American Idols Unfortunate Casualties

Maybe after several weeks of warm feeling and strong singing, “American Idol” producers decided they’d had enough. This week, the 24 semifinalists were slashed down to the group of 13 finalists — a good old-fashioned bloodbath, and a reminder that “Idol” still has teeth.
But this scorched-earth tactic, while dramatic, also had unfortunate casualties. Some contestants, seen just a few times in the audition rounds and therefore with little backstory or accrued goodwill, ended up getting judged this week effectively on just one performance. Choose well, like Casey Abrams or Pia Toscano, and sail through. Choose poorly, and be gone before you were known.
Consider this abbreviated evaluation period the first misstep in a transitional season that could have been full of them, but has instead been marked by odd choices with unexpectedly winning outcomes.
These early rounds are meant to separate the wheat from the chaff, of course, but in previous years, a slower pace allowed for the audience to see more of contestants before arriving at the final competition rounds, voting them off two or four at a time, not en masse.
This year, though, poor song choice undid several semifinalists, including Jordan Dorsey, who’s probably already trashed all his Usher CDs, Julie Zorrilla, who in her heart knows she’s no Kelly Clarkson, and Rachel Zevita, who may never be able to watch “Burlesque” again.
Any of those three would have made for strong contenders, and would have likely had more legs than Karen Rodriguez or Haley Reinhart, and certainly more than wild card selections Ashthon Jones and Stefano Langone. (Stefano gets credit, though, for choosing the beautiful Smokie Norful song “I Need You Now” for his wild card performance, and doing right by it.)
For the most part, though, the best of the 24 survived to make the final 13 – the top 5 men, the top 5 women, and 3 wild cards selected by the judges.
My personal preference:
Jacob Lusk
Lauren Alaina
Naima Adedapo
Scotty McCreery
Casey Abrams
Pia Toscano
Thia Megia
Haley Reinhart
Karen Rodriguez
Paul McDonald
Stefano Langone
James Durbin
Ashthon Jones
P.S. Some housekeeping for posterity: Wednesday night’s top 12 women’s performances, ranked: Naima Adedapo, Kendra Chantelle, Haley Reinhart, Pia Toscano, Thia Megia, Karen Rodriguez, Rachel Zevita, Lauren Alaina, Ashthon Jones, Ta-Tynisa Wilson, Lauren Turner, Julie Zorrilla
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