Idol Chatter & Voice Views

“Don’t Worry, By Happy.”

That Bobby McFerrin song from the movie “Cocktail” is on Wikipedia’s list of one-hit wonders from the 1980s.

Candice Glover, Angie Miller, Kree Harrison and Amber Holcomb, the final four on American Idol. (FOX Photo)

Now, I’m pretty sure no one will sing it tonight on American Idol’s one-hit wonders theme night.

But the song could be the Idol theme heading into Top 4 week, when the show finds itself in the embarrassing position of not having enough contestants to get it through the end of the season.

There are four Thursday night shows left in Season 12’s schedule.

There are only three singers left to eliminate before Idol crowns a Season 12 champ.

What, oh what will the geniuses who run American Idol do?

Well, TV Line reported yesterdat that the save is no longer an option.

But don’t worry, be happy. TV Line also reports that the good folks at Idol have an undisclosed contingency plan.

Which probably means we’ll have a week when no one will be sent home, when the show will carry over vote totals and add them to the following week’s votes to decide who goes home.

What’s more baffling is how Idol could allow this to happen. How in the world does a TV reality competition show enter a season with too few contestants to get it through the season? Has that ever happeend on another reality TV show?

In every year since Season 1, Idol has taken at least 12 contestants into the finals.

Breanna Steer is one of the contestants who might have benefitted had American idol used wild cards in Season 12. (FOX Photo)

But this year, executive producer Nigel Lythgoe decided there would be no wild cards.

Now Nigel has floated some brilliant ideas over the years that have not been adopted (half-hour results shows, anyone?)

This one was. Inexplicably.

I mean, if ever a year screamed for wild cards, it was Season 12, when the female talent so out-shined the males that a self-imposed five-guy/five-gal finals made absolutely no sense.

But things still would have worked out fine for Nigel and company if the judges had used the save over the course of the season.

Then two things happened, one unpredictable, one entirely predictable.

The unpredictable: The voting public did a very fine job of sending home the singers who deserved to be sent home.

Oh, I could quibble a bit over the order of elimination. Lazaro Arbos was around too long. Curtis Finch, probably the most talented male singer, was the first to go.

But the Idol voters haven’t done anything egregious, like jettisoning someone who should be in the finals.

Now the predictable: The judges could never reach the unanimous consensus needed to save a contestant.

Imagine that, with Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey on the panel. Imagine that, with two judges who can’t even agree on whether they disagree over a contestant’s critique.

So, at a time when the results should be highly anticipated, when the Idol suspense should be building … dum, dum, da-da-da, dum … we’re going to have a little interruption in the proceedings of some sort.

Dumb, dumb, da-da-da, dumb.

Yeah, that could be Idol’s theme song, too.