Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Sometimes, these American Idol results shows are such humdrum affairs.

Not Thursday night. Not by a long shot.

We had the first elimination of the season. We had a judge threaten to leave.

We had a sing-off, a guest star appearance, a return of a former Idol and a Top 10 group number. All in one show.

And we had a totally new wrinkle: Idol revealing the top three finishers and how the rest of the field finished. For the first time ever.

The recap.

More revealing results: Give Idol this: They’re switching things up in Season 12. And I love most of the changes. Learning who finished in the top three Wednesday night was great, even if Idol didn’t reveal the precise order. Learning the precise finish of everyone else was even better. The X Factor might have done this first, but I tend to care a whole lot more about where Idol contestants land than anything associated with Simon Cowell’s show.

The voters: Give yourselves a round of applause. Angie Miller, Candice Glover and Kree Harrison in the top three. Hooray. That’s my suspicion of how they finished, by the way. And precisely how I would have ranked them at the end of Wednesday’s show.

The sing-off: Reinforced by belief that it was pure Idol folly not to have wild cards this year. With the guys doing so poorly, the addition of Aubrey Cleland and Brenna Steer would have added more suspense to the mix of finalists. As for Charlie Askew, I’m sorry he didn’t make the top five guys. At least he’s a different sort of performer. For the record, I voted for Aubrey because she’s clearly the better singer. But I would be far from devastated if Charlie makes the tour.

Stock rising: Kree Harrison. I mean, Candice and Angie have been favorites since the word go this season. We barely saw Kree until Vegas. The fact that she finished in the top three after the first performance show tells me viewers at home recognize she’s pretty special. And how about this for an endorsement — Kelly Clarkson just tweeted: @KreeAI12. Just heard “Crying” and it sounds killer! Can’t wait to hear a full record from you. Good luck. 🙂

Stock sinking: Every guy on Idol. Did you check out that order of finish. All five girls finished in the top six. The bottom four vote-getters were all guys. I bet that hasn’t happened in a long, long time.

Deserved his fate: Both Devin Velez, who finished ninth, and Curtis Finch, who went home. Devin tried to sing “Temporary Home” Wednesday night, and it was deadly boring. He’d best listen to Jimmy’s advice and pick something a little more upbeat and current, or his stay on Idol will be very temporary. And, sorry Nicki, but Curtis Finch was never going to win Idol. He comes off as a little pompous. But, most of all, he wasn’t as good as Joshua Ledet and sang the very same music. And Joshua, good as he was, didn’t win Season 11.

For the live results blog with the final order of finish, head here.

Check back tomorrow for an exit interview with Curtis Finch. And check back Monday when I’ll post my American Idol Top 9 rankings.