Top 13: American Idol 2014

Are we wrong to think that Harry Connick, Jr. is the judge with the most clout this season? We spent most of this episode trying to read Harry’s face during the Wild Card sing-off and we don’t think we’re wrong. Read on:

Ryan Seacrest got right down to business in the last installment of Rush Week. After narrowing down the field to 10 girls on Tuesday and 10 guys on Wednesday, Seacrest read out the names of the Top 10 based upon America’s vote. These are the ones who got the most votes, in no particular order:

Girls: Malaya Watson, Emily Piriz, Jessica Meuse, Majesty Rose, MK Nobilette
Guys: Ben Briley, Alex Preston, Caleb Johnson, Dexter Roberts, Sam Woolf

The judges then choose five contestants to vie for the three Wild Cards spots left. They were going to have to “sing for their life,” and were warned it was a very important performance. Those chosen performed in this order:

1. C.J. Harris decided to sing “Bring It On Home to Me,” a safe choice since he did it before, but not a very wise choice if he wanted to stand out. Whatever, this is when we became fascinated by the expression on Harry Connick’s face. It said “this sucks.” Connick took him to task because he and the band were out of sync.

2. Jena Irene went up next with an original song on the piano. Connick’s face said “not bad at all.” Keith Urban said her song choice was a smart decision.

3. Spencer Lloyd thought he was wising up, singing an original ballad called “Ordinary Girls” with his guitar. He started out awful and Connick had the “this sucks” face on but Spencer pulled it off a bit better at the end and Connick even smiled. J-Lo was not impressed, however. Neither were we.

4. Bria Anai was overjoyed to get a chance to knock it out of the park. She reprised “This is a Man’s World” with all the highs, lows and runs her lungs had to offer. Connick must have been aware of his “this sucks” face by now, because he decided to explain that if he looked harsh, it wasn’t a statement on the performance at hand. He was focusing intently on what’s good and what’s bad so he can give meaningful feedback. We still think we were reading the face right. He told her she was all over the place and overshot the mark.

5. Kristen O’Connor got the last shot and she chose to sing “Unconditionally.” It sucked at first, but she got better as it went on. Mid-song, Keith Urban whispered something to an intent Harry Connick, which was probably along the lines of “oh, shit, they all suck.” But, as we said, she got better and Urban gave her a tip to go up a key, which would “liberate” the song.

So out of these 5 performances, we just knew Jena Irene would get the first spot and she did. The second one to get a spot was Kristen O’Connor. That left the three that impressed Connick the least tonight. We’re not going to say the band problems tipped it in CJ’s favor, although it may have been the case when it came to Bria Anai. Connick flat out didn’t like her performance. As for Spencer, we think he only got another shot because of his screaming teens marketability, but the judges realized they were wasting their time, not to mention that they also wasted someone else’s opportunity. Spencer and Bria had to go home.

The victory of getting into the Top 20 was also very short-lived for these guys and gals, who unlike Spencer and Bria, didn’t even get a chance to sing: Malcolm Allen, Emmanuel Zidor, George Lovett, Briana Oakley and Marrialle Sellars.

Guess it doesn’t much matter what we think now, but we would have rather seen a chance at a Wild Card go to Malcolm Allen.