Revealing the show's waning influence, "Idol" was cut to 30 minutes for the results show for the first time in eight years, going back to the Taylor Hicks days. There are no more Ford ads, no exaggerated pregnant pauses to fill time. The group sing was moved into performance night.
Save for a Janelle Monae song, Ryan Seacrest had to cut to the chase and announce Majesty Rose going home.
I predicted at the start of the live shows that she would be a finalist with Sam Woolf.
But she and Sam have been major disappointments. Sam has had trouble connecting with songs. Majesty seems to be picking the wrong tunes and struggling to figure out who she is an artist. These weaknesses revealed their youth and immaturity.
Anyway, I did predict last night that Majesty was likely to go home on a night most folks did at least okay. (I'm now four for five on predictions after the performance show.) Majesty's problem: she had been in the bottom three two times before. Her fan base hasn't been growing because he hasn't been able to pull off a truly great performance to get them excited.
Instead of a crowd pleaser, she picked a relatively obscure and difficult anthemic Florence & the Machine song and merely did a good (not great) job. She ultimately didn't add much to what Florence Welch did. In comparison, Malaya Watson smartly opted for emotion with a classic Beatles song and pulled it off with enough originality to stand out.
I was wrong picking the other bottom two. I thought Malaya and Dexter Roberts would be joining Majesty. Wrong. Sam was scraping bottom for a second time. C.J. Harris, who I actually enjoyed last night and ranked No. 2, ranked in the bottom three for the first time.
Majesty reprised "Happy" for her save effort. It was not a smart move. The song is already (way, way, way) overplayed and she seemed a little out of sync with the band.
"This has been the hardest deliberation for us," Keith Urban said. "It's not about talent or ability. We've got to all agree. By a narrow margin, we are not using our save tonight."
So she's out. Five words: not quite ready for primetime.
Randy Jackson's three favorites of the night: Malaya, Caleb and Jena. Mr. Cliche said "the cream is rising to the top." Nope, I don't miss him at all at the judge's table.
***
"Idol" keeps on losing ratings steam. The show drew 9.33 million viewers Wednesday night, down from 9.83 million a week earlier. That's yet another record low for a performance show.
The 2.2 18-49 rating matched that of a week ago as worst ever.
"Survivor" this week beat "Idol" both in overall viewers for the first time (9.76 million) as well as 18-49 again (2.3).
ABC's "Modern Family" also defeated "Idol" with 9.7 million viewers.
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