A quarter of American Idol 8‘s Top 12 has been announced, but early on, there quite a significant amount of outcry over some of the decisions made.  What is Michael Sarver doing here?  Why is Tatiana del Toro nowhere?  (Or, why is she there in the first place?)  Why didn’t Anoop Desai make it? Where the heck is Ricky Braddy?

Ricky was one of last week’s performers, and he was relatively one of the night’s better performers, considering that most of his batch didn’t do well as expected.  But, of course, some names stood out more than others, and he was denied a chance at the top 12, in favor of Danny Gokey, Alexis Grace, and (shudder) Michael Sarver.  But for his fans, his journey is not yet over—they have so many reasons to believe that he still has a chance to make it to the finals, through the Wild Card round.

Clue one: one fan site dedicated to Ricky, TheBraddyBunch.com, apparently received a cease and desist order from American Idol producers Fremantle Media.  The site has been taken down, but in its place is a graphic that’s pretty much akin to the nine squares in The Brady Bunch.  The middle square has a question mark in it.

“Due to legal reasons, Ricky has disappeared,” the site said.  “Find the missing piece,” referring to the question mark in the middle.

JoesPlaceBlog.com, a site recommended by those at TheBraddyBunch.com, has fueled speculation that Ricky is the missing piece—which means he will be part of the Wild Card round.

Clue two: calls to the show’s PR department have basically confirmed that Ricky is still in the running; they say he is unavailable for interviews because he is still “in contest.”  Personally, though, I wouldn’t put too much meaning to this—is this the case with everybody else?  I don’t have that much of an idea, to be honest.

Regardless of whether he makes it in or not, his fans have lamented the fact that Ricky didn’t get as much screen time as the other contestants.  Remember, we didn’t see much of him until last week—a complete contrast to the attention Idol gave to Danny and Alexis.  Also consider that Ricky is one of Paula Abdul‘s top three picks, along with Danny and Adam Lambert, who will perform this Wednesday.

With that, fans are hopeful that Ricky will still be in the wild card.  “I’m thinking Ricky will get more face time in the wild card episode and especially if he makes the top 12,” T.J. Long Jr., the pastor as the church where Braddy and his family are members, said.  “[Paula] is the only singer, and she has pull [on the show]. Ricky is definitely going to be there for the wild card.”

“At this stage it’s all about the drama,” he added.  “Who knows what they’re doing.”

-Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: The Daily Advance
(Image courtesy of Fox)

Henrik Batallones

Staff Writer, BuddyTV