First Group of 12 Try To Impress

I'm a sucker for American Idol, and even though I am wary of the new format, I tuned in with giddiness to watch the first 12 live performances. I was wary because I know the Idol Powers That Be had full discretion to slice and dice the Top 36 into the groups of three that best met their goals of ending up with a moneymaker next May....what would have been different if we'd drawn from a hat for the groups of 12, for example? They have also stacked the deck by showing certain performers over others up to this point (and some not at all), and have further manipulated with performance order (lots of research has gone into this one phenomenon).

That said, I will slice and dice tonight's performances into four groups. Cubs tickets go on sale Friday and I'm once again dreaming of baseball.

Out At First Base: Even though these folks showed promise in auditions and apparently in Hollywood, the transition to a minute 20 and a live band, etc, didn't quite work out for them. Brent Keith of Nashville Star fame just didn't impress...came across as a bar singer with a thin voice who as Simon says, just doesn't have any star quality. Likewise, Stevie Wright, who showed such promise at audition with her "old soul" voice mistakenly tried to sound younger singing Taylor Swift and it backfired. Finally, even though he remembered the words, Stephen Fowler made the deathly choice of Micheal Jackson's "Rock With You", akin to nails in the Idol Coffin.

The change-up pitch: Three folks went into tonight with heaps of judge's praise and lots of press, but didn't quite deliver the goods, yet weren't completely shut out by the judges (but were by me). Despite the hype, Jackie Tohn just didn't work. I don't know if it was her Fast Times at Ridgemont High outfit, the moon shoes, her weird stage antics, but I didn't like it. Judges gave her props for working the stage and for her energy level, but Simon called it clownish, and I think the voting public might agree. Casey Carleson has the "package" but came across as a pageant girl, and like Stephen Fowler made a horrible song choice, even making it worse by changing the lyrics to "Everything HE Does is Magic".....yipes. But, never underestimate the power of a pretty dress. Finally, speaking of pretty dresses, Anne Marie has gotten lots of press and while I think she totally tanked, the judges seemed to blame her song choice as being too big for her ("Natural Woman") instead of faulting her singing, which makes me wonder if they want to give this pretty dress a second chance... which brings me to the ...

Possible pinch-hitters: each of the singers tonight was singing for America's vote, certainly, but they were also singing for the judges, for it is they who will select those with the chance to compete for the 3 Wild Card slots to round out the Top 12. Those tonight who struck out for for whatever reason, I think have a slim chance of being asked to return for a possible Wild Card slot were Ricky Braddy, Michael Sarver and _gasp_ Tatiana del Toro. First, Ricky totally SHOCKED me. This is a contestant we'd not gotten to know thus far in the competition and his performance blew me away, in a Jason Castro kind of way. He does have a touch of theater in there, but overall, I really, really liked him. The lack of backstory and screen time will hurt him with the voting public who has already had time to pick favorites, but I thought he was was of the best of the night and hope we see him again.

We had plenty of backstory with Micheal Sarver and Tatiana, which means the public will either choose them over others, or not. With Micheal, he's a likable guy who reminds me of Josh Gracin...and with 2 kids and a wife, might strike a chord with voters. However, he came across as a wedding singer with no real charisma. Tatiana? A true wild card, since no one knows what to expect, and knowing Idol, they may have her back just for the drama factor. Ugh.

Home Runs: Clear fast pass to Top 12 for Danny Gokey. He's got the perfect storm for Idol. He will be the top guy vote-getter. Top Girl? Alexis Grace, even though she's still a bit rough around the edges and may have taken the "rough it up" instructions a little too much to heart, but still out sang and outperformed the other girls. The third top vote getter? Anoop. Not his best tonight, but people like him, and like Kara said, has tremendous potential and people feel that.

Well, we shall see tomorrow night. What did YOU think?