From left: Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson
Frank Micelotta/FOX
There are no more second chances.
With the judges' one save used on Casey Abrams last week on American Idol, "no one can escape the outcome" of the public's 55 million votes, announced Ryan Seacrest at the start of Thursday's results show. And it was two singers destined to go, not just one. Even so, the show was something of a relief after the topsy-turvy Casey incident.
Spoiler Alert! Keep reading if you want to find out who got booted.
Thia Megia and Naima Adedapo were sent home.
This should have surprised no one ? least of all Naima and Thia, who've had their share of ups and downs. They've never seemed secure in the competition.
Naima never quite settled on how to fuse the different notes in her voice ? blues, jazz, soul, pop. Not to mention dance moves. She fumbled badly Wednesday with her reggae version of "I'm Still Standing." She didn't find a comfortable groove with it, and she didn't help matters by starting with a spoken introduction that tried to elevate the song into some sort of all-purpose anthem of triumph for difficult times.
And Thia? Ah, Thia! She has a lovely voice ? one of the season's best ? but her consistency was her downfall. She tended to sing at the same emotional temperature from week to week. Even "Heat Wave" couldn't move the thermometer. She was most comfortable with melancholy pop: You always felt umbrellas should be distributed to the judges and studio audience in case tears started raining. She just wasn't the sort to seize the moment onstage.
Thia and Naima were joined in the bottom three by Paul McDonald.
There has always been the issue of whether viewers really "get" such an unusual voice on the Idol stage, where ballad queens like Pia Toscano dominate so easily. Well, this indicates that Paul's whispery pop-folkiness may be wearing out its welcome. "Rocket Man" was in fact one of his better performances, but Randy Jackson and Jennifer Lopez were somewhat reserved.
Casey avoided the bottom three altogether this time, either because viewers liked his toned-down delivery on "Your Song" or they were still shaken up/moved by his dramatic turnaround at the end of last week's results show.
Stefano Langone, who'd joined Casey in the bottom two on that same show, also stayed safe this time. And will probably stay so for a while.
The show, thank goodness, bagged the cheesy group medley that usually opens the results hour. Instead we got Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery singing a duet of a very relaxed "I Told You So" that earned an ovation from the judges ?. Naima and Jacob Lusk singing a less relaxed cover of Asford & Simpson's "Solid" (at the end of which Naima was informed she was in the bottom three) ? Haley Reinhart, Pia and Thia harmonizing smoothly, if blandly, on Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" (at the end of which Thia was dispatched to join Naima) ? And Paul, Casey, Stefano and James Durbin forming a chipper but uneven quartet for "Band on the Run" (at the end of which Paul became the last of the Unhappy Three).
It was an effective way of giving all the performers another opportunity to shine while bundling the doomed ones off to the guillotine.
