There wasn’t much surprise in this week’s Idol results. Ashthon was clearly the weakest contestant remaining, couldn’t make it to the top five of the girls the first time around, and had done nothing to help her cause. It was as straightforward a boot as you can have on Idol.
Even the bottom three wasn’t all that surprising. Karen Rodriguez hadn’t done much better than Ashthon the previous night. True, she’s been harping an awful lot on her heritage to try and pull in votes – but that’s as likely to turn off people as get them to vote for you. Unless Karen shows serious improvement next week she’s in deep trouble.
Haley was something of a surprise, as country singers have done well in the past and she wasn’t all that bad. The trouble is that she’s not really helping herself build a good fanbase. If she is a country singer, why do Alicia Keys last week? Having a much better country singer in Scotty McCreery isn’t helping, either. Either way, I could see her sneaking into the tour, but not much further than that.
One more note about this week: some observers have started to put Pia Toscano as this season’s frontrunner. Me, I’m not nearly as convinced. Yes, she’s got the best performances of any contestant this season. She’s also doesn’t have the your-mileage-may-vary issues that somebody like James Durbin or Scotty could have. There’s one big question over Pia, though: we haven’t seen her sing anything that isn’t a ballad. You can’t win if all you can do well are ballads; the best recent example of that type of singer is David Archuleta. If she’s not careful, Pia could go the route of the “shocking” boot who goes around the top 7 or so.
This is where I’d normally do a power ranking, but the truth be told is that it would be premature. There’s a clear top four – Pia, James, Scotty, and Casey. There’s a somewhat less clear bottom four – I’d put Karen, Paul and Naima in there no question, with the fourth slot a coin flip between Thia or Haley. The midcard, though, is very confused right now. The likes of Jacob or Lauren have the potential to do very well, but they’re just as likely to screw up terribly. Which way they go will determine whether this season will be enjoyable or be another test in masochism.
