Thoughts and Impressions from American Idol, Week 6

So the first two – EJay and Jim – are gone, and neither is, frankly, much of a surprise. But I’ll get to that in a moment. First, let’s take an overall look at the two shows this week.

I want to begin by celebrating a Tamika-free week. Let’s just hope it’s the beginning of a trend and we never see her again.

This week’s theme (which we’d never even heard about before) was Motown. I guess that’s okay, but I wonder what other weeks will be. As RNO writer Peggy Keller pointed out to me, when will they be having the heavy metal week? Can you see RJ singing AC/DC? Or maybe they will try to latch on to MTV’s hit show and have an Ozzy Osbourne week. Now that would be something to see.

Anyway, this week we were also introduced to another sponsor. As if there weren’t already enough Coke and Ford ads within the show, now we had a Mastercard ad. I’m surprised they didn’t drive to the mall in a Ford and drink Coke while buying all their stuff with the Mastercard. Sheesh.

Apparently there is some additional tension between Simon and the two hosts, as they ratcheted up their sniping to a new level. Some of it is funny, but I have to say that Simon definitely has the upper hand here – he is able to make much snappier comebacks, though Paula (or the writers who give lines to Paula) got him with her “Mad Cowell Disease” remark.

Anyway, you aren’t reading this because of discussions of advertising and Simon (or maybe you are – who knows). Let’s get on to my thoughts about the singers.

Ryan did a very nice job, I thought. It’s interesting, because more than perhaps with anybody else, I have seen a dichotomy of opinions about her. Some people (like me) have liked her every time out. Others just don’t. But I thought she was good enough to give her some votes. To be perfectly honest, I don’t think she’ll win – the competition is just too stiff and there are those people out there who don’t like her. But she’s still good.

RJ didn’t do a whole lot of moving. He does have a good voice, but he certainly didn’t blow me away. Paula said he looked natural onstage, but I disagree – he didn’t look comfortable there to me at all. Instead I agree with Simon, who said he was average and had no presence.

Nikki – who we just found out has a four-and-a-half-year-old son, was, well, rather boring. EJay came out with a Village People look and it was just too much. He seemed to be trying to show his range, but instead he just made animals freak out across the country as he hit notes only they could hear.

Tamyra was damn good. There is nothing else to say. She got my vote.

Justin was even better than that. He had a great presence and looked completely comfortable. Plus, he just kept getting better throughout the song – and I’m not just saying these things because Dana threatened me. The only downside to his performance came when a friend of mine pointed out that he just couldn’t get the image of “Sideshow Bob” from The Simpsons out of his mind whenever he saw Justin’s hair. Now I can’t either. I still voted for him, though.

Jim had the misfortune to follow these two, and while I have championed him throughout, now I have to say it was just an average performance. He simply cannot compete with the likes of those two. Plus he said he didn’t want the sympathy vote. And he didn’t get it.

Kelly was good and looked comfortable – not Tamyra good, mind you, but still very good. She got my vote as well.

While Jim had said he didn’t want the sympathy vote, that seemed to be exactly what A.J. was shooting for with the little clip about his family and all. He was not at all impressive to me, and Simon said if he wins it would be a disaster. Ouch.

Christina was the last to go and had a good song, but not as good as some of the previous singers.

Throughout the songs, I think we see a lesson that the remaining singers should learn: You are more likely to get votes if you get the audience involved and it’s a more up-tempo song. OK, so it didn’t work for EJay, but he had other issues.

First of all, we see that the sympathy vote is dead. Jim and EJay were underdogs, but they didn’t make it past this round. Nikki, who might also have gained sympathy from the story of her son, came in eighth place and had better perk it up next time around or she’s gone.

The next few weeks will serve as a kind of longwinded way to weed out the people we already know are going. Unless there is some huge surprise, I feel very safe in predicting it will be Justin and Tamyra at the end.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline, and can be reached at rno@pobox.com.

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