Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Tonight, we learn the identity of the 13 singers who will be competing for the Season 13 American Idol title.

Call it the final, final, final judgment.

While we wait, here are some random thoughts about what we’ve witnessed the past two nights, as well as my picks on who should advance. To check out the song by song grades for the guys from last night, head here. To check out the song by song grades for the girls from Tuesday, go here.

Guys who should advance: Based on what happened last night, this is relatively easy. Caleb Johnson, Ben Briley, Sam Woolf and Alex Preston performed like finalists Wednesday. I’d give the fifth spot to C.J. Harris.

Girls who should advance: More difficult, but Majesty Rose and Jena Irene Asciutto need to make it based on their Tuesday performances. I like the potential of Briana Oakley and Jessica Meuse more than I liked their performances. I’d give the fifth spot to M.K. Nobilette or Kristen O’Connor.

Guys who were robbed: I’m still trying to figure out how Idol could let Maurice Townsend and Casey Thrasher sit on the sidelines Wednesday while Emmanuel Zidor and Spencer Lloyd got to sing.

Girls who were robbed: I would have loved to have heard more from Kenzie Hall and Austin Wolfe, especially Kenzie after that wonderful performance of “Can’t Hold Us” in Hollywood.

Novel idea: Since standout performances weren’t more than five deep either night, wouldn’t it be splendid if Idol invited some of those singers back to perform for a shot at one of the three wild card spots. Sorry, Idol, but I still think cutting semifinalists without giving them a chance to sing is both cruel and unfair. Perhaps one of the worst semifinal ideas Idol has ever come up with.

What a mentor! I still cannot believe Idol aired a segment during which new mentor Randy Jackson’s advice to M.K. Nobilette went like this: “You gotta give it your all and give your best performance.” I mean, if Idol was trying to convince us Randy is going to be as worthless as a mentor as he was as a judge, clips like that will do it.

Hypocritical advice: I’m not sure 18-year-old Emily Piriz deserved the grilling she got from Harry Connick Jr. on the sexual lyrics in “Paris Ooh La La.” In fact, it struck me as a bit of Idol hypocrisy when he was sitting beside Jennifer Lopez, whose very sexual videos have premiered on the show and who showed up in a cleavage bearing dress that Ryan Seacrest drew attention to no more than Tuesday’s show started.

Rating the judges: That said, our Season 13 judging trio turned in a pretty impressive first week performance. All three showed the ability to criticize. Harry might have won me over with his critique of the very pretty but very vocally challenged Spencer Lloyd. Said Harry, with the crowd cheering and time running short and all the momentum in Spencer’s favor: “That was not good.”

The talent: The guys performed better than I expected; the gals worse. But I think the ladies’ performances were affected by opening-night jitters. All in all, I ended the two shows optimistic that the Season 13 cast will be much deeper than the Season 12 cast. If the right singers advance.