I'm Back Ya'll!!

Hello again to all my Idolteers! Another season of Idol is once again upon us, and we are now in the thick of things. I must admit with the onslaught of talent competitions like The Voice and, most recently, The X Factor, I have experienced a bit of burnout. I just finished a stint as a recapper for a great website, Reality News Online, for The X Factor season and I really thought I was going to cease blogging for a while. However, you know I cannot stay away and have to give my two cents. I can't promise how regular this blog will be for season 11 of Idol, it all depends on how the season goes and if I am enticed to want to right about its goings-on.

This week we have seen the top 25 guys and girls perform for a spot in the Final 13. Overall, it has been a somewhat lackluster year in the talent department and the vibe from most of the contestants is very green. It's as if Idol producers decided to go back to its roots of finding every day-normal joe next door type contestants, which is refreshing. However, the producers threw us a little "twist" by bringing a surprise 25th contestant to the usual Semi-Final 24. I think the "twist" was dumb, especially given they brought back an unimpressive singer. So, in my opinion, it was all for naught.

Based on what I have seen of these 25 thus far, I am ready to make some predictions about who is going through. I have 3 scenarios: America's Vote, Judge's Vote, Mr. Idol's Vote. Let's see how they compare shall we?

America's Vote:

The Girls -

Jessica Sanchez, Skylar Laine, Hollie Cavanagh, Brielle Von Hugel, Shannon Magrane

The Guys-

Eben Franckewitz (16 years old & under/Bieber voters), Phillip Phillips, Joshua Ledet, Chase Likens (country music voters), Jermaine Jones (underdog/2nd chances voters)

Judges' Save

Hallie Day, Reed Grim, Elise Testone

Mr Idol's Top 13

The Girls-

Jessica Sanchez, Skylar Laine, Hollie Cavanagh, Shannon Magrane, Jennifer Hirsh, Hallie Day (but she needs to bring out more personality), and Chelsea Sorrell

The Guys-

(Let me give a side note here - I am not a fan of most of the male contestants other than the first 2 I list below, however, given there have to be at least 5 I chose the next best 3 of the bunch)

Joshua Ledet, Phillip Phillips,Colton Dixon, Heejun Han, and Chase Likens (even though he was under the pitch through his entire song this week, I think he has potential)

I wish Idol would drop the rule that there has to be an equal number of guy and girl contestants, because I feel there are WAY more deserving females this year than males. I am assuming this is in part because the Idol producers are trying to stack the deck for the females in hopes of breaking the 4 year running trend of a male winner. If that is the case, they did a good job. However, one never knows which way America will sway. Only time will tell!