VIDEO: 'Reality Check' Predicts 'Idol' and 'Voice' Finales
TVLine.com's Michael Slezak returns with American Idol Season 6 finalist Melinda Doolittle for an all-new Reality Check, dissecting the week in reality singing competitions!
This week, Michael and Melinda look back on the semifinals for American Idol XIII and The Voice 2014. In short, they have a bone to pick with the judges over Caleb Johnson's critiques...or lack thereof. The hosts also analyze how we arrived at this final two of Caleb Johnson and Jena Irene, while also getting into why Alex Preston went home. They then discuss which of the remaining two singers should win this season, before getting into The Voice and discussing who should win among the remaining three vocalists. All the while, Michael and Melinda ponder how Jake Worthington continues to happen, and why Adam seems to allow so many questionable song choices. Little did they know what was in store, given how hit-or-miss last night's Live Final Performance show ended up being. Anyway, check out the full video of the latest episode of Reality Check below via TVLine:
Credit: TVLine.com
THOUGHTS
THANK GOD someone else made note of that awful J-Lo splitscreen during Alex's hometown visit on last week's results show. That was some hot nonsense, and it needs to never happen again. We get it, producers. She's pretty and photogenic, and people apparently like her a lot. But Kate Winslet could be a judge on this show, and I wouldn't want the camera to linger on her that damn much.
As for the actual competition side of things, I'm actually surprised that Michael and Melinda have viewed a Caleb/Jena final as the inevitability of this season, as I always figured we were building towards Caleb vs. Alex, with Jena as a dark horse third-place finisher. In fact, Jena's advancement essentially takes the mystery out of the end result for me, if only because I don't see how she beats Caleb, since Jena has been in the bottom 3 twice, whereas Caleb has never been. Of course, it's not impossible for Jena to make it happen, since Ruben "Landed In the Bottom 3 Once" Studdard still beat Clay "Never In the Bottom 3 Ever" Aiken way the hell back in Season 2. But I just don't see it happening. With that said, as much as I've loved Caleb this season, I would completely lose my mind if Jena could pull off the upset. And I intend to vote her for her tonight, so I guess we'll see.
Over to The Voice, I'm glad Melinda called out the inherent silliness of having an Instant Save on the semifinal results show. Of COURSE Christina was going to be saved. She has a much larger social media presence than Kristen or Kat due to having had a larger social media presence dating back years before this season. From all appearances on the iTunes chart last week, Kristen would have been in the Final 3 over Christina. Now, I'm not sure she necessarily would have won or anything, and I do enjoy Christina more than Kristen, but I think when we get to the semifinals, the votes should speak for themselves. Twitter gets enough of a say in how the season plays out already. I'm still not sure who wins The Voice tonight, but if I had to guess, I'd say Jake Worthington has it in the bag. That said, even though I put him at the top of my Top 3 Finale Power Rankings last night, it doesn't mean I necessarily want him to win. He's a great guy and uber-talented, and he'd deserve the win if he got it, but I'd love if Josh or Christina could pull it out instead. There's already a ton of controversy going into the show due to a voting glitch on Josh's iTunes performance of "Set Fire To the Rain". Yet it's still a close race, with all of the finalists charting well. Couldn't be more stoked to see how things play out.
What do you think of the opinions in this week's episode? Agree or disagree? Sound off in the comments!