Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Let’s look on the bright side of tonight’s wild, wild wild card show.

Tatiana is gone. Finally. For good this time.

But not before delivering so much crazy that Idol couldn’t fit last night’s show into its one-hour time slot.

The bad news: Idol continues to bend, bend, bend the rules to accommodate its favorite contestants.

So now we have a finals made up of 13 people instead of 12, all the better to accommodate two undeserving contestants named Anoop Desai and Matt Giraud.

Somewhere out there, Ju’Not Joyner, Kai Kalama and Brent Smith must be wondering what they did wrong. (Not to mention some pretty talented gals who also failed to make the wild card show).

So the final 13 break down this way.

The guys: Danny Gokey, Michael Sarver, Adam Lambert, Kris Allen, Scott MacIntyre, Jorge Nunez, Anoop and Matt.

The gals: Alexis Grace, Allison Iraheta, Lil Rounds and, added last night, Jasmine Murray and Megan Corkrey.

And the wild, wild wild card show broke down this way.

Deserving: Megan Corkrey turned in one of the strongest female vocals of the night and brings that “it” factor to the competition. She’s just so darn likeable and she’s got a pretty unique sound. Someone needs to work with her very quickly on her confidence and her stage presence because it’s apparent she doesn’t have as much experience as many of the other contestants.

Better get better: Jasmine Murray. She has the Idol look. She sounded better last night than she did in her semifinal performance. But she needs to do a better job of showcasing her youthful flair. To date, her performances have been stuck somewhere in pageant land. (She is a former Outstanding Teen pageant contestant, you know.)

Very, very lucky: Anoop and Matt. Voters weren’t fooled by their lackluster earlier performances. Both did better last night, but not well enough to merit a spot in the finals. Or an 8-5 ratio of guys to gals. If Idol was going to expand the field, another female contestant would have helped balance things out.

Robbed: Make that robbed again. Ricky Braddy, for the second time, turned in the best vocal of the night. For the second time, he has nothing to show for it. Sorta unbelievable.

Where they belong: Von Smith, Jesse Langseth and Tatiana Del Toro didn’t perform well enough to claim they were robbed. Von fell especially flat on the wild card show. Kristen McNamara, Felicia Barton and Taylor Vaifanua should have been performing tonight in place of these three.

Don’t worry, we’ll see her again: Her Idol run might be over, but reality show hosts all over the nation must be salivating at the thought of casting Tatiana. The girl’s an-around-the-clock drama queen. Heck, I won’t be surprised if Idol brings both her and Bikini Girl back for this year’s finale.

Coming soon, from Idol Chatter: Ranking the final 13.

Stay tuned.

And check back tomorrow for interviews with Idol’s four new finalists.