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mjsbigblog
No Top 4 surprise boot this year, kids. LaKisha Jones, who has been teetering on the edge for awhile now, is sent home.  She’s a talented singer, but without any training or musical exposure she had a tough time navigating the theme nights. Any song outside of the big-voiced R&B box tripped her up. And her penchant for picking songs by beloved Idol winners didn’t help her much either.
Awesome Ford commercial this week. It’s a cute take off of the Beatles’ “A Hard Days Night.” The kids, dressed in black and white, run down the street with fans in hot pursuit. They strike a few iconic Beatle poses along the way.
Holy carp, the group number is a total trainwreck. It’s a medley of Barry Gibb songs that leans heavily on the adult contemporary songs he wrote for other artists, like “Islands in the Stream” and “Guilty” (Dolly/Kenny and Babs respectively). It could be subtitled “The crappiest songs Barry Gibb ever wrote,” but that’s not the worst of it. There are some heavy-duty tech problems, starting with Melinda’s mic not working initially. The sound mix is off. The kids know something’s amiss and it makes them unsure and tentative. They don’t seem to be having fun, so neither are we.
In years past, they did this sort of thing earlier, and came back to it several times in the season. If they want to rope us in and make us crazy fanatics, they need to do more of this stuff. I think this year has proven how personality-driven this show is.  Season six is chock-full of great singing talent, but the contestants are mostly ciphers. Viewers need compelling personalities in order to become invested. Hopefully, the producers learned their lesson this year. Less stupid pre-recorded hits of crap we could watch on MTV and more attention paid to the contestants. Don’t wander off the formula that works guys.  Ditch the pointless interviews at Farmer’s Market–interview the contestant’s families and friends instead.
Back from a break. The kids are all huddled in a group hug. Ryan asks them to line up. He asks, “Are you ready?” And they all say, “No!” and stay huddled. Cute. ”But, that’s how the show works,” explains Ryan. ”No, no not gonna do it!” say the kids. Awww. Ryan begins the elimination with the kids still huddled.  The lights dim, and they break their huddle, but still keep their arms around each other. Ryan starts the whole “You sang, Simon said, blah blah blah” spiel first with Lakisha Jones, then Melinda Doolittle, on to Blake Lewis, and finally Jordin Sparks. Ryan says, “Jordin, after the nationwide vote, you are safe, you may have a seat.” There’s a big group hug before Jordin goes back to the couches. (I can’t believe it, I heard she’s only 17!)
With only six or so minutes to spare, Ryan gets back to the three–Melinda, Blake and LaKisha–left standing on the stage. Ryan says, “We already have one person in the final three, we need two more. Which means, one of you is going home…it won’t be you, Melinda. You are safe, you can have a seat.”
Ryan asks Paula if she has something to say to the contestants, and she goes all puppies and rainbows as only Paula can, “You are both tremendous talents, I’ve enjoyed every single one of your performances, and I’ve also enjoyed the ones that weren’t so great because, what it does, is that it shows me you get and rise above adversity and come back winners each time. It’s hard what you do, it’s exhausting, you deserve a big big career ahead of you, and I can’t wait to be there watching you on stage.” Paula’s a keeper.
That means we lose LaKisha tonight, ladies and gentlemen.”
