Thursday, February 15, 2007

The Top 24...

So from the tardiness of this post, I guess you figured out that in the fight of “Idol” vs. love, love won out.

Although love did allow me to watch last night’s episode, so thanks, sweetie…

Now we know the identity of the people we will vote on starting next week. But there were a few surprises.

The biggest had to be the elimination of Tami Gosnell. Tuesday night, Simon called her “brilliant”—or at least that’s the way it was edited; and “Entertainment Weekly” had already named her the favorite. So what happened? The show didn’t tell us since we didn’t hear her sing and we didn’t see her conversation with the judges. She just emerged from the room saying, “I didn’t make it.” Hmmm…

Other familiar faces we saw last night that didn’t make it were Anna Kearns, the tallest girl Simon had ever seen; Bernard Williams, the one Paula said was totally off-key (the other contestants were completely shocked at his elimination); Jimmy McNeal, who charmed me with “Cupid;” Thomas Lowe, the only member of the outstanding male group who didn’t make it; and Matthew Buckstein, who was a member of last year’s “Brokenote Cowboys.”

In fact, it seemed like many of the people who made it we had never seen before. It makes you wonder if maybe “Idol” spent so much time with the bad auditions that they sacrificed our ability to get to know the finalists…

Here they are, with what I remember about them:

Sanjaya, who says it’s been rough with his sister not making it…
Melinda Doolittle, the nervous back-up singer…
Brandon Rogers, another back-up singer…
Gina Glockson, the rocker…
Haley Scarnato…
Phil Stacy, who missed his child’s birth to audition…
Chris Sligh, the Jack Osbourne look-alike, and one of my favorites…
Blake Lewis, the beat-boxer
Randy Cardenas, another member of that outstanding guys’ group
Paul Kim, my favorite, although he freaked me out with that whole “I will always be barefoot” thing. And don’t even get me started on his underwear…
Jordin Sparks…
A.J. Tabaldo…
Stephanie Edwards…
Leslie Hunt…
Nick Pedro, the guy who backed out of Hollywood last year…
Alaina Alexander…
Chris Richardson…
Sabrina Sloan…
Lakisha Jones, the super-talented mother who last night Simon said was a “great singer”…
Nicole Tranquillo…
Jared Cotter…
Amy Krebs…
Antonella, whose story we have followed from the beginning with her best friend, Amanda…
Sundance, who wowed them at his audition, but choked in Hollywood. I’m betting that was a split decision with Simon voting no…

I’ll have much more on the top 24 later. In the meantime, feel free to post your comments about the choices, and your early favorites…