What are we to make of these
American Idol men (and one boy)? Touted as one half of the most talented batch of semi-finalists ever, they have been both a massive disappointment and a sight to behold. It all depends on who you ask. Expectations create bizarre judgments. Any way you slice it, this year's Top 24 has been exponentially better than last year's. Are they the best ever? Probably not, but I'm inclined to agree with FOX's claim that they are the most talented ever. However, a number of the singers have yet to live up to their massive potential. I would argue that, given their abilities, three of the top 8 men have been severely underwhelming (they would be
Michael Johns,
Danny Noriega, and
Luke Menard (who I still maintain can be good given the right song)). Two have exceeded any reasonable expectations (
David Archuleta and
Chikezie Eze) and the other three have done about as well as we can expect, which happens to be quite good (
David Hernandez,
Jason Castro and
David Cook). What does this have to with who's going home tomorrow? I believe that the voting public has a keen sense of potential, whether they realize it or not.
Who's Going Home?
Chikezie Eze
If you sense that someone has performed above and beyond their talent level, you then have to answer this question – if they regress back to the mean, will you still like them? With David Archuleta, as we saw last night, I think the answer is yes. With Chikezie, I think the answer is no. I think with Chikezie, voters will have realized that he's done about as well as he can possibly do, and that that's still not very good. That's why he'll be heading home tomorrow.
Luke Menard
This was the easy one. Even though he still hasn't reached his potential (mostly thanks to terrible song choices), it's been enough. I agree with Simon – Luke's performance last night was “girly.” I understand that he was trying to put on a fun performance, but man, it's hard to seem bad ass while singing Wham. He should have gone home each of the last two weeks. This week, Luke's luck will have run out.
Oscar's Top 8 Guys Performance Rankings
#1 – David Cook
#2 – Jason Castro
#3 – Michael Johns
#4 – Danny Noriega
#5 – David Hernandez
#6 – David Archuleta
#7 – Chikezie Eze
#8 – Luke Menard
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of FOX)