American Idol: Season 14 - Final 2 Perform

Hello America! It is with mixed emotions that I bring you this season 14 finale post.  You may have heard that FOX announced that next season, season 15, will be the final season of American Idol.  I thought, once again, of retiring from this blogging tradition but I am more than determined now to power through to the end.  Announcing the show's final season a year ahead of time was a great idea to drive up anticipation and really plan a great send-off for this groundbreaking show.  I already have a vision of all 15 winners standing on that stage in the series finale and it's awesome.  (Granted, half of them don't belong there and there's a chance winner #14 may be one of them, but whatever!)

That's all I have to say about that for now.  We do have a winner to pick, and before we even do that we have to talk about one more surprise elimination.  Let's dive in.

American Idol: Top 4 Perform, 3 Move On

Hello fellow Idol watchers!  We are nearing the end of yet another season.  This has been a difficult one for me to stay invested in for more reasons than one.  But, I'm going to power through to the end!  Let's dive right into a very quick recap that will set up next week's final 2 episodes (airing Tuesday from 9-10 Eastern Time and the Finale on Wednesday from 8-10 Eastern Time).

American Idol: Season 14 - Top 4 Perform

Hello Idol friends!  We are out of the crazy "twitter save" era and down to the top 4!  It was a pretty great night of performances, but also a little concerning.  There have been some surprising exits in the past at the Top 5/Top 4 week.  If we went by the commentary from the judges alone, there might indeed be a surprise exit.  But, in the end I have to have a little more faith in America to spot the true talent!  Lots of things at play here and we'll get to it below.  Let's dive in!

American Idol: Season 14 - Top 6 Perform, 5 Move on

Hello everyone and welcome back to the show where we consider songs from Dido as "Stadium Anthems"! That's right folks, we are continuing this mixed bag of a season of American Idol (in truth, they've all been mixed bags for probably the past 7 years).   It seems like a foregone conclusion who is going to win this season.  Maybe the bigger question is who will be standing next to him?  But, we have a job to do and we'll do it briefly!  Jump ahead for the recap.

American Idol: Season 14 - Top 7 Perform, 6 Move On

Hello Idol fans, and those that keep reluctantly watching even though it's painful to do so!  It's been a season of highs and lows and this one was a good one!  Everyone sounded pretty darn good.  And of course, weird stuff happened.  Or should I say some stuff happened that was "WHACK!"??  You can never quite predict what might take over a show on live television.  Of course, with a 2 hour program, sometimes there's enough time to course correct over the remainder of the show.  Was it enough?  We'll discuss briefly.  The elimination was sorta shocking, but by the time it actually happened it seemed inevitable.  I think this whole green chair/red chair takes a bit of the elimination suspense away, especially when everyone sang 2 songs.  Oh well, let's discuss!

American Idol: Season 14 - Top 8 Perform, 7 Move On

Hello Idol fans!  It was Billboard night and what better way to celebrate than bringing on Florida Georgia Line to help celebrate!  UGH.  I don't know if I have ever been able to go on a rant about how much I despise them.  And I don't think I really have to, because their talentless selves were pretty much on display all night!

As for the contestants?  It was a mixed bag of a night.  But it's pretty clear who are the frontrunners vs. the middle of the pack vs. the weakest links at this point.  I typed each contest recap up basically in real time, so I wasn't aware of what was coming next or who would inevitably be sent packing.  (trying to be efficient in my time!)  Let's dive into the discussion.

American Idol: Season 14 - Top 9 Perform, 8 Move On

Hello friends and welcome back to this crazy season of Idol.  In a season of declining interest, I personally had been looking forward to this week.   The one the only inaugural winner of Idol, Kelly Clarkson returned and proved just why she is still the best to ever grace the stage!  She provided invaluable advice and her usual blunt humor that is equally awkward and refreshing.  Most of the contestants pulled out some interesting renditions of her favorite tunes.  And even with the twist "twitter save" the right thing happened at the end.  Let's dive into a quick recap and pick for next week!

American Idol: Season 14 - Top 9 Perform

Hello everyone.  As expected, I am out of town and ran into issues getting to this recap.  I finally had some time to (sorta) watch the episode and provide a very quick commentary.  Here goes nothing!

American Idol: Season 14 - Top 11 Perform (again)

Hello Idol watchers!  Well, maybe it shouldn't have been shocking who ended up in that red seat last night.  It certainly wasn't surprising that the save was used.  But, we'll talk about that later.  Movie Night was an interesting night.  People that were really good last week didn't shine this week.  People that were bad last week did much better this week.   And others remained consistent (for better or worse).   Let's dive in!

American Idol: Top 11 Perform

Hello fellow Idol watchers!  Well, after being spoiled with 1 hour episodes, we got blindsided by a 2 hour episode last night!  I'm sure this is how they will be from now on.  1 2 hour episode a week.  It definitely gave the show more room to breathe, and allowed me more control over fast forwarding the nonsense!   Things felt more at home.  But, these performances?  I think I fall for the hype every year that "this is the best crop of contestants, full of potential of tons of stars."   Last year they had people that could sing but had no charisma.  This year they're just full of stage performers who can't carry a tune!  Maybe they're just adjusting to the live shows and it'll improve.  But, I spent more time cringing last night than anything.   We lost a contestant too and we'll discuss that a bit as well.  Let's dive in!

American Idol: Season 14 - Top 12 Revealed and Perform

Hello America! What a crazy packed hour of revealing the top 12 and asking for votes at the same time.  I was so confused, and they didn't even have time to explain what was being voted on.  It turns out that next Thursday will be a Top 10 performance.  So I guess either 11 perform Thursday night or 12 will perform again and the bottom 2 compiled votes will get the boot.  We'll find out.  In any case, I'll pick someone to go home after tonight's performance.  I wasn't expecting to recap tonight, so this will be brief!

American Idol: Season 14 - Top 8 Girls Perform

Hello everyone and welcome back to season 14 coverage of the show that just won't quit!  Well this week seems to be the opposite results of last week.  The boys were really good last week.  The girls were much better this week.  Results were a little surprising to me, but I at least mentioned 3 of the 4 booted contestants names as possibilities!  (Of course, when you name 6 of the 12 as possibles, you're giving yourself pretty good odds, but we won't talk about that.)   Let's dive right into the recap and figure out who's going home!

American Idol: Season 14 - Top 8 Guys Perform

Hello Idol friends and welcome back!  So I went 2 for 4 with my picks for the guys last week.  I'm not too surprised by who went home instead.  We'll get right into it this week.  The Top 8 performed Motown Hits in Motown itself.  The crowd seemed fairly unenthused/uneducated by the local historical music selections, except one dude that was dancing and singing like no one was watching.   Anyway, we'll return to Hollywood next week to reveal the Top 12 on Wednesday and for Top 12 performances on Thursday.  Then, my assumption is we go to 1 day a week.  I assume that one day is Wednesday, but what do I know!?  Our job, should we choose to accept it, is to pick 2 more guys to kick out of our group!  Let's do it!

American Idol: Season 14 - Top 12 Girls Perform

Hello Idol fans!  Back again for night 2 of the Top 24.  It's the girls this time.  A little short for time as expected, so let's cut right to the chase.  The guys night was better, but there's a few standouts in the female squad.  Let's dive in!

American Idol: Season 14 - Top 12 Guys Perform

Hello America!  We're back to the "almost" live shows.  I've been usually waiting until we get to the finals, but I decided to dive in a little earlier this season.  It seems like a talented group of kids this year.  If nothing else, they have 100 times the charisma of the crew they got last year.

So, they took the semi-final rounds on the road to Detroit, but it was so clearly pre-recorded.  There was no way they could've edited things down to have 2 contestants in the first 8 minutes of the show.  I know they're trying to cut down episodes and time this year, but that was impressive!  So, it looks pretty clear that we're not doing results shows as confirmed before the season started.  We'll do performance episodes and then get the results the next week.  So next week will probably be the last week with a Thursday night episode.  If anything, that just means there is more time to speculate and discuss who will get the boot.

So, for anyone still watching the show and reading this blog that is way past its expiration, let's dive on in!  We gotta get this Top 12 guys into a Top 8 Guys for next week.

American Idol: Season 14 - Everything But the Top 10

Hello fellow remaining Idol watchers and welcome back for another season of the show that just won't quit!  There is a bit of renewed energy with this 2nd time judging panel and more tweaks coming our way this year.  I'm going to continue skipping the recaps for all of the pre-taped shows, though I may jot a few comments along the way here.  You are more than welcome to do the same!  The format for the Top 10 will change this year as they are only doing 1 show a week, no elimination episodes.  It remains to be seen how this will work, but I'm guessing that the results will air the week AFTER the performances.  If that's the case, then I should be able to figure out a way to get 9 of these recaps out this season.  If the results are somehow on the same night, it pretty much negates the recap.  Due to the West Coast viewing 3 hours later, I doubt they'll go that route.  

Anyway, just wanted to get this post up before the premiere tonight.  Enjoy the start of yet another season, and I'll plan on doing the same!  See you in a few weeks/months!