Here’s my power list ordered more or less by elimination order if the finale was this week. What’s yours?
1. Phillip Phillips – Phil is still on top. Stevie Nicks has a crush on him and thinks he would have been asked to be in Fleetwood Mac if her were 35 years older. Plus, Phil had one of his best performances of the entire competition last night.
2. Colton Dixon – Colton is coming right up behind Phil. Colton amassed something like 20K new twitter followers last night. He’s the Tim Tebow of Idol–rallying the faithful. But at the same time, he may be turning off the secular audience. Colton stays at 2.
3. Jessica Sanchez – Jessica Sanchez was pretty fantabulous last night with her slowed up version of Beyonce’s “Sweet Dreams”. Unfortunately, she peaked so early she’s left little wiggle room for growth. She could be a shock boot at some point. The sad truth is that in order to best the boys, she’s going to have to really shake things up soon.
4. Elise Testone – Queen Elise rises high on the list. I think I had her too low last week. And since, her stock has risen even more with last night’s jaw dropping performance of “Whole Lotta Love”. I still don’t think she can win–she’s too niche– but she’s got a fantastic shot for the Top 5 at least if she continues to be awesome.
5. Skylar Laine – Skylar’s performance last night was a real crowd pleaser, but it wasn’t a showstopper. I think the girl is popular, so she remains relatively high on the list.
6. Deandre Brackensick – I had Deandre too high on the list last week. This week I’ve got him mid-pack because the judges loved him and I think his performance was attention getting. But it wasn’t perfect. I still think he’s kinda on the cusp.
7. Hollie Cavanagh – Hollie is losing steam week by week. Her karaoke version of “Jesus Take The Wheel” last night has me wondering if there’s any there there. She’s got so much potential, but she may not be ready yet. I think her boring performance may have gotten lost in the shuffle.
8. Joshua Ledet – Joshua’s outsized rendition of “Without You” had the judges flipping out. But I’m not so sure the audiences appreciated it. It might have been a little too over the top for viewers to relate.
9. Heejun Han – I think viewers like fun Heejun. The judges gave him a standing ovation and praise for “taking the competition seriously”. But c’mon judges. That’s not why you put him through. And that’s not why audiences love him. He could be out this week.
I think Hollie, Joshua and Heejun will be the bottom 3 with either Heejun or Joshua as the eliminated contestant. I’m not sure the judges would save any of them if they were eliminated. Joshua maybe.
I’m hearing that Ryan Seacrest said on his radio show this morning that there would be a shock boot tonight. If so, that leaves out Heejun and probably Deandre. Joshua might be considered a shock boot. Hollie would DEFINITELY be considered a shock.
