I’m slowly entering the “astounded” phase of American Idol. I think we all know it  that incredulous four or five week span in which some blatantly outclassed singer somehow advances farther and farther in the singing competition as more talented folks drop by the wayside. Sanjaya remains the poster boy of such ridiculousness, but he’s not the only craptastic crooner to defy the odds. Let’s not forget Kristy Lee Cook, Haley Scarnato, or pretty much half of the season three cast. This time around, we’ve got Scott MacIntyre, a soft-rock piano man who has yet to hit two consecutive notes. However, there doesn’t seem to be much by way of outrage about Scott’s quiet ascension through the ranks. Not even Vote For The Worst is endorsing him (which I suppose is a good thing, if you think about it). Instead, that site has anointed Megan Joy (née Corkrey) the queen of crappy, which doesn’t really make sense to me. Yeah, she’s quirky, but she is far from the worst. Has that site jumped the shark? Nevertheless, the point is that Scott is awful, and the fact that he made it through last night has me concerned he might be around for quite a while. He clearly has the sympathy vote  even Simon gets all PC around him  but Scott has more than just that going for him. His music appeals to a powerful voting block in the Idol universe: older women who enjoy inspirational ballads (and by extension, figurines at the Hallmark store too. In other words: awfulness). It’s gonna be hard taking this bad boy down.
With Scott staying in the competition, it meant someone more deserving had to go, and it was poor Alexis Grace who was sacrificed to the Idol gods. This girl definitely shouldn’t have gone home  especially before the tour. People were saying she might go top five or four. Oh well. Her performance of “Jolene” on Tuesday wasn’t the greatest, but it was definitely not the worst (see Scott’s performance). Unfortunately, even though her second rendition for the judges last night was much improved, there was no way Simon et. al. were going to use up the save on only the second week. As a result, Alexis was sent packing. Not fair, but that’s Idol.
Truth was that if Scott wasn’t going home, next in line should have been Michael Sarver, and while he was in the bottom two, he dodged the bullet big time. Luckily for him, he earned some major, major sympathy points by telling a heart-crushing story about his toddler daughter, who asked him “Why don’t you want to be with me anymore?” Raise your hand if you just wanted to throw yourself out of a window and end it all right there? Not because it was shameless (which it wasn’t). But because it was so SAD. I’m shocked Scott didn’t immediately run to a piano (with a guide) and start singing some uplifting melody about children and love and sunshine through the rain.
As for the rest of the show, I fast forwarded over most of it. I did stop to watch the Carrie Underwood / Randy Travis duet, and even though I’m not a big country fan, it was pretty damn amazing. They were great, and I’m still astounded to see the transformation Carrie has gone through since her run on Idol. Randy, meanwhile, is looking a bit skeletal these days. In a weird way, he reminds me of Slim, the walking stick from A Bug’s Life. Nevertheless, the two were quite good, and they served as the highlight of the hour.
Meanwhile, I fast forwarded over the terrible group song and some lame band, but I did stop to see the stupid music video, which involved water balloons. Ryan apparently tried to throw a water balloon at Simon off camera, but he missed (no surprise there) and soaked some poor girl in the audience, thus inviting dirty jokes in my head about Seacrest liquids and the opposite sex (two things that I imagine are rarely linked). We also saw some neat video footage of the contestants enjoying a farewell dinner for Jasmine and Jorge at Bucca di Beppo (Fox forgot to blur out the restaurant name for like one second. EAGLE EYES!), and, well, I think that was it. Hey, it’s the results show. It’s all filler.
Next week, I believe we have Motown, which automatically elicits a groan from me. I have nothing against the genre in real life, but on Idol, Motown usually translates to Bad Karaoke Week. I wonder what Scott will sing. Did the Four Tops ever release a song about climbing mountaintops and reaching for angels? Because that would be perfect!
What did you think about the show? Happy with who went home? And how long are we gonna have to deal with Scott? He’s really using up all my anti-Adam Lambert energy.