Elimination Show - Recap

Okay. I'm live blogging this.

The show is boring. It seems the producers are attempting some sort of damage control from their dramatics last week. There is now a clear effort from everybody to be "nice". It's kinda painful to watch Ryan and the judges try to "soften" the blow for the contestants.

There's also no singing now. After Melinda Lira's and Sarah Mather's antics last week, I don't blame them.

So first eliminated is Celena Rae. She's very sad.

Now Ryan is conversing with Nadia - making them comfortable?

Goddam Janay is NOT ELIMINATED! Argghhh!!!!

Ryan is doing an extensive chat with Aloha.

Aloha is eliminated!

The judges say she shouldn't have been eliminated this week. And Aloha says it's not the end for her. Good for you! Just don't copy any more singers.

Gad, I can't believe I need to listen to Janay for one more week. Arghhh! Theory: she will be the contestant you love to hate. They will keep her in for the cringe factor. I'm so hating her guts now.

Ryan makes Joe, David, Mario and Travis stand up before he cues commercial. Hmmm.

I feel bad since Mario's used as a prop.

My guess is Joe and David... the guys on the right of Ryan. Gad, this show is painfully boring.

Yay, I was right. Joseph Murena and David Brown out.

Mikalah is crying and Janay is hugging her (eek).

What a dead show. They could have just posted the list on their website. Serves them right for being so evil last week. Lousy, lousy.

Additional Post-mortem: So clearly Fox had suffered a backlash from last week, and they tried to rectify it by staging a 30-minute "public announcement" show. It's pathetic.

I guess the all-boys and all-girls format has not quite worked in Fox's favor. They will get the result they wanted, which is having Carrie, Mario, Anthony, Constantine, Mikalah, Anwar, etc. in the Top 12. Unfortunately, a lot of people now have the sense that it is rigged for the favorites. There was a lot of discussion about air-time in the forums being a factor for voting, and a lot of guys used Aloha and Joseph Murena as examples of those with no airtime getting fans from the first show, thus disputing the more airtime theory. Well -- so much for that theory! Why Joe would go ou of his way to mention that he had enough of an exposure was just pure ass kissing to me. (Apparently, he complained about not getting any airtime.)

Of the four eliminated tonight only David Brown had extensive exposure. He got featured visiting his hometown in one of the audition shows. Unfortunately, he just didn't sing well and gained no more fans afterward -- and singing was his strong suit.

I think they should have just let the show play out without blatantly picking favorites. Mario, Anthony and Carrie will get their fans naturally without any help from the producers. Also, with the way this has played out. Jaclyn Crum, who was eliminated in the Top 44, would have been a shoo-in for the Top 12. The young girls loved her. Perhaps they wanted to protect Mikalah's votes... but then Mikalah appeals to a whole different demographic. Sigh. Let's hope this show gets interesting next week or I might bail. Out!