After Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger got it ridiculously wrong last week, I fully expected more shenanigans. I certainly wasn't disappointed. Well, to be fair and honest, I absolutely was disappointed. I should really say I fully expected it. I was right to and my unfavorable suspicions were once again confirmed.
I knew early on that something was wrong again. They were too eager to put Josh Krajcik and Chris Rene through quickly. I immediately began to wonder if Melanie Amaro might actually be in trouble but I sincerely felt that it was probably about 30-70 percentage wise in terms of the odds of that happening. I correctly predicted that Marcus Canty would be in the Bottom Two again and in between Lenny Kravitz and Mary J. Blige guest performing (did anybody else find it odd that Lenny Kravitz broke out of his most recent single "Rock Star City" in order to go into the much older "Are You Gonna Go My Way?") I basically saw things play out according to plan.
I wasn't totally shocked to see the precocious but predictably emotionally fragile young teen Rachel Crow end up in the Bottom Two. We are, after all, down to the home stretch of the competition so we were inevitably bound to see some top notch talent flirt with elimination. Chris Rene might have just hit his stride at the right time and I'm beginning to think that he at worst has post-show viability as a recording artist. We are getting to one of my favorite times of the year, New Year's Eve, and I could absolutely see him appearing on the New Year's Eve shows, particularly the taped portion of ABC's Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve, and they generally get a lot of the biggest stars in the music industry to partake in it and Chris Rene is exactly the kind of artist they tend to get and generally prefer to book anyway.
This was definitely one of the best sing-offs yet, if not the best, and Marcus definitely sang better than he had in some time. It just felt like Rachel still sang that much better and she has after all been a far more consistent singer than Marcus on the show. Rachel mightily struggled to keep her composure, giving a very valiant effort in trying to keep it together but it would end up being Nicole Scherzinger sealing her fate by refusing to choose between the two singers.
It's unclear what Nicole's intentions were. My guess is that she was trying to take the easy way out, opting to wash her hands of any elimination blood, but in the process it backfired terribly. Exactly what she was trying to avoid ended up coming to fruition and it's pretty clear now that Astro is no longer the show's number one villain. Not even the perpetually awkward Steve Jones comes close to holding that dubious distinction and now we'll see if Nicole's sole contestant pays the price for his mentor's recent theatrics.
What is clear is that Nicole's judging duties are now taking a very huge psychological toll on her. She probably feels she can't win no matter what she says or does and whenever you have an artist as a judge, especially one of her stature, it must weigh on her that much more and the possible ramifications to her own personal and professional reputations (and the monetary effects it could have) are certainly at the forefront of her mind now. I wouldn't be surprised that if things don't change for her before the end of the competition that she might exit the show.
L.A. predictably chose Marcus, ditto for Simon with Rachel, and Paula was pleasantly lucid enough to pick the far more consistent Rachel over Marcus. Steve Jones tried asking Nicole for her thoughts but she despondently declined. The booing she received during her deliberation and as she refused to speak to Steve was pretty harsh. As Rachel fell to the stage, and Steve coldly prevented Marcus from consoling her (although I suspect it was more of his socially clueless tactlessness), it only reinforced the disconnect between Nicole and both the studio and home audiences.
Ironically, Nicole might end up being somewhat sympathetic because if she continues to seem emotionally damaged then she might walk away from the season, or perhaps the show, and viewers and fans could begin to feel for her and she might not end up facing quite the backlash in regards to her own music, career, and reputation as would seem to presently be the case. And let us not forget that this is still just a very bad two week stretch for her and we very short term memories for these things if they do not last for more than a month or two.
They haven't announced anything yet but there surely is another double elimination week coming up and we certainly will be seeing Marcus Canty finally exit. It's now a three person race with Melanie Amaro, Chris Rene, and Josh Krajcik all with a very legitimate chance of winning. I'm not sure if there is one contestant left sans Marcus who probably can't win it at all, and I have to imagine that the voting will be the sole decider for the final week, but we are almost at the point where we will soon find out who will have his or her work cut out and breaking through the post-show haze that often befuddles and roadblocks even the winners of these TV singing competitions. With Simon Cowell at the helm, and desperate to put various types of distance between himself, his former show American Idol, and NBC's The Voice, I wouldn't count any of the singers from the first season of the U.S. version of The X Factor out just yet.
HIGH NOTES: I happened to catch part of Drew Ryniewicz's UStream broadcast late last week and she was in noticeably higher spirits than the night of her shocking elimination. She talked about how much her parents have sacrificed for her dreams, and how she is still a total Belieber, and she even asked her audience if she sounded country to anyone while she hummed the Jeopardy! theme music while waiting for a response. She also declared her love for One Republic, calling them the "most talented group of guys I've ever seen" and saying they are "the bomb" but also informing everyone that she also finds them to be "really attractive" so she reminded us that she's still about to become a 15 year-old girl. She also revealed that she's been compared to "that chick [Dolores O'Riordan] from The Cranberries" and that it's "actually an honor" which this blogger completely agrees with. She also displayed some rather amusing facial expressions throughout the broadcast...It hasn't been announced yet but Drew and her fellow eliminated Top 12 contestants will all be coming back to perform on the finale on December 22nd. Drew also saw, and cautiously retweeted a link to a petition about there being a wild card but you have to imagine that if there had been one, it would have been discussed already on the show and by Simon Cowell in particular, and that she at least would have received a phone call from him about it. Improved spirits or not, it still proves that the sting of defeat is still with Drew right now. And finally, it's quite interesting how another ballad heavy to meet the same shocking elimination fate had a mutual respect fest on Twitter with Drew. It started with Pia Toscano declaring her admiration for the similarly fated Drew Ryniewicz. Drew responded by informing Pia that she's somewhat of a hero to her and that she's in her own iPod with Pia closing it out by thanking her. Toscano had also just a little time before then given a tweet of encouragement to Rachel Crow following her own elimination. Rachel graciously replied more simply before Pia once again closed it out so to speak. It's quite telling how much of an overall comradery and kinship these singers all have with each other. It's certainly a very special brethren of talent given how very few people know what it is like to experience what they have all experienced.
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