenage parents over three generations. DeWayne dedicated his Genre performance to great-grandma. My mom says she doesn't remember seeing any of DeWayne's performances; she's convinced he hasn't been shown at all. You only told me twice that your first dance with Dad at your wedding was a Lionel Richie song in response to hearing about his great-grandma's story, Mom! Also, they showed all of the Top 20's showcases. Most of the other Top 40, too. Reminder of how big American Idol is on social media. Here's Courtney Timmons, who just kind of showed up at the audition site not realizing there were preliminaries and just slayed it on "Rise Up". It looked like she made it to duets? Oh, my g-d, Faith Becnel was in a rock band at age 10. A bunch of 10 year olds. She was the lone girl. It's adorable! We're seeing in the audition, Katy was feeling it right away, but Lionel said no...ah, yeah, it was very close. And then she wound up in the Top 20. Her genre performance was unseen, and it's good! The performances we actually saw from her, they weren't that great. Still, there's hope in there, which there wasn't before. Which is to say, this is my rocker chick for the year? Jarred Lettow and his yodeling is our next reminder. I could've done without that one, but here's Dillon James. Rewind effect. Home video of 6-year-old Dillon singing karaoke to Smash Mouth's "All Star". And we get an unseen performance from auditions: "Gunsmoke", an original. Oh, I get it now! Back when he did his solo in Hollywood, I heard "tierra doce", which I translated as "Earth 12". But it was Tierra Dulce--"Sweet Earth". That makes more sense. Kat and Alex (aka Space Cowboy). Neither made it to top 40. Aliana Jester is up now, and we're reminded she brought a support animal to the auditions. Ah, yes, I remember her story now. She had seemed like one of the more anonymous ones in Top 40. Unseen performance time. I could have done without it, and I think her dog agreed with me. Also, it wasn't until the chorus that I even realized that I knew the song she was singing, it was so unrecognizable. Okay, she's taken the mantle of "least deserving Top 20" away from Faith. And in the solo round, she committed Idol's cardinal sin: covering Kelly Clarkson. "Because of You". It was...passable, I guess? She made it safe, which isn't really good but at least avoids a disaster. She'll likely be gone soon, I'm sure. The comically oversized s'mores cookout that a shirtless contestant interrupted. And then Louis Knight's original song, "Change", in his audition. He's been in Philly for 9 years--so since he was 10. His parents say he's got a new song every week. And then an unseen performance, not an original. I agree that his Hawaii showcase wasn't great, but he was so good going up until then. Of course, they're still playing Castle on the Hill. It's almost obligatory; Katy may have gotten "Harry Styles on X Factor" vibes in Hollywood, but he's obviously the next Ed Sheeran. As we go to commercial, we get a video message from Season 16's Gabby Barrett and Cade Foehner, now married. Reminder of Katy being weird at the Oregon auditions, and then it's on to Jovin Webb and his stellar audition performance of "Whipping Post". His mother died in 2012 and he took it really hard. But then he became a father, and his son Javin pulled him out of his funk. Speaking of which, the weather forecast says there's going to be about a week of rain. My joints are not happy about this. Reminder that Katie's pregnant. Segue into the girl who brought a rather large extended family, 17-year-old Cyniah Elise. Video of Cyniah singing in church at age 2. Not bad for a 2-year-old. And damn good in the present day too! And finally, we get to find out who got the 20th spot. Grace gets the spotlight first; she of the American Juniors appearance. Unseen performance, wonderful. She's in tears in her interview. The judges' comments in Hawaii suggested that they loved her. Lauren's turn. She's got a crazy awesome Nana who's her biggest fan. Also she's got a fiance who's like twice her age. We're reminded of her original song from Hollywood, "God Made A Woman". See, they're both amazing! Why couldn't we have both of them and get rid of Aliana or Faith (or better still, Nick Merico)? The Hawaii Showcase wasn't it, though, so Grace was my pick. And back to Ryan's living room...and Lauren's, and Grace's. On remote! And the 20th member of the Top 20 is...Grace Leer. They're both really sweet.

Tonight we've got Ole Smoky Salty Caramel Tennessee whiskey. Ryan gives us an intro that's presumed to be live. And we learn that "tonight's" special is in fact a two-week event. But he also says that we'll soon be voting on our Top 20! Is...is this real? Are we actually going to get to vote on more than 14 contestants for the first time since Season 14? Up first to introduce us to her life is 16-year-old Lauren Spencer-Smith of Vancouver Island, BC. We get our first "unseen performance", looks like it was at the auditions and it seems to be the song that earned her such a viral following on social media in early 2019. Okay, this is still going so let's do some math...two weeks means 4 hours, for 20 contestants, so 5 contestants an hour, that's 12 minutes per contestant, minus commercial breaks. Okay, that seems like a decent amount! Everyone should get sufficient airtime. ...The producers must hate this. This is the second straight year we've had something like this, but last year it wasn't until we'd already reached the Top 10--actually, I think it was after the Top 10 show, so they only had to show the Top 8. Sorry, producers, all 20 of them are going to be "Promo" this year! Oh, wait, I forgot, they said right at the top that they'd also be checking in with "fan favorites" like garbage man Doug Kiker. So it's less than I'd previously come up with, and I'm presuming that 12 minus commercials comes out to at most 8. I don't think this was nearly as much commercial as I expected. We check in with Gilberto Rivera for a bit before flipping over to another subway singer who's still here: Just Sam. She says she had some trouble fitting in, growing up, because she couldn't really easily be categorized as "girl" or "guy". Well, okay, glad I got that from her mouth; I did feel she seemed unfeminine even by tomboy standards. She still seems to have some self-esteem issues. Oh, right, but I'd forgotten, she did doll herself up a bit more for the Hawaii performance! Man, I remembered her rising up my favorites list recently, but I'd forgotten that that was why. Oh, and Ryan actually did say hi to Sam's grandma on air with Kelly! That's so cool. Next up we get Margie and Jonny again. Man, Jonny's audition was cool! His "hip-hop name" in his early days was "Skinny Neutron", which is the nerdiest name imaginable and I love it. Though I'm reminded that he didn't have the best Hawaii performance. Or was that my opinion? I don't remember. I feel like I kind of like it now. Oh, yeah, Hunter "The Comeback" Gibson! He was fun! Even if he wasn't that good. He says he'll be back next year, and then it's Olivia Ximines's turn to get her showcase. We get an unseen performance of her in the genre challenge and it was pretty good. Then we get her duet with Isa Pena, and her Hawaii performance (I still say that bright yellow tasseled thing was hideous). Oh, no, we've got "Lou Dawg", the guy who didn't know any of the judges. I forgot about him and I'm wishing I wasn't reminded. But now we've got Sophia Wackerman. Her audition was beautiful, and we also get her father saying that a couple years ago, Sophia's lower range started sounding more like her mother's and he wasn't sure if Sophia even realized it. Well, she'll know now. I'm not sure if I remember this performance of hers we're seeing now; maybe it was an "unseen performance" and I missed the tag. She might be one of my favorites (especially after losing Shannon and Genavieve in Hawaii ). And she is changing her stage name...but not to Sophia Star. She's now going by "Sophia James", to honor her brother. Nice. She's definitely one of my favorites now. Checking in with Zack Dobbins, who didn't make it all the way to the Top 20. Still, I like his attitude. "Views are views". He recognized that some of the people might have been making fun of him, but hey, they still came to see his page. Now it's Makayla Phillips's turn for a showcase. We're reminded that she went out to auditions in 2017 but was two weeks too young. She is also a self-professed nerd with hundreds of comic books at home. We're also reminded that she teamed up with another Top 20 contestant in the Duet round. Are they going to head right over to Cyniah now, or are they going to pad this thing out by putting her in next week's episode so they can show that performance again? Franklin Boone is the next to get a showcase. He's got a good voice, but he's probably not going to go far; too many factors against him. For starters, he's a family man. We've only had one married winner and one winner with a child, and they weren't the same person. We get to see an original song that he performed for the judges at his audition at their request, which had originally gone unseen. But he's good. I like him. And he sang "Daughters" for Zoe at the Hawaii showcase. Also, if there was any doubt that they're finishing out this season, it's long gone. Due to the quarantine, they're not holding the usual audition tour: Season 19 auditions have already begun! Seacrest will also be hosting the Disney Sing-Along on Thursday. We come back to Eliza Catastrophe, who sang a very silly original song and didn't get through. But she made a mark! Also she apparently won a pun competition at some point. Which brings us over to another person who auditioned with an original song: Julia Gargano. When we first saw her audition, I liked it, but last week when we saw the clip of it at Final Judgment, I didn't. Let's let today be the tiebreaker. ...I like it! I understand why I was critical of it last week, though; it wasn't perfect. Something in the lyrics reminded my mom of something I wrote when I was really little and they had framed, and I learn that she thinks that my sister was jealous of it for a while. I never knew that! It always makes me feel weird whenever I think of my sister being jealous of me. I'm a screw-up! I'm a bundle of wasted potential. Social Media influencer Isaiah Grass is our next "memorable auditioner". Why did they not even put him through to Hollywood, again? He's got a beautiful voice and a beautiful face. And Lionel gave him the "it's a no for now", but that meant a no forever because he's already 29 (how'd that happen, anyway?) That leads into another cocky pretty-boy, Nick Merico, who I still feel doesn't belong in the Top 20. Wait, why did I feel that way? His showcase performance was just fine. Yeah, here's our catch-up with Douglas. It really is amazing that someone who didn't have any experience besides singing on the back of a garbage truck was that good. Oh, and checking up on him, he's got a proper set of teeth now! And now we get a showcase for Nepal's Dibesh Pokharel, bka Wichita's Arthur Gunn. The American dream at its finest. And he's been covering mostly classics, which means he might actually be a contender? Yeah, let's go with that! Last year I was skeptical about Alejandro lasting very long because of his race, and he ended up as a runner-up. So why can't a South (Central?) Asian win it, especially when he fits a similar musical profile to the last two winners? Though his parents' portion of the interview has to be subtitled. And here's the part where Ryan announces that online auditions have already opened, via segue from Arthur's online audition. We still don't get to find out who won the Lauren-Grace duel, even though voting closed roughly 5.5 days ago.

21, even. Unless that's why we're getting a special with little or any new footage next week. Since voting's only open until...Tuesday morning, that gives them plenty of time to get the winner of the fan vote their equipment as well without having to send it to the loser.

Yeah, I'm on team Grace, too, but there were a lot of missteps IMO. Also, even taking into account the quick "no" montages, I only counted 34 contestants whose verdicts we saw given.

#SorryNotSorry again. They're trying to drag this out as long as possible but this is going to be the last episode. They remind us that they've only shown 8 of the 20 to make it. Oh, right, Dillon James performed right before the end of the episode and they ended it before his fate was revealed. So really it's 9 of the 20. And I think it's 7 guys and 2 girls. That's bad enough, but one of the two girls is essentially just there to be eye candy--like Michelle Sussett two years ago, except not as attractive and possibly not even as talented. Then again, Michelle only started impressing me once we got to the voting rounds, so maybe Faith will follow the same arc and actually get good once the competition really starts...whenever that is. But we'll probably get a third, because now it's Genavieve Linkowski's turn. She's singing Lauren Daigle's "You Say" and dedicating it to Corinne. And everything is firing on all cylinders--looks, voice, stage presence, all at their peaks for her. Luke gives us the obligatory reminder that they're trying to pretend that they restarted the season numbering when they changed networks. We go to commercial before she gets her fate, but it sounds like she won't make it so obviously she will. They're padding the episode out by reminding us of about half of what happened last time, including Genavieve's conversation with Bobby. I don't remember there being that much padding in last week's episode, so were they really planning on putting the last 11 yeses in the final hour? Also, I read them wrong; it really was a no. Franklin Boone is up next, and I remember him being pretty good? He's singing "Daughters" by John Mayer and dedicating it to his little baby girl. I'm not a big John Mayer fan, but this is a good performance. At this rate, we may be guaranteed a male winner before we ever get a chance to vote! ...Well, no, we've already got Just Sam to be the obligatory minority wild card selection, not to mention they kept hammering home that Kimmy Gabriela was Top Ten (she shouldn't be). Franklin moves on, and we're off to commercial again. Also there's a "shocking twist". I'm still guessing that the only twist is what we already know, that the Top 20 will have to come back another time because of the coronavirus, but they're making it sound like it was something that happened in realtime. Julia Gargano's up next. I think I'm glad she's still here; they seemed shaky on her last round. Or maybe she just wasn't that good? They showed her audition again and I thought I remembered it being better than that. She's singing Pink's "Glitter in the Air". It's pretty decent; I don't care either way about her. Yeah, I don't think I'd take her along. She'll probably make it. She doesn't deserve to. She does. 8-3. Luke says "It's America's choice now". Don't lie, Luke; they haven't allowed us to vote with 20 or more contestants remaining since Season 14. We go back to commercial, because they have to pad this out over two hours. Aliana Jester's up next. I'd forgotten about her. I remember her being there before, but I forgot she was still here. But they're giving her an extended pimp piece, so maybe she's here to stay. She's singing "This Is Me" from The Greatest Showman. She's pretty good. And yeah, she stays. Acceptable, I guess. But since they're padding it out, we get the remainder of the performance even after we've heard the verdict. Sophia Wackerman is up next, and she's getting a pimp piece, too, surrounding her relationship with her brother, who has Fragile X Syndrome, which causes a mental disability. Sophia's performing "Levels" by Nick Jonas. I'm not sure if I like the song choice, but it's allowing her to show off her stage presence. And she's got no shortage of that! Also, glory note. She definitely belongs. Katy seems to be suggesting that she wanted Sophia but was overruled, but it's another fake-out; Sophia's going through! Also, it's really interesting; when they showed her walking to her judgment on her own, I was like "holy crap that girl's got legs!", but then when you saw her with the judges after getting her yes, Katy's quite a bit taller (and no, Sophia wasn't wearing flats--not even close), and back in the room with all the contestants, she's also well shorter than the famously diminutive Ryan Seacrest. Even in heels. She's just proportioned in such a way that she looks taller when you don't have anyone else to compare her to. I like that. We get another "previously recorded" on the screen. It's not even the top of the hour. Robert Taylor III's up--wait, wasn't he performing last time? No, that was Dewayne Crocker Jr. They both have suffixes so I got mixed up. He's playing to the crowd and singing..."Take Me to the Pilot"?! Nicely done! He admits it's a risk...and it is. It didn't pay off imo. My mom, who's a huge Elton John fan, says that this was a bad song for him and it's barely a good song for Elton John; it's really hard to sing. I think it'll be a no. It is. Katy says "Keep working, but don't overwork it, and keep the hair." Bobby Bones comes out to console him, because it's clear he took it hard. And to commercial! We're nearly at the end of hour 3 and we're only at 12 selections. Is this really only a two-hour episode, or is it the full three? Oh no wait it's 13. I miscounted because literally the only time all episode that two people performed without a commercial break between them, they both went through. So I saw my count of 8-3 two paragraphs ago and registered it as now being 8-4 when it's really 8-5. The initial trip to Hollywood was Kimmy Gabriela's first time on an airplane ever. And we're reminded again that her father was a famous musician in his own right. Oh, yeah, I remember now, she had a tendency to wear outfits that try to hide how young she is. She's singing "You Don't Do It For Me Anymore" by Demi Lovato and it's honestly pretty good, and she's dressed more modestly than in Hollywood Week, but still not hiding how attractive she is. Given that they've been obsessed with her from the start and she fulfills their need to correct for America's racism by only taking minorities for wild cards, why do we need Faith when Kimmy's here? And surprisingly, the judges' reactions to her performance were rather negative. Everything Katy's saying is suggesting that she's going home, and we go to commercial before we get a concrete yes or no, but it's really suggesting a no. Usually I assume that means yes, but I got burned by that with Genavieve. So even though I've been certain for quite some time that she'll make the Top Ten on the judges' will alone, I'm not going to call this one way or the other. It's a shame, though, because that's probably the best she's sounded all competition. We get a recap of what Katy said before the break. Kimmy is going to the Top 20. And we're back at a decent ratio, 8-6. I haven't been counting how many noes. We're getting no montaged. I can't even give you names but it's fine because I don't recognize any of them, I don't think. One of them I'm not sure if I've ever seen at all, and can't even be sure which gender they are. And up next is Shannon Gibbons. We're reminded that she got a huge compliment from Katy at her audition. She's singing "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)" by Adele. I think it's a good song choice for her voice, but she doesn't do terribly well with it; I think she forgot the lyrics at one point. Add that to the theme of this segment being "not everyone can make it", and I'd say it doesn't bode well for her. Katy asks her how she thinks she did, and she admits it wasn't her strongest vocal performance because she was just vibing off the crowd. It sounded optimistic at first, but no, she's not going through. Looks like the rain is starting up again. It looks like we're getting evidence that the judgments aren't shown in order, either; the room where people wait for their judgment looks awfully sparsely populated, but there are a number of people whose judgments we've already seen still among them. Advertisement for Aulani. Looks like a lot of the younger female contestants bonded. We're getting them montaged. Cyniah Elise is doing the original "Lady Marmalade" by Labelle, and it's pretty good. I'm fine with her going through. Still, based on the opening, I thought we were getting a montage, and we're hearing the performance start to finish. Makayla Phillips is singing Demi Lovato's..."Sorry Not Sorry". Damnit I didn't plan that! But this is a definite yes from me. I'm not sure they'll agree, though; it did feel a little "hollow". But maybe that's just that it's a pop song. Lauren Spencer-Smith is singing Aretha Franklin's "Respect", and with her hair pulled back like that, I'm looking at her face and I'm seeing a certain other contestant who sang that song on this show way back before little Lauren was even born! All three go through. No, wait, never mind, they only showed Makayla and Lauren! ...But Cyniah made it, too. 9-8 females now. And Olivia Ximines was separated from the other young ones, so I'm guessing she doesn't make it through? Eh, she's superfluous with some of the others that got put through. She's doing "Proud Mary", and she makes the mistake of shattering the producers' illusion by acknowledging that she's the last contestant of the night. The judges correctly guess that the coat she comes out in is a prop. It is; she sheds it when the song picks up. Which is kind of a shame because the dress she's wearing is hideous. But the judges are impressed; I think I read the editing wrong! She's adorably unfiltered; in her post-performance interview, she says she needs some water and she needs to pee. Oh, right, she was the one who brought the rest of her dance team to her audition. Heh, maybe she's the "performer" of the season. Except, you know. she's actually a good singer too! And she's in. 10-8 girls, and we've still got a half hour left to fill. ...Dare I say that the hiatus might actually be a blessing? This Top 20 is looking awfully young all of a sudden. And the twist gets a little more foreshadowing. Luke: "We couldn't make a decision." So...are we going to get a sing-off, which is something that happened in the FOX era too? Or are we going to get an impromptu Top 21, which is exactly like when we got a Top 25 in Season 11? Except, you know, unlike in Season 11, it won't matter one bit because the voters still won't get to vote on anyone until there are only 14 contestants left. Why exactly is this the last episode, anyway? Did they just not get around to narrowing it down to the top 14 before this crisis hit? I mean, we all know that they know exactly who they want already. Yeah, I'm almost certain we're getting more than 20 contestants in out "Top 20", because here's Arthur Gunn and he's obviously going to be #19. We're reminded that he did two different arrangements of the same song in his Audition and in Hollywood. And for his Hawaii performance, he's doing "Is This Love" by Bob Marley and the Wailers. Yeah, definitely going through. He does make it. Next is Demi Rae, who I forgot about but I liked her before. She's doing "Lonely" by Noah Cyrus. Okay, yeah, she's definitely not making it, if only because I went back and counted and we're at 19 acceptances and only 12 rejections. It's not a great performance anyway. But Ryan even reminded us that we were at 14 acceptances when we came back from break just before the four girls all made it through! Anyone can count that we're at 19 already! Demi Rae is not making the top 2X. Okay, this segment took us to 15 minutes remaining...did they montage some more contestants when I wasn't paying attention, or are the remaining rejects not worth our time? Well, they insist that 38 contestants have received their results...and the last two are Grace Leer and Lauren Mascitti?! No! They're both great! Grace sang "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin (Mom, of course, has a problem with the fact that it's credited to Aretha and not to Carole King, but Carole started out as a songwriter only and switched to singer-songwriter later; she wrote it, but Aretha was the original performer.) It's beautiful, of course. And now we get Lauren and her grandparents. Wait, am I getting Lauren confused with someone else? Wasn't she the one who had the much older fiancé? She's singing "Two More Bottles of Wine" by Emmylou Harris, and it's a very country performance. I...think I liked Grace better? They were roomies in Hollywood; they've made friends, and they're sad that they can't both go through. Lionel follows up on what Luke said and said that they couldn't agree. But...the decision is...OURS?!?!?!?!?! That's...legitimately a new twist! I'm amazed. Also, we're still not done for the season. They're doing an introduction to your top 20 next week, another two-hour special. Of course they are. I wonder what they'll do for the rest of the time this season was scheduled to run? Probably just show reruns or something. Out here on the East Coast, however, the Idol continues as the judges and Ryan are guest starring on The Rookie. It's just a goofy little weird opening; one of the production assistants mistakes Officer Chen for an auditioner and she ends up singing "I Never Loved A Man". It wasn't good enough to make it to Hollywood IMO but it looks like the judges were about to give her a golden ticket when she has to rush off because she's still on duty.