American Idol: Everything Is Fate, or Something Like That

Photo credit: Michael Becker/FOX

American Idol has seemed to stagger through its 13th season at times, with reports of declining ratings and rumors of Ryan Seacrest possibly flying the coop overshadowing the actually-compelling-at-times action onstage. This week, the "oh, Idol's in troubleeee…" narrative took another turn when Fox announced its plans for the 2014-15 season—and while American Idol isn't being relegated to the dustbin of televised music competition history alongside The Next Great American Band and Jingles, it will have a substantially smaller footprint on the network, thanks to most of the results shows being scrapped and the show going to one episode a week during the bulk of its run. (Filling in: A bunch of shows where Gordon Ramsay yells at and/or coddles people slaving away in kitchens; and a show called Utopia, in which 15 strangers get picked to live on an island to see what happens when things stop being polite and start working toward building the perfect civilization.)

Given Idol's run of luck this season, it probably shouldn't be surprising that this news was accompanied by the show's ratings ticking upward this week. While not as blockbuster as the numbers for The Big Bang Theory, the ratings showed substantial improvement, particularly among the coveted 18-to-49 demographic. This shouldn't be too surprising, as the season's narrative arc is finally coming to a close; the trivia question that will ultimately serve as its legacy will be answered next week.

In celebration of that fact (and of Surviving Jack getting the ax), this week's Idol swelled again to three hours—two hours of performing and one of packages about the three remaining contestants' hometown visits. These were edited in such a way to make one think that the producers really, really wanted one contestant to win—while two of the contestants got pretty much the exact same edit, the third was given the full-on heart-swell treatment, complete with Meaningful Montage set to one of that singer's original tracks.

Alex Preston. Look. I'm all for drummers who can sing. I love Jellyfish, led by the metronomic-yet-flourishy Andy Sturmer. The Georgia-sung Yo La Tengo songs are full of gorgeous moments of wonder. But this Blue Man Group bullshit where singers distract from their crappy voices and lousy melodies by running around beating on kettle drums has to stop, and Alex's version of Bastille's hoary "Pompeii" serves as exhibits A through K. I realize that he's awkward (why was he holding his guitar while just talking to his friends during his homecoming package??) and that the producers wanted to mix things up a bit, but no. Just no. He redeemed himself with the night's best performance, a feather-light version of Rihanna and Mikky Ekko's "Stay.” I thought One Direction's "Story Of My Life" would have been right in the middle of his wheelhouse, but it fell sorta flat.

Caleb Johnson. Over and over again the viewing audience was reminded that Caleb Was Not Feeling Well, although a blown-out vocal cord is no excuse for turning INXS's gut-punch "Never Tear Us Apart" into a melody-free mess. Caleb has an affability about him that precludes the particular type of smoldering sex appeal possessed by the late Michael Hutchence, and I don't even know what was happening with the notes he was singing on the verses of that track. The same went for Imagine Dragons' "Demons," although the source material he was working with there was very inferior. If one lesson can be learned from this season's Idol, it's that way too many current pop songs have very little to actually do until they hit the One Big Note that gets plopped into iTunes' preview track and/or radio call-out researchers' "do you know this song" pop quizzes. (Come back, Nate Ruess, we miss you and your ability to write melodies that actually develop over the course of a whole song and not just on a big chorus.) He was allowed to wail on "Dazed And Confused," and wail he did. And his homecoming package shouted out biscuits and gravy, because he is ALL AMERICAN. I really really hope he gets to sing something that isn't "Rock And Roll All Night" when KISS shows up to perform with him next week. Like "Strutter"!

Jena Irene. What an aw-shucks edit for her hometown-visit package: triumphant returns to her high school and her now-probably-former place of employment (a Coney Island joint called Hercules that serves saganaki, which provided a nice visual), a hushed return to the keyboard where her journey began, and lots and lots of hugs. I don't know if the producers are actually laying it on thick for her or if I'm just imagining it because of the way her overenunciated-yet-garbled singing and persona (which is like Tracy Flick meets David Archuleta) grate on me. I do know that her super-wrung-out version of "Creep" is still totally overdone (in my notebook I wrote "I wonder if she's going to dedicate this to her mom, too"), and she can't just sing a lower note plainly, which pretty much torpedoed her version of Demi Lovato's octave-leaping "Heart Attack." On the bright side, if she does win, that's back-to-back ladies taking the crown for the first time since the Fantasia/Carrie Underwood diptych. Hooray for feminism!

MY VOTES: Panic-voted 100 times for Alex on Thursday morning. Never let it be said that I don't believe in my lost causes.

WHO WENT HOME: Poor Alex looked like he knew that he was toast from the first shot of Thursday's episode. He'll be fine, though, if the buoyant performance of his original track "Fairytales" that closed Thursday's show and the level-headedness on display in his eliminated-contestant interview are any indication.

FILLER ALERT: This section almost feels cruel now that the results show is effectively a goner. Wait, what am I saying? Anyway, in between all the homecoming packages, Season 10 victor Scotty "Babylockdemdoors" McCreery stopped by the results show to perform his new single "Feelin' It," a slice of neon-drenched boogie that definitely will pump through the speakers of Luke Bryan's frat house. Also in the house: Elliott Yamin, my favorite of all the Idol R&B-loving white boys.

SPEAKING OF NEXT WEEK: Confetti will fall! Tears will be shed! And this season will finally be over!

Maura Johnston is on the home stretch. She's on Twitter - @maura

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Want more? Catch up on the whole season of recaps:

American Idol: Final Four Fatigue

American Idol: In Which Everything Goes Haywire

American Idol: The Singers Choose Each Other's Songs, and There's a Rumor Ryan Seacrest Might Choose Another Job