American Idol: First of the Top 12 Sent Packing

Film Crunch - Seattle, WA, USA - Elimination night on American Idol began with more cross-promotion. This time, it was Jim Carrey (star of an upcoming 20th Century FOX movie) in a weird elephant suit. During his banter with host Ryan Seacrest, the movie star cried out, “I love the show, I love the contestants.” Me, too…up to a point.

This promotional effort (which is probably totally unnecessary - the movie will bank big bucks whether Carrey parades around in a silly suit or not) was quickly followed by an announcement. “We’re changing the theme!” Ryan Seacrest announced, claiming that an avalanche of telephone calls and e-mails led the show to feature tunes from the Beatles next week as well. I’d like to venture a guess that the tenor of those comments was mostly in the I-didn’t-hear-what-I-wanted-to-hear vein and that next week, we’ll hear much more of the White Album. Just a guess, though.

Next came a quick early Beatles medley of songs, a mishmash of “All My Lovin’,” “I Feel Fine,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and “Help!” as performed by the Top 12. But as soon as the music faded, it was time to get to the real business of the evening: getting rid of one of them.

Carly Smithson, Michael Johns, Jason Castro and Syesha Mercado were bid to stand up first. Of these, only Syesha was not sent to safety. One of the bottom three vote-grabbers, Mercado was bid to sing what could be her final Idol song in a strange new twist. In previous Idol seasons, only those voted off get to sing. In this new Idol hybrid, we get treated to all the performances we summarily rejected in the past. Great. Syesha gave her song plenty of oomph and a great big finish all the same, while judge Paula Abdul looked on wearing a crazy silver jacket. Was anyone else terribly distracted by this huge fashion mistake? I could hardly watch the flipping show.

Next came the Ford video (I told ya so), this one featuring Idols singing Cake’s “Going the Distance” in a politically-themed montage. The video was incredibly brief, as room had to be made for an aggravatingly long clip which showed the Top 12 at a FOX movie premiere. Will you run right out and watch the same movie your Idols recently saw? FOX hopes so. With these promotions exhausted, our attentions were finally turned back to the business at hand.

Chikezie, Amanda Overmyer, Kristy Lee Cook and David Cook were bid to stand next. Of course it was Kristy, with her horrible country rendition of “Eight Days a Week,” who earned the dubious honor of making it into the bottom three and being forced to sing on the spot. How cruel this show is - I never in my life wanted to listen to her mangle that song again. Wearing a weirdly ugly outfit and with an even worse country lilt in her voice, Kristy threatened to make my ears bleed before joining Syesha off on the side of the stage.