# American Idol 5/11 to 5/12 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 11, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-5-11-to-5-12/581523 "2011-05-11T14:56:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![vdgg81](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@vdgg81](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vdgg81)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-5-11-to-5-12/581523/81 "2011-05-13T15:31:01Z")
Oh wow! I’ll only watch this episode tonight but couldn’t resist checking this thread out. This was certainly unexpected! I thought James and Scotty would be our two finalists. I liked James but I’m not that upset. Lauren should have been gone before Casey and Jacob and it’s wrong for her to stay and for James to go, but he did have two bad weeks in a row. (I haven’t liked anything Lauren’s done since she sang _Candle in the Wind_, which I thought she nailed.) James, charismatic and fun as he is, still has some serious issues as a singer. He’s frequently out of pitch and he misses the note he’s aiming for in his screams more often than not. It was just painful to hear him singing _Living for the City_ a few weeks back, he so thoroughly messed up the song.. He’s depended a lot on theatrics to get this far and he still needs lots of coaching IMO. Much as I dislike most of Scotty’s music, I won’t be upset at all if he wins. He’s professional sounding, obviously competent and has grown the most artistically out of all the contestants. I do wish he didn’t look like the bastard child of Alfred Newman and George W. Bush though. Haley I think is great and has been either very good or great every week since they sang Motown. > [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > … on the occasion that Randy pulls his finger out and actually gives criticism, he’s booed like the villain in a bad Christmas panto. I think that got to Simon - not that it personally bothered him, but that people were so enamored/blinded that they couldn’t recognize that all artists, especially those on a show like AI, needed growth - or else they would have already been stars. > > The chick who talked back to Randy, that irritating Jacob guy… they’re all examples of performers emboldened by the crowd response, because they blew off the judges’ comments, thinking that all they needed to do was to satisfy their fans and that’s it…! The problem is this trio of judges is absolutely worthless. Neither their praise nor their (very rare) criticism holds any value. Their criticism because they’re so inconsistent in their reasoning and their praise because it’s so overused and also inconsistent. At this point I cringe every time it’s their turn to comment. I think you could torture and kill a puppy on the stage and Steven Tyler would still say it was crazy and beautiful, J-Lo would still say she loved the performer and Randy would get booed for saying it was a good performance, a bit pitchy, but he disagreed with the song choice. Randy is the only one who offers actual criticism with any regularity, but he’s so off the mark when he does the only rational response by a contestant would be to disregard it. Anyone who followed his advice would have been eliminated weeks ago. ---
**Author:** ![jesskat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d78d45/32.png) [@jesskat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jesskat)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-5-11-to-5-12/581523/82 "2011-05-13T20:30:59Z")
Well, I’m still pulling for Scotty, but Haley will probably win. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-5-11-to-5-12/581523/83 "2011-05-14T03:50:15Z")
I wanted James to win. I can handle Scotty winning, but we’re stuck with Borin’ Lauren and Bitchley Growlhart. That’s the sucky part. ---
**Author:** ![jesskat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d78d45/32.png) [@jesskat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jesskat)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-5-11-to-5-12/581523/84 "2011-05-16T22:40:52Z")
Haley will probably win, so I don’t really care who wins. I know that Scotty will still have a career either way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-5-11-to-5-12/581523.md?page=4)