‘American Idol’ top 6 results recap: are we experienced?
Hollie Cavanagh escaped elimination tonight. CREDIT: Michael Becker/FOX
Loading ...After two surprise eliminations, the woman who was near the bottom five times before finally found herself out completely on “Idol” tonight: Elise Testone.
The oldest contestant remaining at age 28, the New Jersey native and South Carolina resident clearly knows her own voice and understands what she likes. I enjoyed her when she channeled Stevie Nicks.
But experience also meant she didn’t particularly enjoy the judging process, questioning them at times and making faces at other times. I also found her stage presence a bit remote, her vocal stylings a bit mechanical, like she wanted to show off without entertaining us.
Last night, she did an adequate job with her Queen song, then did a self-indulgent Jimi Hendrix tune that felt more fussy than inspirational. Others were equally self indulgent (notably Phillip Phillips and Joshua Ledet) and they got away with it.
The past two lowest vote getters, Jessica Sanchez (saved) and Colton Dixon (not), made me question who would be in the bottom three. I didn’t even pick Elise. Instead, I chose Phillip, Joshua and Hollie Cavanagh, who was indeed in the bottom two and has been in the bottom three frequently.
Skylar Laine, who has been in the bottom three once before, had the third fewest votes – or fourth most. (Ryan Seacrest noted there were 58 million votes logged, ten million more than the top 6 a year ago, despite the 25% drop in ratings, which he didn’t mention.)
I didn’t get the impression there was a lot of shock or awe when she departed. But she was classy as she sang some Led Zeppelin and gave all the judges acknowledgment. The other five survivors didn’t seem all that upset, did they?
Here were Jimmy Iovine’s thoughts. He was much more into Joshua than I was and much less so with Skylar.
Jessica: “Jessica singing Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was a plain old mistake. Then to add to it, the three faces of Jessica. It actually scared me. That was less Queen and more Stephen King. But ‘Dance With My Father” by Luther Vandross was magnificent… she sang it with brilliantly. She understood her words and her audience. Clever plus real talent, that’s double the vote.”
Elise: “She picked the wrong Queen song. A monotone stadium anthem. It comes off clubby. It didn’t move me. I didn’t want to see it again. Elise chose Jimi Hendrix ‘Bold as Love.’ To me, that’s double down on bad choice for the night. It was a musical piece with a very integrated soulful blues vocal. One without the other, it falls apart. That’s what we got. She’s a great singer who made bad choices.”
Hollie: “I wonder if Hollie choosing ‘Save Me’ by Queen was a subconscious plea to the public. [I thought that, too!] She did a very good job. This was a hard one. Freddy Mercury is tough. He is so unique… she tripped up at the very end… Hollie singing ‘The Climb’ was a good choice. She caught the emotion in that song. I hope it’s not too little too late.”
Joshua: “I was really impressed with Joshua last night with ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love.’ That Gary U.S. Bonds feel with Sam Cooke singing a Queen song showed he can interpret. He can cross over to pop. Then he switches over to ‘Ready for Love.’ Emotional, restrained and just moved us all to where we wanted us. He showed with those two songs, delivering with that type of intelligence, he could make the finals.”
Skylar: “I think Skylar did a very very competent job on ‘The Show Must Go On.’ She sang it more like a pop song… Now on her second song, ‘Tattoos on this Town’ was a little self indulgent… If you are going to do a song for one town, it has to be a strong enough song to appeal to the entire country. I don’t think that song cut the mustard.”
Phillip: “Ryan isn’t the only one not feeling well this week. Phillip is really having a rough time. It’s starting to show. With him not feeling well, he’s not able to pull off that character in ‘Fat Bottomed Girls.’ Watch Jack Black and Casey do it last year, they exploded that song when they did it. I don’t think we got that tonight. It was missing something… his second song was Dave Matthews ‘The Stone.’ … I’m very curious what the audience feels about this. What he did left an opening for someone other than Phillip to be in the final.”
- The “Idols Live” tour comes to Gwinnett Arena August 5. Tickets go on sale May 11 at 10 a.m. I’ll provide more details later.
- Harvey Levin of TMZ trained the top 6 about the media. They teased Philip Phillips about his aw-shucks nice guy routine, saying he should own it when J. Lo calls him sexy. “One name; Casper Smart,” one of the TMZ dudes said, noting J. Lo’s much younger beau. “Thank you man,” Phillips said. They then teased Skylar about her “relationship” with Colton. She insisted that they are just friends. Then Joshua’s nickname “Mantasia” gets teased because there’s a strip club in New York named that.
They then get busted for being slobs and Hollie eating cereal in the bathroom. Elise wonders how to not look so mad when she’s not smiling without being fake. They had no solution for that. Jessica admitted to 200 YouTube videos. Then they mock Harvey for his bad dancing in a YouTube video, causing former dancer Nigel Lythgoe to get in the act.
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By Rodney Ho, Radio & TV Talk
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467 comments Add your comment
Deirdre
April 26th, 2012
9:06 pm
Alex, I’ll even be disappointed when youknowwho leaves. I like all these kids
Drei
April 26th, 2012
9:07 pm
J an J haters are sooooo around! Lol
Deirdre
April 26th, 2012
9:09 pm
To me, the best top 3 would be Jessica, Joshua and Phil
Alex
April 26th, 2012
9:10 pm
Deirdre
April 26th, 2012
9:06 pm
Maybe we can keep the kids and ditch the judges.
Cat
April 26th, 2012
9:11 pm
I think Jessica, Josh, and Hollie split votes. The final 3 will be definitely Phil and skylar and who ever is left amongest Jess, Josh, and Hollie.
kevin
April 26th, 2012
9:14 pm
ahah thank u Jenny, I always has to read because I’m from Cuba so I can’t watch the show live
Deirdre
April 26th, 2012
9:14 pm
Ditching the judges is a great idea…why do we even need judges. Let’s just have Ryan introduce eveyone and….oh never mind, they need judges to help create storylines involving how nice or how mean they are to the contestants.
Jenny
April 26th, 2012
9:14 pm
Mine would be Jess, Hollie, and … ??? I guess Josh by default. But D, yours wouldn’t be too bad cause at least it wouldn’t include Skylar. And we’d have at least half of an interesting final.
Pitchy
April 26th, 2012
9:15 pm
Nite…
Jenny
April 26th, 2012
9:16 pm
No problem Kevin! I don’t often watch results live… but D is always here and gives good real time updates every week! So you should be all set.
Rebshadow
April 26th, 2012
9:17 pm
Not surprised about Elise at all. It was a matter of time. I liked her voice and voted a few times but not last night.
Jenny
April 26th, 2012
9:17 pm
Night Pitchy! Hey, did your child win the contest? I hope so!
kevin
April 26th, 2012
9:18 pm
my top 3 would be P2, Skylar and Jess…just because Colton is gone
Cat
April 26th, 2012
9:18 pm
What is next week? I think someone posted but I can’t remember.
Jenny
April 26th, 2012
9:19 pm
Rebshadow, I was sad but not surprised. I had a feeling it would be her. I am very afraid Hollie will be next. Because she went last this week, they’ll put her first next week.
I just don’t get it… I know DialIdol isn’t reliable always, but at this stage in the game, usually the person at the VERY TOP is OK.
Dunno…. I’m still with Alex and Angela on wondering about loopholes.
Seth T
April 26th, 2012
9:20 pm
Next week either Hollie or Skylar will go – my guess is that it will be Hollie.
You can’t trust Ryan though, on how he arranges the “botom 3″. He sent Skylar back to safety, but that doesn’t mean she was definitely 4th. She could have been 5th in the voting, but we would not know that He only had to name the bottom 3, but didn’t need to tell you where the lines were drawn between the non-elim’s
Elise will probably get a brief shot in a finale group number, then wait for the tour. After that, she will likely have some job offers with some name bands as an addition or opener. But not everyone wants to tour for a long time either.
It will be interesting to see if Iovine wants to try to do an album with her, with fresh material. He may want to do a “single” and see if it flies, like has been done with some others on talent shows.
Deirdre
April 26th, 2012
9:21 pm
I’m just fascinated by how many different opinions there are about these singers. What a great season they’ve given us this year. I STILL have no idea who will win…although I just surprised Rodney when I told him I wasn’t worried about Phil being in the bottom 3 because Colton is gone.
Deirdre
April 26th, 2012
9:24 pm
My guess is that the #1 person on Dialidol this week is not getting the youth texting and computer vote which is not taken into account on dialidol.
JTesla
April 26th, 2012
9:25 pm
Sorry Deirdre, Phillip will win it. WGWG… yes even I have succumbed to the cult of WGWG fear. Granted two weeks ago I said it would be Colton, but WGWG beats WGWP.
Deirdre
April 26th, 2012
9:25 pm
Dialidol is not and has never been reliable.
Cat
April 26th, 2012
9:26 pm
I think final 3 will be Phil, skylar, and Jessica but I wouldn’t bet on it!
Jenny
April 26th, 2012
9:26 pm
That could be it. I guess as technology progresses, DI will eventually become obsolete. I’m just used to it being right *enough*, in certain situations, that it truly did make me question if Hollie was really B3.
Jenny
April 26th, 2012
9:28 pm
Although D, when it starts to show one contestant skyrocketing ahead of all the others… regularly… that person wins. It happened for Scotty, Off-Key Lee, Kris, Jordin, Taylor.
The only one it couldn’t quite call was David Cook.
Deirdre
April 26th, 2012
9:28 pm
Any of the top 5 could win at this point.
Cat
April 26th, 2012
9:28 pm
Deirdre it got it right last week with Colton who I thought would get a lot of text votes
Jenny
April 26th, 2012
9:32 pm
My hubby called Colton as gone last week too. Right after “September”.
And I didn’t believe him for one second…
Deirdre
April 26th, 2012
9:33 pm
Sorry Jenny, I give up! Yes Idol would actually risk everything to tell the audience that someone who is not in the bottom 3 is. All that money, all that fame just to fool us when the drama just isn’t enough for their taste!
YES!!!!! Just to fool us, they would risk ending the show! Yes, just to fool us, even if they don’t care who wins, they would lie to us over and over again because our favorite just couldn’t actually be in the bottom 3 week after week.
Jenny
April 26th, 2012
9:34 pm
Night y’all, it’s been fun!
Grey’s watchers… can someone pleeeeaaase find me some spoilers? I am stressing out as I keep reading that a beloved major character will die in the finale. I have to know.
Huge speculation is Mer, Christina or Bailey. I would have to stop watching. 
Deirdre
April 26th, 2012
9:34 pm
Sometimes dialidol gets it right, sometimes it doesn’t. That’s what makes it unreliable.
Deirdre
April 26th, 2012
9:35 pm
Only a guess here, Jenny but McDreamy wants to leave the show.
ACE
April 26th, 2012
9:38 pm
There seems to be a lot of people on this blog who said when Pia went home they would never watch again. Everyone has their favorite but someone has to go and it could be yours.
Deirdre
April 26th, 2012
9:39 pm
Another example of dialidol’s unreliability…during the first top 7 week, dialidol had Joshua as safe(#1 on their list) He was in the bottom 3 that week. Who’s got it wrong? Dialidol is not under any federal regulations, Idol is. Which one isn’t telling the truth?
Jenny
April 26th, 2012
9:40 pm
I know D. That worries me too.
Surely, surely they wouldn’t give them Zola and then kill him or Meredith… ???
And if they took Meredith’s “person”… or Bailey… argh.
(And I only watch and notice the DialIdol patterns, and notice when something seems weird… that’s all. But I know it’s not always spot on, and getting less so as technology evolves. And I know the show doesn’t break the law. No matter how much I speculate and question, I am certain of that.)
Night y’all, and D, sending good thoughts for things to get better with your mom.
JTesla
April 26th, 2012
9:41 pm
Most of the time Dialidol gets it wrong, yet the few times they get it right people jump up and down and say “see see DialIdol got it right!”, ignoring that week after week, for YEARS it has been mostly wrong by a large margin.
Oscar
April 26th, 2012
9:59 pm
Next week I will tune in to see Jessica Sad Eyes go bye bye. Seriously, I turn the volume down when she sings — put her in a musical. Joshua, I just don’t like his style of singing. I am guessing Skylar, P2 and hoping for Hollie.
Oscar
April 26th, 2012
10:00 pm
To stay.
Deirdre
April 26th, 2012
10:01 pm
Rumor: Carrie will be the Idol guest next week.
Jubie
April 26th, 2012
10:17 pm
It will be interesting if the final two are Phillip and Joshua.
Pen
April 26th, 2012
10:26 pm
100% a Joshua fan here. I used up all my 50 online votes, throwing some to Hollie, some to Skylar and a few to Jessica.
I think some of Elise’s votes may go to Hollie.
Seth T
April 26th, 2012
10:42 pm
When you add together Jimmy Iovine’s comments the past few weeks, especially tonight,—– the most standing ovations gained so-far from the Judges — it would indicate that Joshua is doing very well per the Judges and mentors.
Another girl goes next week.
JTesla
April 26th, 2012
11:00 pm
If Elise has swing votes they will swing to Phillip. He’s the most like her in terms of music style.
No Surprise On ‘American Idol’: Elise Testone Exits – MTV.com | Best News Feed - Daily News Magazine
April 26th, 2012
11:03 pm
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution [...]
Jenny
April 26th, 2012
11:15 pm
Carrie! Yay! Will she maybe mentor them? That would be wonderful.
(Does that mean it’ll be country week? Or “Songs from other Idols”? Well, I guess it could be both since it appears 2-hour shows are the norm now.)
jnelson
April 26th, 2012
11:15 pm
Jessica Sanchez needs to go and should have gone long ago, but she will continue to ge those teen votes. Her military father is playing a lot on the votes also, but she is young and can return next year. She does not know how to perform, but I will say right now, she will prob. be selected as the AI, any one remember DeGarmo?
Jenny
April 26th, 2012
11:34 pm
Ace- I’ll never say I won’t watch Idol again because someone goes home. I enjoy the show too much most of the time. Now, if two people I dislike are in the final… I may skip watching the final cause there won’t be any point. But as soon as 2013 auditions start up, I’ll be back.
(now Grey’s is another matter. They have got to stop killing people off.
)
JT, back to DI for just one second… it is wrong a lot. It rarely gets the bootee right But about this time each year, it DOES start to show us who will win. One person begins to display way, way ahead, week after week. It’s happened since Taylor.
It started to show Scotty pulling ahead pretty early last year, even when he sucked. There was one week the judges said he phoned it in… y’all slammed him here… dude was bad. And I think Haley shone – “House of the Rising Sun” or another one of her “moments”. But there was Scotty, 15 or 20 points ahead of the others….
It’s not always right. Not even close. But from what I’ve observed, it IS an indicator of who’s winning.
This year is so close… It’ll be interesting to watch and see if that holds!
Trish
April 26th, 2012
11:42 pm
Jessica should win, or maybe Joshua. I wish Phillip would go home ALREADY!!! sheesh he is the worst out the bunch, the only reason he is still there is because of the young girls and old milfs. Jessica or Joshua should win!!!! Final 3 Jessica, Joshua, Skylar.
JTesla
April 26th, 2012
11:58 pm
Jenny, I distinctively remember people claiming last year that Dial Idol predicted Lauren to beat Scotty in the finale. Then there is tonight, who was the safest? For me it is far too shady, sorry I don’t trust a website that has been consistently incorrect. I know this, I can guarantee you that Idol doesn’t alter or even want to alter the results. It goes beyond rules and regulations, it has to do with money. Idol makes its money from the show, much like Survivor, or Amazing Race, or NCIS. Manipulating the results does nothing for Idol. However, I would laugh if it turned out that they toy with DialIdol.
Annie
April 27th, 2012
12:09 am
She made horrible song choices, so it seldom looked like she knows who she is, or what her strengths are. She would have a good performance, and then back it up with one that might not been a train wreck, but still made her look like she doesn’t have a clue. Add to that that she never took responsibility for her bad performances, and it was clear that she wasn’t going to win. She actually stuck around longer than she should have.
Dick Lark
April 27th, 2012
1:01 am
Last week the bottom three were the two attractive blonde girls and the handsome blonde guy. This week it was the two attractive blonde girls and the cute country girl. O, the bias in America! Will it never end? Why must the voters always discriminate like this? I can barely contain my outrage.
Vance
April 27th, 2012
1:03 am
This was quite an unfortunate result. A pageant bot like Hollie outlasting a very talented Elise with better phrasing choices and much superior stage presence.
To anybody with some spare time, please take a short survey on the Top 5 of Season 11: http://kwiksurveys.com?u=AIS11Top5