American Idol 15: Top 5 and Beyond Format Changes, Top 6 Wrap Up

AMERICAN IDOL: Top 8: L-R: Judges Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick Jr. on AMERICAN IDOL airing Thursday, March 3 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2016 FOX Broadcasting Co. Cr: Ray Mickshaw/ FOX. This image is embargoed until Thursday, March 3,10:00PM PT / 1:00AM ET

This week on American Idol The Top 6 will sing and ONE will go home. According to contestant Tristan McIntosh, there is NO judges save this week. For the very first time, America will be the sole decider on which contestant is sent packing. The theme for this week is “America’s Choice.” The contestants will choose from a list of songs comprised of requests fans were asked to make via twitter. I would assume at Top 6 the contestants might sing two songs, or will perform paired up in duets like last week.

Speaking of the duets, both MacKenzie Bourg and Dalton Rapattoni expressed a little frustration over being criticized for their duet song, “I Want it That Way,” as neither singer either chose each other as duet partners or picked the song. MacKenzie also teased his song choice for this week, “I have so much planned…,” the singer said. “It’s gonna be a huge song I kind of flip…an iconic song. Everyone’s going to know it. [I’m going to] do it my way, and hopefully everyone loves it.” (Mackenzie Interview Dalton Interview).

Mentor Scott Borchetta believes newly eliminated contestant, Avalon Young, was more developed as an artist than Sonika Vaid, who was saved by the judges from the bottom 3. Sonika has had only ONE great performance since the live shows began, Scott said in a post show interview, and she’s going to have to find a way to break through if she wants to make the Top 5.

American Idol winner Nick Fradiani debuted his first single the funky “Get You Home” last week, and according to Billboard, he only had two days notice from Idol. The original plan was to have host Ryan Seacrest interview Nick from the audience about his single in between performances, but the producers contacted him on Monday about singing the new song live.

Nick came to the Idol studio bearing gifts for each of the contestants–a cool microphone attachable to laptops via USB. Sonika thanked Nick via twitter. She tagged the company, in case you’re curious about the merchandise.

Also, La’Porsha Renae wasn’t feeling well at all, but she still managed to put on a show Thursday. “My voice was gone. A day ago, I had a fever. I was praying that I would make it through,” La’Porsha told Billboard. “I told myself, ‘You’re not going to sing your best so that means you have to perform 10 times harder.’ When I did that, the sound came out too!” She watched Carly Smithson’s season 7 version of “Come Together” to determine what she needed to do to bring her performance to another level.

FOX has released press releases for the rest of the season except finale week. The “American Dream” special has been expanded to 90 minutes. Click for the FULL American Idol 15 schedule. Also, @IdolSpoilers reports that The Top 3 will all perform on the April 6 final performance show. Makes sense, considering everyone has gotten to sing during the live final episodes. There was quite an uproar last season when Jax was eliminated in the first two minutes of the show without even a goodbye. The producers are paying attention.

About mj santilli 35110 Articles
Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted. I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!