Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Now that’s more like a cliffhanger, American Idol.

Thursday, the show revealed the last 10 members of its top 24 — the 12 guys and the 12 gals who will be singing for our votes next week.

Then came the twist.  A 13th guy is going to be added.

And the duel for that 13th spot will be between David “Mr. Steal Your Girl” Leathers,  Richie “crazy cowboy” Lawson (aka Law), Jermaine “gentle giant” Jones, or Johnny Keyser.

Who will it be?

Let’s eliminate the easy ones first.

Richie Lawson, who performs as Richie Law:   Idol did him no favors with it’s portrayal of him during the Hollywood and Vegas rounds.  Deserved or not — and it looked deserved at times — he became the show’s villain, the ego to Heejun Han’s humor.  Putting him in the semis would be a waste of a spot.  I can’t imagine he’d muster much support.

Johnny Keyser:  Jennifer predicted this good-looking guy from Florida would be a star when he showed up at the St. Louis auditions.  But the judges didn’t consider him good enough to make the top 42, let alone the top 24, so I can’t see them bringing him back.  Besides, Johnny has launched a blog/website — not the sort of thing Idol semifinalists do.  And it’s not as though girls looking for a cute guy don’t have anyone else to vote for.

That leaves …

Jermaine Jones:   The gentle giant has been portrayed as a momma’s boy, but it’s that big, deep voice that gets your attention.  He somehow survived a duet with Richie Lawson and came out sounding great.  The judges said he’s been inconsistent, but we haven’t seen that duirng the screen time he’s gotten.  He’d be my pick.

David Leathers Jr.:  Live tweeting the show recently, Nigel called David “a little star.”  And if his vocals haven’t always been spot on — I wasn’t thrilled with the short clip we heard of that final Vegas performance — he undoubtedly has a certain charisma. Not to mention the confidence to handle this competition at the tender age of 17.

My prediction:  David re-enters the competition.  And I’m going to look at the bright side.  Perhaps he and Eben will duel for votes from the same demographic, cancel one another out and be eliminated fairly early in the competition.

If you’re an Eben or David fan … sorry, but I’d like this year’s Idol to look like he or she is old enough to drive a car.

Of course, a string of brilliant vocals could change my mind.

It’s happened before.