American Idol 4/4: Shock Value

Photo credit: Frank Micelotta / FOX

One of the cornerstones of every American Idol season is the "shock elimination"—the moment when a contestant with actual potential to win this thing and make money for the people behind the scenes gets booted, either because of mass disinterest on the part of the voting public or a glitch or a conspiracy on the part of the phone company or… well, you get the picture. Shock elimination recipients have included the likes of Chris Daughtry (who lost to Taylor Hicks in season five, coming in fourth) and Jennifer Hudson (the seventh-place finisher in the show's third season), both of whom went on to such success that the show had them (as well as season-eight runner-up Adam Lambert) in its opening montage alongside the show's victors.

A few years ago—in season 8, which is still pretty much the pinnacle of Idol's recent years—the producers decided to fix this by instilling the "Judges' Save"—essentially a manual override of the voting public, which can sometimes get confused by external factors like cuteness or racism. The first singer to get the save was Matt Giraud, a baby-faced Michigander who played the piano and who wound up coming in fifth—totally deserving of getting another shot, as he was in a ridiculously talent-stuffed season. No saved contestant has bounced back to win yet, although season-11 runner-up Jessica Sanchez came sort of close. (The perpetually grinning Isaac Slade disciple Phillip Phillips was pretty much destined to win from jump.)

The save can be used until the episode when six contestants remain, which means that time is ticking for it to be used this year. I kind of figured it would get pulled out at some point over the next few weeks, but I didn't think it was going to be used on a contestant who hasn't much improved over the last few weeks of competition. Yet Sam Woolf, the Florida teenager who is clearly being positioned as the sop to the show's younger teenage audience, even though he's pretty shy to the point where his charismatic aura seems to be directed entirely inward. This week's show was based around audition songs, and he reprised Ed Sheeran's "Lego House" with a full band. It was technically fine but fairly inert, especially when you compared him to the other singers, and the teen-girl screeching that accompanied him sounded, once again, beamed in. That he was finally the person who had the most votes wasn't too surprising; he's already been in the bottom three twice, and was there as recently as last week. His performance of David Gray's "Babylon" last night had an inkling more charm but it was by no means great. Still, Harry Connick Jr., Jennifer Lopez, and Keith Urban decided to give him another week, a decision that was accompanied by a big blast of confetti.

Idol conspiracy theorists might note that Chris Daughtry, whose rise to post-grunge pop-chart dominance likely forced the producers' hand on the whole "save" thing, was the musical guest on this week's results show—a perfect time to show how Idol is now a show not just about winning, but about giving America a chance to correct its mistakes through virtual democracy. Paul Jolley, the dude on last year's fixed-for-the-women season with the most talent, called out the producers on Twitter shortly after the confetti fell, and other observers rolled their eyes at the desperate attempt to get teen girls to care about the show. The normally sharp Connick told reporters after the cameras stopped rolling that Sam was a "need" of the show, which seems pretty odd but I think might be some demographic dog-whistling going on there, especially since right now there are two actual teen girls—the bespectacled powerhouse Malaya Watson and the throaty Hayley Williams devotee Jena Irene—still in the mix. You'd think that their oddball nature would make them endearing to some of the kids stuck watching at home with their parents. But this is Idol, and I suppose Sam's bland attractiveness and dorm-room guitar-playing skills are seen as catnip for those people who don't want to associate with nerds, and a way to save the show from getting worse ratings than Hollywood Game Night next week.

1. Alex Preston. This week the kids got to pick a song they auditioned with, and it probably shouldn't be too surprising that the two who shone the brightest performed full-band renditions of songs they'd written. Alex's "Fairytales" is right in his wheelhouse, a little acoustic ditty that allowed him to ably show off his guitar playing.

2. Jessica Meuse. Jess reprised "Blue-Eyed Lie" ably, seeming much more comfortable singing her own words than she did miming Stevie Nicks or that guy from Shinedown (remember that?). Urban likened her voice to that of Grace Slick's, and I can't believe I hadn't yet heard the resemblance, which is so, so obvious.

3. Caleb Johnson. When I heard that the heir to David Coverdale would be performing "Chain Of Fools," visions of Little Caesar danced in my head. Instead, Caleb gave it a slow-burn treatment that still allowed him to let loose his mighty wail. Afterward Connick called him on the same-sameiness of his performances, asking him to maybe go for something a little more quiet next time? Which is a good point; "every hard rocker needs a ballad for radio" is, like, rule No. 1.

4. Dexter Roberts. Dexter didn't get the full-intro package during the audition episodes; the producers only showed a small bit of him performing a track by former Idol hopeful Casey James. This time out he did Brett Eldredge's simple, sweet "One Mississippi," and it was made even better by the presence of Allison Iraheta, the season-eight fourth-place finisher who really should have finished ahead of Danny Gokey. (People are still arguing about that year all over the internet!) I find Dexter overall kind of dully pleasant, but every time I see him perform I wonder if his aw-shucks nature and country leanings are going to result in him somehow winding up as one of the last two singers standing. I mean, I get it? But he's sort of boring.

5. Malaya Watson. It is tough, being young and on American Idol, because a lot of times you are charged with singing tracks that are a bit outside of your emotional comport. Such is the case with Malaya, who sang Aretha's "Ain't No Way" and who mostly nailed it, although she got dinged by Connick for being a little off here and there on her big runs. She's a kid and she gets overly excited, sure, but she has a massive amount of talent and if she can figure out a way to harness that and dole it out meticulously, she's going to do great things.

6. Jena Irene. I still can't quite get over Jena's voice, which is… hollow? Glottal? I don't really know how to describe it, but when I hear her sing, particularly when she's in her lower register, I visualize bubbles coming out of her mouth and popping with each individual note she sings. The arrangement of "Rolling In The Deep" she worked out with the band used this quality to maximum effect, but there's something about her that still doesn't sit quite right with me.

7. CJ Harris. He's still working the Southern-rock thing (he reprised the Allman Brothers' "Soul Shine") and he still needs to work on his pitch (which was noticeably sharp, although I wondered if I was picking it out more because of the judges' notes in previous weeks), although his charisma is undeniable.

8. Sam Woolf. I know, I know, the song he did has "House" in the title, but I'm not sure why his stage setup was a bunch of lamps—it's not like there's a parody version called "Lego IKEA" floating around out there. At least Ryan's gag about The Clapper was a bit mirthful.

Sam Woolf

MY VOTES: 50 each for Malaya and CJ, since they'd both been in the bottom three previously and they both deserve another shot.

THE BOTTOM THREE: Malaya, CJ, and Sam.

WHO WENT HOME: Nobody, as outlined above. Siiiigh.

FILLER ALERT: Padding eight two-minute performances out to two hours of performance show is a lot of work, even if you're the masters of recycled footage that are the Idol producers. This week's strategy: Pair up the contestants and make them sing duets! The results, as they say, "varied," with Jess busting out her Stevie one more time on "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" with Caleb, Jena trying to inhabit Pink and only really doing so on the big notes when she sang "Just Give Me A Reason" with Alex and the other four… well, they moved the show along even faster on DVR. That's something nice, right?

SPEAKING OF NEXT WEEK: The top eight return to the stage, where they'll take on the '80s. Even though none of them were alive then.