Randy Jackson hinted at it Tuesday night.
The schedule points to it.
Nigel Lythgoe is no longer ruling it out.
In other words, don’t be surprised if Idol unveils some wild card drama Thursday night.
In fact, I’m almost hoping they do.
Otherwise we’re going to be very bored Idol watchers for 90 minutes Thursday night.
Randy dropped the wild card notion during the girls’ semifinal episode, marveling over all the talented ladies who had just performed, noting that it would be a shame if only five advanced to the finals.
Months ago, Nigel said there would be no wild card. That Idol would have a Top 10 in Season 12 and only a Top 10.
Asked specifically about wild cards on Twitter Tuesday, Nigel seemed to have changed his tune.
His response: “Up to FOX and judges.”
Well, the decision seems to have already been made.
As I pointed out last week, there’s one too many elimination nights in the Idol schedule if the show is sticking to a Top 10.
And then there’s Thursday’s 90-minute show. Even by Idol’s filler-stuffed results episode standards, it doesn’t take 90 minutes to announce the names of 10 singers who are advancing to the finals.
In the past two years, the Idol semifinals have been enlivened by bringing some of the contestants back to sing for their Idol lives in a wild card effort. In a truly sudden death situation.
And those have generated some brilliant performances, like Erika Van Pelt’s rendition of “Edge of Glory” last year and Ashthon Jone’s take on “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” in Season 10.
For those who don’t recall, Ashthon was the first finalist eliminated two years ago; Erika wound up finishing 10th
The most successful wild card picks were Deandre Brackensick last year (8th) and Stefano Langone the year before (7th).
But let’s not forget that Clay Aiken was a wild card back in Season 2 and came within a whisker of the Idol crown.
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4 Comments
While I agree that there almost certainly will be more than 10 finalists, they can get away with just 10 and still end as scheduled on May 16, either by making sure they use the save (like they needed to do in Season 11 when the disqualification almost resulted in the same problem) or having an Idol Gives Back-style week where nobody gets eliminated. Of course, you don’t actually tell people this in advance, any more than you tell them that Hollywood Week was in Northridge, or that all of the bad singers that make it to the judges actually got past two rounds of qualifying auditions…
You’re correct about the weeks.
But whenever they had Idol Gives Back and didn’t eliminate anyone, they eliminated 2 people the following week.
Same with the save, I believe.