By RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com, originally filed February 5, 2015
While Wednesday's episode was kind of meh, tonight's was a bit more compelling. Today we saw guys who appear destined for the top 24 e.g. Cody Fry, Rayvon Owen, Clark Beckham. And three women that I think have a good shot as well: Katherine Winston, Jaq MacKenzie, Tyanna Jones. Plus a fainter. That's the lady above.
The "cliffhanger" from last night of Gabby Z freezing up turned out okay.
She tries again it off with an impressively bluesy sound and moves forward.
Kelly Kime, the single mom with the cute "Let It Go" kid, is pretty good. Katherine Winston is even better with her "Wild Horses."
Andrew Annello, who was the king of confidence in his first audition, sounds fairly good, if a bit stylized. He does not move on.
Maddie Walker is 16 but looks 26. Her country-fied vocals? Also incredibly mature. She moves on.
Alexis Gomez from K.C. auditions is a bit of a mess covering "Before He Cheats." She also makes it to the next round.
Cody Fry? He looks like a top 24 gimme after his "Lilac Wine." What a pretty voice.
Atlanta's Loren Lott is lively and says she "can make American Idol a lot of money." I'm not sure her face necessarily matches what she's singing because she oddly smiles through the very intense "Radioactive." She has a solid theatrical voice and that peppy spirit, so she moves to group round. "I feel like I'm kittens and cotton candy.. and gummy bears!"
Then we get Rayvon Owen, who is like the John Legend of this crew. A silky voice to get you "in the mood."
Shi Scott has such a shrill voice. I don't get her at all. But she moves on.
We next get poor Dakota Suarez, the drag queen who clearly didn't have a great voice and proved that as she goes wildly offkey on "Natural Woman." Kelly Clarkson, she is not.
Both baby 15-year-old Daniel Seavey and Clark Beckham go through. Daniel is surprisingly good, better than his original audition. Clark brings on the sexy. Easy clearance to the next round.
Here's Quaasim Middleton's video, another likely top 24er:
He has a "budding romance" with Jax and by the way, he is a virgin, as his mom helpfully told us. His "Give Me Love" is packed with charm, longing and emotion. A bit messy, too, but in an interesting way.
Before we move to group round, "Idol" name drops three more that get through but we don't get to hear: Nick Fradiani, Quentin Alexander, Zach Kaltenbach.
"Idol' trims down the group round rehearsals to the tightest edit in my memory. In some seasons, they spend 30 minutes or more on the prep and whatever drama ensues. This year: Five minutes? If there was any drama, they didn't bother including it. Let's get to the singing!
Sal improvises a song while the contestants show fatigue:
This is the first group round featuring Double Stuff: Jesse Cline, Clark Beckham, David Oliver Willis (remember him? He's all grown up!) and J. None (with teddy bear):
It's solid and impressive all the way around. Despite (or because) they went to sleep early, all four make it to the next round. "Great way to start the day," HCJ said.
Sheba Squared. ("PYT") Andrew Bloom (sweet but underwhelming,) Shi Scott (still annoying, what are the judges hearing?), Adam Ezegelian (a ham!), "Big Ron" Wilson (sexy enough). Andrew is the only one who gets a no.
The Dream Team ("I Want You Back") (all teens) Maddy Hudson, Tyanna Jones, Reno Anoa'i and Steffi Ledbetter. Maddy is just okay. Reno has no confidence and his mom knows it. Tyanna was good. Steffi was in between. Surprisingly, Reno survived, along with Maddy and Tyanna.
Team Dimples ("Rude"). Full of cute here with actual dimples. Jaq MacKenzie (love her!), Michael Simeon (pretty tone), Nick Fradiani (very Adam Levine) and Hunter Larsen (sweet). They're having fun. This is the best group we saw tonight. No doubt they all go through.
Sal's Gals. The quintet including Sal, Jax, Kelley and Kaitlin, with Alexis. Alexis is having a panic attack but has recovered supposedly. "I hope I can pull it off," she says, with some doubt in her voice. But as soon as she gets on stage, she gets shaky and faints.
#ToBeContinued
Next week: more group performances.
***
We received ratings for last night and I'm sure Fox is relieved: 11.2 million and a 3.1 18-49 rating. That's on par with pretty much every Wednesday episode to date this season. Last Thursday's episode took a major hit against tough competition and fell to a season-low 9.37 million. Tonight, it's again facing new episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" and "Grey's Anatomy" but a repeat of "Blacklist" on NBC instead of "The Biggest Loser" season finale. So it may fall off again but by not as much.
Of the 9 episodes that have aired so far, all of them have stayed between 10 and 12 million viewers except for last Thursday. That's impressively consistent. I hope the show can bring us a solid top 24 so the figures won't fall off the way they did last year.
Jennifer Hudson, who has been cast for a role on the hit show "Empire," performed with Iggy Azalea on a new single "Trouble" on the "Tonight Show."
[hulu id=pfa4eruyn_4lsqol9lcb_w width=512]
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
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