Best of Night For American Idol Final Performance Show Was Either Scotty or Lauren

An incoming Texas thunderstorm knocked out my power about 5 minutes before the start of the American Idol final performance show of the season.

Power came back on at the end of the show, right when re-caps of Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina's 3 songs of the night and the voting numbers were shown, as you can see in the screen cap, with all the weather info taking up most of the screen, with Scotty shoved up in the upper right corner.

At least I got to see a condensed version of the show.

It did not take extensive research to learn that Scotty started off the show, with the first round being the singer's singing what they felt was their favorite performance of the season. Scotty sang "Gone" by Montgomery Gentry.

Lauren chose Carrie Underwood's "Flat on the Floor." Apparently Lauren sounded a tad hoarse.

For the second round Scotty and Lauren asked their favorite idol to pick a song for them. George Strait picked his own song, "Check Yes or No," for Scotty. Carrie Underwood picked "Maybe It Was Memphis."

Judges' opinions?  In the first round Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson gave Scotty a slight edge, with Lauren getting the coveted slight edge for round 2. Steven Tyler gave both rounds to Lauren.

The third round song was what it always is, that being the first song the singer will release should they be the winner.

For Scotty, Jimmy Iovine picked "I Love You This Big." Randy was the most negative of the judges. Jennifer reached deep into her extensive vocabulary and said it was "amazing." Steven said Scotty proved, "You can't make a 3-point shot from under the net." I don't know what that means either.

Lauren sang a tribute to American moms called "Like My Mother Does." Jennifer felt that this song just might make Lauren the winner. Randy cleverly went non-cliche and said, "Lauren Alaina has arrived."

With Steven saying something I could understand, that being, “The first time I saw you I thought you were my American Idol. I think America’s gonna find that to be true as well.”

So, I guess that means Steven thinks Lauren will win. Randy thought the slight edge went to Scotty. While Jennifer thought it too close to call.

Two things for certain. The winner will be a teenager who's future is likely in country music, not heavy metal.

Scotty McCreery & Lauren Alaina American Idol Final Two

I'm not believing the Interweb rumors that American Idol's final two, Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery are romantically linked.

However, in the photo it does appear that Lauren is sitting on Scotty's lap with an arm around him. I don't know if this weak evidence is enough to proved the pair are currently at a boyfriend/girlfriend state of affairs.

This year's American Idol has been very strange to me. It started off seeming as if they'd found the best talent yet.

And then as the weeks went by it seemed less and less that the best talent ever had been found.

And now we are down to next Tuesday's 2 hour finale between 16 year old Lauren and 17 year old Scotty. The youngest finalists in American Idol history.

We were told 95 million votes were cast, Wednesday, which resulted in Haley Reinhart being the lowest vote getter.

I believe each so-called voter gets 10 votes. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say 9.5 million votes were cast?

Last week American Idol, according to the Nielsen Ratings, had 23 million viewers.

It seems really silly to say there were 4 times as many votes as there were viewers.

It also seems to me that Scotty McCreery will have to mess up real bad to not get millions upon millions of votes,next Tuesday, making him this year's winner of American Idol.

The 3 Finalists Sing 3 Songs On American Idol With One Week til The Finale

My favorite of the night this week on American Idol was Haley Reinhart. Next week is the finale. I'm guessing the final two will be Haley and Scotty McCreery. I am often wrong about such things.

This week during the bloated two hour show, the singers sang three songs. Song #1 was the contestant's choice. Song #2 was Jimmy Iovine's choice. Song #3 was the Judges' choice.

In round 1 Beyonce was the guest mentor. Near as I can tell guest mentors do the pseudo mentoring in order to promote their latest video or album or movie.

Scotty McCreery was the first up with Beyonce, singing the song of his choice, "Amazed" by Lone Star. Jimmy Iovine chose "Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not?" by Thompson Square. While the judges chose "She Believes in Me," by Kenny Rogers.

I thought Scotty did fine with all three songs.

Lauren Alaina was up next. She sure seems older than her 16 years. A very likable cutie. Lauren chose "Wild One" by Faith Hill for her Beyonce mentored song. Jimmy Iovine chose "If I Die Young, by The Band Perry for the young singer. The judges chose that done to death "I Hope You Dance" song by Lee Ann Womack.

I did not like Lauren's songs as much as I did Scotty's.

And then there was Haley Reinhart. Haley chose Led Zeppelin's "What Is and What Should Never Be," accompanied, on guitar, by her dad. Best of the night in my tone deaf opinion. Jimmy picked "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac. The judges picked Alanis' "You Oughta Know" which may have been the worst of the night.

So, I'm guessing it is either Haley or Lauren who get to the boot tonight. I though Haley was the best of the night. But Lauren may attract a lot of those younger voters who view Haley as an older woman.

I suppose I will be fast forwarding through the results show tonight.

Lady Gaga Advises Scotty McCreery To Treat His Microphone Like His Girl Friend While James Durbin Leaves American Idol

Google's Blogger has been in major malfunction mode, which prevented me from blogging.

So, I am 2 days past Lady Gaga's interesting appearance on this week's American Idol.

I found all Lady Gaga's mentoring to be amusing, with the most amusing being the mentoring done to 17 year old Scotty McCreery.

Telling the kid to treat his microphone like his girl friend, to make sweet love to it. I forget what else.

And then Lady Gaga stood up and walked over to Scotty. The shorts Lady Gaga was wearing were very interesting. Actually, I could not tell for sure if she was wearing any shorts.

Scotty's reactions were funny, as were his comments, post-Gaga.

Lady Gaga seemed to be giving good advice. I thought all did well. I was surprised that it was James Durbin who got the tearful boot on Thursday and not Haley Reinhart or Lauren Alaina.

I am sort of disappointed we won't be seeing a James Durbin hometown visit. It likely would have been very interesting. With a lot of tears jerked.

I've read in the past couple days that Lady Gaga wants to be on Glee. A Lady Gaga appearance on Glee would likely be highly amusing.

American Idol's Final 5 Performance Show with Haley Reinhart Getting Standing Ovation

My two favorites on American Idol have now been reduced down to Scotty McCreery and Haley Reinhart.

Haley won me over with her showstopper showender rendition of the Animal's "House of the Rising Sun." This got her a standing ovation from the crowd, including the judges.

Scotty McCreery is only 17. Yet he seems much older and very confident. I was surprised by how energetically he owned the stage in his first song of the night, Montgomery Gentry's Southern Rocker "Gone."  I also liked his version of the Elvis classic, "Always on My Mind."

How can Lauren Alaina only be 16 years old? I didn't care for Alaina's first song, Carrie Underwood's "Flat on the Floor." But, I liked her version of The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody."

Jacob Lusk I fast forwarded past.

That leaves James Durbin. His teary breakdown over Harry Nilsson's "Without You" seemed a bit much to me. I try and like this kid. But then he comes out with that tail again.

After tonight we will be down to four finalists. With the 10th season of American Idol scheduled to end on May 26. Unless those end of the world predictors turn out to be correct, with the world ending on May 21. If that happens we will never know who won the 10th season of American Idol. And it won't really matter all that much. Not that it matters all that much either way.

I'm guessing Jacob Lusk goes tonight.

American Idol's Casey Abrams Finally Eliminated For Good

It is a sad indicator of how far of my radar screen American Idol has become, that I forgot til this morning that someone got eliminated last night.

It took 2 seconds of Googling to find out that the "Judges' Save" saved Casey Abrams from elimination for, what? Two weeks? Or was it 3?

This week's American Idol performance show really amped up the stage productions. In previous iterations of American Idol, if I remember right, only the finale would see lots of backup singers.

Take Casey Abrams' performance, on Wednesday, for example. In years past Casey would have come on a bare stage, and with music accompaniment sing Carole King's "Hi De Ho" song.

On Wednesday, on the stage with him, Casey had a piano, with a  piano man playing, I don't know how many women playing trumpets, back up singers and lots of other things going on.

This morning it dawned on me that maybe GLEE has affected American Idol. What happens on the American Idol stage has definitely become more GLEE-like.

Is that a bad thing? Or a good thing? I don't know. I do know that last week when James Durbin came on to the stage, in uniform, with a march band behind him, I thought it was a bit much.

One more note before I shut up about American Idol. James Durbin has grown on me. Previously I thought Scotty McCreery was a shoo-in for the win. Now I'm thinking, unless he messes up real bad, the front runner most likely is James Durbin.

I've got last night's results show recorded on the DVR. I must remember to watch so I can see this week's Ford commercial.

Pia Toscano's Shocking Elimination From American Idol Leaves Jennifer Lopez Speechless

Apparently a lot of people thought Pia Toscano was the best singer this year on American Idol.

But, they didn't vote, so she got the least votes and left the show on Thursday's results show.

The judges were in shock.

The audience was booing.

The night before, after Pia sang, Steven Tyler said something like a million men in a million bars were having a drink over Pia singing. I did not quite get what that meant, exactly, but those million men weren't doing any American Idol voting.

After Pia got the boot, Jennifer Lopez said "I am shocked. I am angry, I don't even know what to say." She looked stunned, like she was about to cry.

Randy Jackson said, in an unusually long sentence, for him, "I'm never upset on this show, and I'm never really mad, but this, like, this makes me mad. What is going on?"

In the bottom 3, with Pia, were Jacob Lusk and Stefano Langone.

I fast forwarded past Russell Brand giving personality lessons.

I fast forwarded right past Constantine Maroulis singing Unchained Melody.

I also fast forwarded quickly past a shirtless Iggy Pop.

I don't really see why it is so shocking that Pia Toscano did not attract enough votes. What are the demographics of the voters? I'd guess teenage and younger girls. Who are they going to be voting for? Scotty McCreery and James Durbin and Paul McDonald, maybe.

The tween girls likely also would be voting for the cute girls. But, a sultry singer with an older vibe, like Pia, she would likely not be the type the tween girls would gravitate to.

Methinks if American Idol wants to have some control over this type travesty that maybe they should adopt the Dancing with the Stars method, thus taking some power away from all the little girls and their power voting.

After Scotty McCreery's rock and roll Elvis rendition, singing "That's All right", I think he's the front runner.