Adam, Kris, Anoop and Danny sang circles around those five guys last night.  

Season 8 had a semi final round that included 3 performance episodes, the last one aired on March 3, and 36 contestants.  

Before we could get to a very talented top ten, we had to hear performances by Mishavonna Henson, Kai Kalama, Tatiana Del Toro, Brent Keith, Taylor Vaifanua, and countless others who were horrible.  

But, even if we include some who made the top 13, we also had people who had bad semi final performances like Matt Giraud, who still gets teased about his Viva La Vida cover, Jasmine Murray, and Michael Sarver, who only made it after Simon told people to vote for him, because of his backstory.

That is when it was all said and done.

No, that was during the semi-final rounds, where we were voting on the final 18 guys. I was comparing the final 18 guys from season 8 to the final 20 from this year. The only difference is the fact that in season 8, we were able to vote when they got to this point in the competition.

I am comparing four of the final 18 guys in season 8 to what we saw last night.  In season 8, there was a final 36, 18 of that final 36 were male. This year there is a final 40, instead of a final 36.  

Adam, Kris, Anoop and Danny weren’t in the top 10 during the semifinal rounds. They were in the top 18 boys and had to make it out of their semifinal round. Those four, DURING the semifinal rounds of season 8 (where there were 18 male singers) sang circles around any male from last night.

Season 8- 36 semifinalists- 18 males

Season 12- 40 semifinalists- 20 males

Why not compare these guys to other males in the top 36, who didn’t go on to the top 13/10.

I agree, the comparison is both more fair and more apt.

Wouldn’t this argument be stronger if you got through next week and still hadn’t found 4 standout males?

Yes, but I was originally responding to this comment:

I specifically remember Season 8 semi-finals as being pretty bad, both men and women.

Therefore, I named four male contestants that were not anywhere close to the ten male semi-finalists we saw last night. Now, there is the possibility that the next ten male semi-finalists will be better than the ten we saw last night, but that wasn’t the original post I was responding to.

We could still end up with four out of ten guys who are as good vocally as Adam, Kris, Anoop, Danny were, but for that to happen, next week will have to be the week we find those four. (because it sure didn’t happen this week)

Therefore, I named four male contestants from the season 8 semi-final
rounds that were much better when compared to the ten male
semi-finalists we saw last night

Why compare all 10, though? There are 5 contestants who aren’t even relevant anymore in those 10.

We could still end up with four out of ten guys who are as good vocally
as Adam, Kris, Anoop, Danny were, but for that to happen, next week will
have to be the week we find those four. (because it sure didn’t happen
this week)

Those guys have had a full season behind their back. It’s not really fair to compare the five guys who went through last night to these guys yet. And, for what it’s worth, Anoop and Danny turned out really underwhelming compared to their semifinal performances. And, if you add Matt, he turned his crappy semifinal performance into a good run to a 5th place finish. Who’s to say Paul, Curtis, Devin, Elijah, and Charlie are surely not capable of doing the same thing?

Point is, it’s too early to fully write off any of these guys as “not as good vocally as those from previous seasons”. They could have found a really good vocalist last night who didn’t perform to their ability.

Those guys have had a full season behind their back.

Not at the point that I’m talking about, which is (again) DURING the semi-final rounds.

It’s not really fair to compare the five guys who went through last night to these guys yet.

I was comparing the season 8 semi-final performances to the season 12 semi-final performances thus far. That is fair.

I was comparing the season 8 semi-final performances to the season 12 semi-final performances thus far. That is fair.

I read your last quote wrong. Sorry about that. Mixed up “are” and “were”. Although I still think it was kinda pointless to add the guys in S12 who were eliminated into the mix of contestants who were weaker than the good performers in S8.

That said, I didn’t think Anoop’s and Kris’s performances were that much better than anything that came out of Paul, Devin, or Curtis vocally. To be honest, however, the girls this week who went through were not up to par with a lot of the better S8 semifinalists either, and that’s even including Kree. I can name 8/36 who I think performed better at this stage than any of the 10 who went through this week. And, if you add Anoop and Kris into the mix, there’s 10/36.

A lot of the talent we’ve seen this season doesn’t seem up to par with that of previous seasons. But I’m not panicking just yet. There’s still potential with this group. Not that this is encouraging, but I don’t see this group as one that’s as weak as that of S6 and S9 where a handful of contestants carried the season and the rest were blah.

Next week, Vampire Diaries will be re-run.  After next week, Arrow will be re-run, until mid March. I might as well watch American Idol live until these shows return. Some other people may start watching if they want to vote.
Big Bang Theory, wowza. But American Idol is still a beast compared to others. Two and a Half Men STILL raking in that many viewers? If Fox is serious about needing more viewers, they would have moved it to Tuesdays/Wednesdays.

Oh, okay thanks. I guess season 8 comes the closest. But man, I remember that semis being really long, boring and painful. So I’m not surprised if this is.

All you need is 10 good and/or entertaining people to make a good year. So I guess it remains to be seen if this will be one of those years.

I’ve watched some of the girl performances in S8 semifinals a lot, namely Allison, Alexis, Lil, and Felicia. I definitely preferred all four of theirs to any performance this week…. Actually, I don’t think ANYBODY this week did as well as many of the S8 semifinalists. I definitely do see some truth in that last statement, though.

I do think that as much as the last two nights were terrible, 7 of the 10 contestants who DID survive are potentially Top 10 ready, including 3 of the guys. I think Paul, Devin, and Curtis look a lot worse than they actually were because the guys surrounding them were, for the most part, horrible. Not saying that the three were excellent, but they weren’t bad.

Season 8 eliminated 27 people (and brought back 4) in a week. Most of those eliminations were really needed, since a lot of those people were not good, and we were left with a really solid Top 13 (with a few weak performers who still needed to be cut). This can still happen with S12, but the process will be much slower. Rather than 27 eliminations in one week, we have 30 eliminations over 3 weeks to get to a Top 10. It’s gonna be slower and more drawn out, so I do not expect great Idol episodes for the next 2 weeks.

Not only are the producers manipulating the kind of male contestants they want there is a diversity manipulation going on as well with both the girls and the boys.  Don’t know if this is coming from the producers or is happening because of the judges.