American Juniors, June 18: Five Alive

Last night, the first ten out of twenty performers performed in front of judges and competed for America's votes. If there were lingering questions about the level of talent that American Juniors would be able to produce, those questions were surely answered.

Though the Top 20 was chosen by producers, it looks like they did an excellent job. All ten performers showed that they were certainly appealing enough to deserve their spots. However, nerves separated the strong from the weak, and only five can advance to the American Juniors Top Ten.

Last night, I said that the Top 5 should be:

Danielle White

Morgan Burke

A.J. Melendez

Kristinia DeBarge

Chauncey Matthews

But, I predicted it would be:

Danielle White

A.J. Melendez

Morgan Burke

Chauncey Matthews

Tyler Foehr

Chauncey and Tyler were dicey calls, but I think the sympathy vote (Tyler) and the cute factor (Tyler and Chauncey and Chauncey's sister Victoria) will play bigger roles on this show than actual bona fide talent. It's too bad, but I can see it like the nose on my face.

Ryan welcomes us to the first results show of American Juniors. The ten performers are sitting on a two-tiered version of the bench where the parents bit their nails the previous night. Ryan promises us that five of these youngsters are going home tonight.

Intro the judges, who Ryan says showed "you don't have to be an arrogant son of a --" to be on the judging panel. Justin says he will be singing tonight.

Back to the "real stars" of the night. Ryan asks the kids if they are nervous? Yeah. Do you remember what happened? Oh, yeah.

We get a recap of last night's performances, which you can read about in detail here.

The kids perform the ever appropriate Kim Wilde's "Kids In America." There is enough energy on the stage to light a metropolitan city.

We get to see a spirited clip from the upcoming film, "From Disaster To Catastrophe." Oops. "From Justin To Kelly" is the name of the movie. If you didn't know by now.

Back on the bench, Ryan reads a brief summary of each contestant's critiques (only the good stuff). During this, we see Danielle White has a stuffed pig with a 205 shirt on. If that's a good luck charm, it was doing its work last night! She was clearly the best of the bunch.

Now for the results (and based on the order he's reading, I think this was the order of the votes):

First, A.J. Melendez! No doubt.

Second, Danielle White! Again, no doubt.

Morgan Burke! No surprise!

Katelyn Tarver! This was a surprise... I think Justin's endorsement may have gotten her over the hump.

And, there is only one more name. The six remaining kids are in agony and, sadly, Chauncey or Kristinia are going to be very disappointed.

Ryan asks the judges what they think of the four announced already. Deborah says that it was America's call and if that's what they chose, than it was the right call. She adds for those who may not be picked, just getting this far is an achievement. Justin says he's not surprised, he's curious to see who the fifth is, but he agrees so far. Gladys says she's gonna walk around all cocky, because she chose all of them.

Justin performs an abbreviated "Sorry." Spirited performance, about the best I've seen him do this song.

Ryan goes to the judges for a critique of Justin's performance! Tyler, sitting in Justin's vacated chair, says in his best British accent, "If I'm being honest..." that was funny! Then he says in his own voice that he liked it.

The last of the five (and, Ryan says, the highest vote getter of the night!)... is... Chauncey Matthews!

And that's a show, folks! Next week, we see…

Mercedes Ruiz (9)

Jordan McCoy (11)

Quentin Caruthers (11)

Lucy Hale (13)

Canyon Grove (11)

Brennan Hillard (12)

Lauren Klena (9)

Chantel Kohl (13)

Tori Thompson (9)

Taylor Thompson (11)

They will have to work awfully hard to measure up to the first group of ten! Let's see how they do.

Sting7 can be reached at stingseven@yahoo.com.

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