The Buzz with CCX - Season 20 Episode 15

[ScarletDevilCCX]

Ryan Seacrest announces a twist no one saw coming, despite the fact that he's been telling us about it for a couple of weeks now. This is the first ever judges' song contest, and...he refers to the three judges as "our competitors"? Okay, that's...ah. Each of the contestants was given three songs, one by each judge (though they don't know which came from which judge) and chooses one of them, which is how the judges are scored. Nicolina's up first, and opts for Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" over Adele's "Somebody Like You" or Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". I would've gone with the Adele song; Kelly Clarkson songs have hardly ever covered well on Idol and the Titanic song produced a quality contestant's biggest misstep. And...yeah. I'd give this a 38. Nicolina remembers Katy asking her if she had any Kelly in her repertoire back in auditions and thinks she was the one who chose that song, but nope, that was actually Lionel's pick. Go figure. I'm glad that I do not, in fact, have a meeting that would've caused me to miss the first half of the show tonight, which was a very real risk, as I'm almost sure that I would've voted for Nicolina blind, and I don't think I'm going to vote for her after that performance! Mike Parker's up second, and I didn't see the options he turned down but he's singing "Chasin' You" by Morgan Wallen. I'm guessing that's not Luke's pick; what I saw in that package was that Luke has been speaking out against the racism in country music, and Morgan Wallen is the poster boy for country artists as Trump Republicans. That said, the performance wasn't bad; I'd give it a 60. But no, it was Luke. This is becoming a bromance.

 

On the first commercial break, I manage to slip out to get my drink, Sam Adams Boston Lager. Fritz Hager is up third. His choices are Oasis's "Wonderwall", The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows", and Ed Sheeran's "Perfect". And...damn it, he chose Wonderwall. If this were even a few months ago, that would immediately be grounds for a 0 (seconds listened to), but I've managed to come to grips with my own personal traumas. Unfortunately for him, it's still only about a 6. Fritz thought it was Katy's pick, but nope, she's always been a California girl; she picked the Beach Boys. It's Luke's pick!

 

Christian's choices were Sam Smith's "I'm Not The Only One", Stevie Wonder's "For Once In My Life", and I didn't catch the third but he's not even considering that. He considers both, but goes with the Sam Smith song. It's...pretty good, but I think it also shows that there's only so high he can go. I give this a 68. Katy's finally on the board.

 

Noah Thompson is up fifth. John Mayer's "Bigger Than My Body" and "Heartbreak Warfare" are two of the choices, along with John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads". It seems obvious that he'll choose "Country Roads", especially as he says he doesn't even know the other two songs...but he's not feeling it! Vocal coach India Carney backs him up on taking a risk, and he goes with "Heartbreak Warfare". I'm not a John Mayer fan...but I might actually be becoming a Noah Thompson fan! 85. Luke gets his third point, much to everyone's surprise as they all thought he would've been the one to pick the John Denver song. Lionel doesn't like this game. He picked the other John Mayer song, which means Katy picked the John Denver song!

 

Lady K is up sixth, and I'm hoping that it's time for Miss Inconsistent to swing back towards a good performance because this is starting to reach the "Smile" by Nat King Cole, "Jesus, Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood, and "traitor" by Olivia Rodrigo. She only knows the second song and has a personal connection to it...but she still picks "traitor", which kind of speaks for itself. Lady K thinks the song choices were obvious, and she's got a point, as we've got an oldie, a country song, and a current pop song. But she's wrong as it's actually Lionel's pick! Also, it was good; I'll give it a 78. Huntergirl is up seventh, and she's got two Dolly Parton songs, "9 to 5" and "Here You Come Again", and a Dixie Chicks song, "Wide Open Spaces". She goes with "9 to 5", and it's a perfect choice; 88. And Luke gets another point, now leading 4 to 2 to 1. Katy now needs to sweep the remaining contestants to win this meaningless competition, at least, it's probably meaningless, Ryan did keep mentioning a twist.

 

Disney Night is up next, and the contestants will be heading back to Disneyland Leah Marlene is up eighth, and her song picks are "To Make You Feel My Love" by Bob Dylan, "The First Cut Is the Deepest" by Cat Stevens, and "Steve McQueen" by Sheryl Crow. She goes with the Dylan song. It was, of course, amazing. 90. She's my favorite. Katy gets her second point, which means that she's still alive but Lionel is also now on the verge of elimination, or at least, elimination from winning it outright. A Luke win would clinch it with two contestants remaining; Lionel or Katy winning the next pick would eliminate the other from an outright win but allow them to tie Luke by winning the last two.

 

Ugh, there's enough delay that I got all 10 of my votes for Leah out before it acknowledged any of them. And up ninth is Tristen Gressett! His choices are "Paint It, Black" by the Rolling Stones, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" also by the Rolling Stones, and "I Want It All" by Queen. He goes with "You Can't Always Get What You Want". I would've preferred "Paint It, Black" for him, but he's still going to rock out. ...62. He overdid it on the choreography and the vocals suffered. Lionel's got his third point.

 

Up tenth is Emyrson Flora. Her choices are "lovely" by Billie Eilish, "Starting Over" by Chris Stapleton, and "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper, and she's excited about the Billie Eilish pick but she also considers the Cyndi Lauper song. She goes with "lovely" though, and what a pick! I honestly had forgotten she was still in this competition, but I certainly won't make that mistake again! I give her a 97. I think that was Katy's pick? So Luke's clinched a share of the win, but either of the other judges would tie him if Jay picks their song.

 

His choices are "I'll Be There" by the Jackson 5, "Lilac Wine" by Jeff Buckley, and "Caught Up" by Usher. He goes with "Lilac Wine", and it's a good performance from our king of inconsistency, I'll give it an 82. And Katy rallies to tie Luke for the win!

 

Noah is the first to be declared safe. Second is Christian, and third is Fritz--ugh and ugher. Fourth is Nicolina and fifth is Huntergirl. Sixth is Emyrson. Seventh is Leah--still going! Eighth is Jay--not pleased even if I liked him tonight. Ninth is Mike! But the judges who won get to save one of the remaining two. They pick Lady K. I'm surprised; I thought they loved Tristen.