American Idol Season 13 - Final 2 Perform

Hello fellow Idol watchers.  The end is finally near again!  It's been an interesting season.  New producer, better judges, better voting system, more and more close-ups of J-Lo and a final 2 worthy of winning American Idol.  Yet, the ratings are dwindling fast on this once powerhouse show.  I think America may just about be done with the Reality Talent Competition scene.  But, that won't stop us from having at least 1 more season of Idol next year (and possibly with all 3 judges returning).  Will I be back?  That remains to be seen, but something tells me I'll be commenting on the show until it finally goes the way of Lee DeWyze's career.  Interesting night of finale performances.  I don't think either contestant made any new fans at this point or motivated any extra voters.  I feel like I'm conflicted most years on who actually will win but for many years it's been due to the voting system.  This year it seems like each of these contestants has a compelling case for the crown.  I know who I was thinking was going to win for a few weeks now, but now I'm uncertain.  We'll have to do a quick recap and see if I change by mind by the end!  Let's do this.

American Idol Season 13 - Top 3 Perform

Hello Idol friends!  As warned, I am out of town this week introducing our baby girl to family and friends, so I was unable to provide a recap.  I'm sure I will find time to watch the episode and I already have a strong feeling who is going home.  So feel free to read on to see my prediction as well as a link to an interesting interview.

American Idol Season 13: Top 4 Perform

Hello American Idol friends, I'm back!  I tried to give a little warning that I'd be a little busy last week, but I'm a few of you wondered where I disappeared to!  Though, if you missed it, I posted a mini-Prediction Post totally calling the demise of Sam Woolf before it happened, not that it was hard to predict!  Anyway, due to my family upgrade I'm still stretched for time.  I should already give you a warning that next week I will be out of town and unable to cover the top 3 performances.  But, I'll be back for the finale week!  Anyway, it's one of 2 people going home tonight I'd imagine.  This recap will be as quick as I can make it.  Here we go!

American Idol Season 13 - Top 5 Perform

Hello American Idol fans!  As I've mentioned recently, by this point in time I should have welcomed a baby daughter into my family!  I'm scheduling this post in advance anticipating that I will not have a lot of time to be recapping the show this week.  Considering the results of Top 6 week, I am going to go ahead and make my prediction of who will be ousted this week without any knowledge of the performances. My pick is after the jump.

American Idol Season 13 - Top 6 Perform

Greetings friends and welcome back to our ongoing recap of American Idol season 13!  Last night actually wasn't too bad of a night in terms of performances.  Though, I still have to criticize the camera direction during the performances.  It's hard to get invested in these contestants when we're constantly watching the judges (still mainly JLo) instead.  But, there's no changing that this season.  I happened to see the songs that each contestant was going to perform before the show last night and I had already come up with my bottom 2 and likely eliminated contestant based on it.  My opinion didn't change after the performances!  So, this should be relatively short and sweet!  Let's dive into Rock and Country week.

American Idol Season 13 - Top 7 Perform

Hello Idol watchers!  Interesting "twist" this week with the song selection having the contestants pick each other's songs.  So, clearly they all picked songs they knew each other liked since they've been all living together the past few weeks.  Though, this only seemed to REALLY work out for maybe 3 of them while the others drowned in a sea of mediocrity.  I've been saying it for a few weeks now and it's not really hard to see who the final 2 SHOULD be at this point.  I'm even starting to lean towards who may end up winning the whole thing.  But, we'll get there in due time.  Unless there are any other celebrities we need to give shout outs to in the crowd or former X-Factor judges that need to give critiques, I think we're ready for the recap, right?  Let's go!

American Idol Season 13 - Top 8 Perform (Again)

Hello Idol fans and welcome back for another round of Top 8 performances!  I gotta say, I love a good 80s night and the top 8 brought it for the most part tonight.  Even if some of the performances fell a little short, I loved pretty much all of the songs that were sung tonight, even the duet numbers.  They truly are timeless classics, and I loved hearing some new spins on them.  To top things off we had my 3rd favorite Idol winner (and contestant) mentoring the top 8, Mr. David Cook!  The guy knows his stuff and was the perfect guy to be mentoring them and helping them GET. IN. THE. POCKET!!!  How many times did we hear that tonight?  Anyway, in a night full of pretty great performances I think I have a good idea who the bottom 3 will be.  Who goes home?  That's a big mystery.  One thing is for sure, Sam's save has pretty much ruined things for someone else!   Let's dive into the recap!

American Idol Season 13 - Top 8 Perform

Welcome back everyone!  We're down to the top 8 and we got treated to music we've already heard!  In fact, we were treated to the songs that got everyone on the show in the first place.  So, clearly, these are some of the songs that they know the best and were going to do fairly well with them.  But, I get the idea.  Let's see how far they've come in the competition.  Basically, everyone did decent.  But some people really stood out as always.  I'm seeing this as a 3 way race right now, maybe with a 4th looking in.  Of course we were "treated" to those mediocre duets (well 3 out of 4 mediocre duets) to get us to 2 hours.  But, we'll get there.  Let's recap and see where things go!

American Idol Season 13 - Top 9 Perform

Hello American Idol fans!  Well this was "supposed" to be rock night aka "Let's let Caleb slide this week" night.  But, it really didn't feel like it until the final 2 performances.  Lots of critiques about stage presence and feeling the music tonight.  Most of it was very warranted.  I think it's starting to be clear who has a chance to win this thing this year.  But, it might be questionable who may be sent home.  Let's see what we can come up with!

American Idol Season 13 - Top 10 Perform

Hello fellow Idol enthusiasts and welcome back!  We had a mixed bag of performances last night on the "they can really make this 90 minutes now" rendition of American Idol.  The theme was "Modern Hits" so at least we were in familiar territory for most of the songs sung.  Anyway, I don't have any particular gripes to get into right now so let's just dive into the recap!

American Idol Season 13 - Top 11 Perform

Hello Idol fans!  Welcome back.  Well, that was a relief, right!?  It would seem like most of the contestants got the message from last week and decided that they needed to step up their games.  What a drastic improvement of performances this week!  Was I blown away by everyone?  No, but overall the night just was much much better and makes me feel a little bit better about still giving up some of my sleeping hours to writing a quick recap!  With that in mind, I'm going to skip past any more of this preamble and get right down to business.  Bring on MOVIE NIGHT!

American Idol Season 13 - Top 12 Perform

Hello and welcome back to another "why are we still watching this trainwreck?" edition of American Idol recapping!  I get the feeling that the producers had to step in and tell the judges: "Look, these guys aren't really putting on a show for America.  They aren't 'WOW'ing us.  You guys have to do something.  Light a fire under them butts!  Tell it like it is.  Less praise, more incentive."  And that's pretty much what we got 13 times.  Because, COME ON.  This was a bad night of performances.  People were mailing in ho hum deliveries left and right.  I'm starting to wonder if any of these guys can really bring a WOW to us over the course of this season.  Sure, there were people that improved and others that maybe took a step back, but I'm just not feeling it.  The judges are still entertaining me though, so that's a plus I guess!  Anyway, let's not waste any more time.  Here's how I think they did and my picks.

American Idol Season 13 - Top 13 Perform

Hello friends and welcome back to the American Idol recap that just will not go away!  On nights like this, I have to take a long look in the mirror and question the meaning of it all.  What is the point of writing tirelessly, year after year, about all of these amateur singers?  Is it the joy I get out of ridiculing the disastrous performances that grace our screen every week?  Is it those rare moments of brilliance that can transcend the show?  Is it just the fact that when I start something I have no ability to stop until it gets cancelled?  Probably mostly the latter, but I'm sure it's a combination of all of it.  But, there's no question.  This Top 13 was a strange strange night, and so far it's a strange strange crop of kids.  I'll admit it, I think I coasted through the first hour barely paying attention to the performances.  But, everything surrounding the performances?  Pretty impressive.  The production quality of this season is through the roof, though I could do with less shots of the families during the performances and Taylor Hicks (what was THAT??).  There were a couple of standout performances, but you'd never be able to tell it from J-Lo.  She just loved everyone!  Anyway, I have a pretty good idea who has a strong chance of going home on Thursday, but with this new voting system, it's going to get interesting.   Let's dive in and see what we have.

American Idol Season 13: Rush Week Top 10 Guys Perform

Welcome back American Idol fanatics!  What a difference a day makes.  It seems to be very clear that the guys are in a much better position this season to reclaim the Idol crown.  Most of my favorites from the earlier rounds were in this crew and for the most part they continue to be favorites for me.  I promised to be quicker about this, so let's dive right in!

American Idol Season 13: Rush Week Top 10 Girls Perform

Hello remaining watchers of America's pop culture past pastime!  There was little debate of my return to recapping the live shows for this season of American Idol.  But, I did debate whether I'd start this week or when the finals officially start next week.  On a whim, I decided there was enough to comment on in this first live performance that it was worth a quick post.  Unfortunately, it's not really the performances that I felt were praiseworthy!  After a pretty impressive run of auditions and Hollywood Week, I really thought the show was poised to showcase some amazing talent.  But, it didn't seem like the girls were up to the task last night.  Granted, there were contributing factors like the format of this new "Rush Week" theme.  I can understand the nerves of not knowing if and when you're going to perform and having to be ready to perform on the spot.  But, if you've got the goods, none of that should matter.   And, there is no excuse for poor song choices and/or arrangements.  Anyway, let's get into a quick recap of some of the things I'm excited about this year and, of course, those dreadful performances.

American Idol: Season 13 Auditions, Hollywood and Maybe More!

Welcome back Idol fanatics!  The show is returning to much more positive buzz due to a promising judging panel.  I'm actually looking forward to this season a little more than I have in recent seasons.  But, my available time for extracurricular activities continues to shrink!  We currently have a 2 year old running around the house and we're about to add baby #2 to the mix late April/early May which happens to be right smack in the middle of the live shows!  So, let's take this season on a week by week basis as always!  Per the past several years, I will leave this post up to discuss the auditions and Hollywood rounds and whatever other pre-taped performances might be coming our way.   And I'll still plan on writing up some brief posts for the live performances (maybe not those initial semi-final performances but we'll see if they deserve some kind of write-up!).  In the very best case scenario, there probably won't be a recap the week my baby girl is born and surely the remaining readers of this blog would understand that!

But, like I said, we'll play it by ear.  Enjoy the start of this show and keep your fingers crossed that the changes made to the show's panel and format are for the better!  See you in the comments!