Ryan tells us who's still remaining, out of the 75,000 people who auditioned: Majesty Rose, Caleb Johnson, Kristen O'Connor, C.J. Harris, Breana Oakley, Emmanuel Zidor, Jena Irene, Sam Woolf, Bria Anai, Sam Woolf, George Lovett, Marrialle Sellars, Dexter Roberts, Jessica Meuse, Alex Preston, Emily Piriz, Malcolm Allen, M.K. Nobilette, Ben Briley, Malaya Watson, and Spencer Lloyd. He makes it seem like it's an elite, but there are some of those people I already can't believe are still on the show. There's a long, unnecessary recap of last night's performance show for the guys, and then after the credits, Ryan comes out tieless, which for him is positively underdressed. Don't worry, when the judges come out, Keith is resplendent in a graphic tee as always. Ryan chats up Jennifer for about five seconds, and even though we've got a whole hour to fill, he almost immediately starts naming people who have earned enough votes to make it to the top 13.
The first one is Malaya Watson, who runs to center stage where Ryan sweeps her up in a full-body hug. Malaya seems to know that there isn't going to be a whole lot happening in the hour, so she happily does her part to fill it by throwing herself a minor celebration before making her way to one of the thirteen stools waiting upstage. Also moving on is Ben Briley, who doesn't even go near Ryan on his jubilant route to the row of stools. The name is Emily Piriz, who doesn't seem to have suffered any ill effects from Harry's musical slut-shaming of her on Tuesday. Ryan notices that audience members are calling out names, and then calls one out himself: Alex Preston. Ryan is just burning through people here, calling up Jessica Meuse . And then Dexter Roberts, so it's a good turnout for the country musicians so far. Ryan starts talking like he's going to go to break, but instead he calls up Caleb Johnson, into whose ursine hug Ryan nearly disappears for a moment. Harry gives Ryan props on his quick recovery, because Ryan does know what he's doing after all. The to be called up is Majesty Rose. Ryan turns to those still waiting, and says that the person will…find out after the break. Only two top-ten spots and 45 minutes left.
Coming back, Ryan promises that it's going to get "compelling," and names the person in the top ten: M.K. Nobillette. She gets up shaking her head and smiling like she can't believe it herself. And the last person to hit the top ten is…Sam Woolf. Once again I have underestimated the power of David Gray. Now that ten of the stools have been filled, Ryan heads upstage for a little lightweight interviewing. As Caleb speaks, my son observes, "He reminds me of the guy from School of Rock." I assume he means Mike White. Over at Ryan's right, they're excited about going on tour and how much they love each other. With the possible exception of Jessica Meuse, who just looks embarrassed by it all. I'm starting to think that's her default expression.
Ryan turns it over to the judges, because it's only fitting that learning their choices should take twice as long as the public voting results. Jennifer explains that of the ten remaining people, they're going to have five sing tonight, and then pick three of those for the wild-card slots that will fill out the top 13. With that, Harry calls up C.J. Harris. He's wearing his Australian bush hat for the second night in a row, as he bounds to center stage and sings Sam Cooke's "Bring it On Home to Me," which I seem to remember serving him well earlier in the season. Or maybe it was someone else. He's selling it hard, but after Harry calling it out repeatedly last night, I seem to be more sensitive to people going sharp. Or maybe he's just doing that a lot. Harry points out that both C.J. and the band screwed up, and Harry knows it throws him off when his own band blows it, so he's willing to give C.J. the benefit of the doubt. Jennifer doesn't care, because she felt C.J.'s soul come through anyway. Keith says he seemed to be drifting in and out emotionally. So not a great start, as Harry said.
Keith calls up the person, Jena Irene. Both he and Ryan pronounce her name correctly, which saves her from having to correct anyone. But her performance has to wait until after the ads, which is just as well because they used the break to set up a keyboard for her to sit at. With no backup from the band, she plays piano and sings what may well be an original song, because Googling the lyrics got me nowhere. Not that it sounds like it was written by a 17-year-old, but it doesn't sound like it's being sung by one either. She gets a standing ovation from the kids still waiting for their shot, and Keith says she did a great job, keeping it together during the cheers she earned with her high note and coming off like a real artist. Jena gets to go back and sit on the back couch of the "lounge" with C.J. I can't help thinking that someone got in trouble at the last minute for not coming up with a special place to put the people who got a shot at the wild card spots after they sing.
With little ado, Jennifer calls up Spencer Lloyd. He comes up to center stage with a leather jacket and acoustic guitar, looking like Conrad Birdie, and does a bland, mid-tempo bit of mush-rock about how you girls should just be yourselves. That's starting to become a theme with him. The singing's not that great, and he blows the entrance into the first chorus. The girls love him, though, and if he makes it through tonight he stands to win the whole thing. It's on the judges if he's going to be stopped. Jennifer says they gave him another chance because of what they saw in him at the beginning, but this probably wasn't it. She says he did a "good job," but faint praise from Jennifer is like Harry turning a fire hose on someone.
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Harry feels the need to remind everyone that it's a competition before calling up the person to get a second chance, which is Bria Anai. She joins Ryan at center stage and goes on excitedly about how hard her heart is pounding, then abruptly pulls it together to promise a show. Which she delivers, with an rather overwrought version of "This Is a Man's World." Harry explains that his highly-focused listening-face shouldn't be misinterpreted, and then tells Bria that it was all over the place. That's clearly not what she wanted to hear.
Ryan comes back from the ads sitting on the front couch with the six people who have yet to sing. Obviously Five of them are going to be disappointed. Ryan turns to Keith, who starts with, "This girl we chose…" So that's the end of the competition for Emmanuel, Malcolm, and George, right there. Anyway, he names Kristen O'Connor. So Breana Oakley gets to chalk up another unsuccessful season, and Marialle Sellars is not the American Idol after all. As Kristen heads to center stage, Ryan thanks the losers for coming and introduces Kristen. The opening lines of her song, Katy Perry's "Unconditionally," are somewhat distracted from by the fact that in the background we can see Ryan and the four contestants who sang earlier tonight sneaking away from the couch. She's a little overpowered by the song, struggling with some pitch issues, but it's not like the race for the wild card slots has been all that intense anyway. Keith says it was "really good," but advises that she could have done it in a higher key because the energy from the crowd would have helped her take it up. So then Ryan brings up the other four to join her, and admits that he doesn't know how it's going to go. I totally agree with them. It's not that there are only three spots left, it's that only two people can be sent home.
Finally, it's time to find out the rest of the top 13. The first name called by Keith is Jena Irene, no surprise. Harry lectures them about how they needed to give a knockout performance, which allows him to turn Kristin O'Connor's name into a KO pun. Thanks for the dad-joke, Harry. Jennifer gets to name the last one, and she simply says, "C.J., C.J., C.J." He gets to cop a stool, and that's it for pretty-boy Spencer Lloyd, Bria Anai, and Bria's lipstick. Ryan presents the top 13. One of them is the American Idol, whether you like it or not.
M. Giant is a Minneapolis- based writer with a wife, a son, and a number
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of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter, or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.1 2 3 4