In happier news, I’m thrilled that Cody got through. Go BamBam!!! I think he’s my favorite. At the very least, he’s just so much freakin’ fun.
Agreed on Cody.
Tonight’s episode…
I got suckered in by the story about the song Blake wrote that Cassadee sang, so she got my vote for best performance of the night.
Amanda Brown is my number 2. She was leading the pack until then.
Dez did a good job with his performance, but I’m not interested. But I suspect he will get voted high.
I agree with Adam about Trevin, this wasn’t his best. But the audience was pretty wild.
Nicholas had a great song choice and a great rendition.
I enjoyed Cody’s performance, his attitude and his fun. I’m just not sure how far he can make it.
Bryan didn’t do anything wrong, but I’m not interested.
Melanie did a good job with her song, but she’s polarizing. If you like her stuff, then you enjoyed this song. If you don’t like her stuff, then you wouldn’t have enjoyed more of the same. She had passion for her song, but she’s not the pop diva. She’s got a unique quirky sound and style. That may not translate into enough votes to stay on.
Terry had a better performance than his last two. He did fine, but I don’t think fine is going to keep him around very long. After his last two and going against the ones left, he needed stellar. People have been carrying him on reputation for two weeks. He’s got to justify that at some point.
Sylvia also had a good performance, but good isn’t going to get the job done.
My guess at who is going home: Sylvia, and either Terry or Melanie.
And at least Christina was wearing pants tonight.
What a show tonight! I loved the entire thing. Unlike two weeks ago, when I thought just about everyone had bad performances, I thought everyone tonight had great performances.
I’m not a Melanie fan, but I like what she did tonight. I’m not a Cody fan, but his performance had me laughing and smiling, and I thought the singing was good also.
Trevin’s song choice was a departure, but he’s right. It’s easy to forget that he’s only 18 years old. It was nice to see a fun side of him. It also gave people a chance to see his flexibility.
Last night, I happened to be looking at Blake Shelton’s speech at the ACM awards on youtube and coincidentally found the song “Over You” and watched Miranda Lambert sing a few renditions of it. I liked Cassadee Pope’s version of it even better than Miranda’s. I’ve seen Cassadee’s version twice now and cried both times. I’m not usually emotional about those types of songs.
Bryan, Nicholas, Dez and Terry all did great performances. Terry’s performance was so much better than last week. Bryan seems to be hitting a stride. Nicholas is a little less quirky and more mainstream, but still as good to me. Amanda was back to doing what she does when she nails it.
Before tonight, there were several people I thought I could do without seeing again. In fact, except for Trevin, Amanda and Bryan, I wasn’t too excited about any of them.
After tonight, I’m going to be sad to see someone go. Sylvia wasn’t spectacular, so if I had to choose, I’d vote her off. I was never a Cody or Melanie fan, but I’d be curious to see what they do next, based on tonight’s performance. Of the two, I’m more curious to see what Cody does.
Cody gives me life. Love that kid more every week. Nicholas was great (but please no more side part!), and I agree that it was nice to see Trevin having fun and showing a different facet. He’s an 18 year old boy, just because he can sing Mariah doesn’t mean he has to!
I actually enjoyed Melanie’s performance way more than I thought I would, but I agree that it was great if you like her thing, and if you don’t like her thing that wasn’t gonna win you over.
Bryan bores me to tears. Sylvia’s voice is certainly powerful but it is not, to my ears, pretty. Amanda was great, and Cassadee was okay.
Dez had quite the moment last night, didn’t he? Good on him.
For me, this was the best episode since the show started. Everyone had at least solid performances, and some were stellar, even Dez. Up to this point he has bored me to sleep, and when I realized he was going to close the show last night I about turned it off. And then he floored me.
There’s a new rule this season that anyone that makes it to the top 10 of iTunes downloads will multiply the sales by 10 as votes for their survival for the night.
ET is reporting that Melanie’s performance last night made it to #9 at the time of publication of the article and Cassadee’s performance was #1.
Melanie’s popularity for that song surprises me. I thought it was her best performance, but I thought there were better performances last night by others.
That probably ensures survival for both of them tonight. That changes the odds for everyone else.
Given that, I’m still predicting that Sylvia will be part of the bottom 2 tonight. As for the other person eliminated, I’m having a more difficult time guessing. Maybe Cody? Maybe Dez?
Nah, Dez is a sure pass. I mean, I don’t like that style, but he had a very good performance - he was stronger than Bryan Keith for a similar thing.
I think Cody, Bryan, and Terry are on the hot seat, if Melanie is safe.
Just catching yesterday’s show. Very much enjoyed Blake and Christina’s opening act. I think they really do act like brother and sister. Lord knows they both enjoy getting sloppy drunk. Fairly sure that’s mostly a compliment for Blake.
I just watched the eliminations to 8. I’m shocked. . . and bummed.
Watched the results show. Sylvia, as expected, was one of the ones to go. The other was Bryan. I’m a little surprised but pleased. When Cody was saved, most of my tension was relieved. I was surprised but relieved Terry was saved.
Was it just me, or when the group was singing “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” were they falling behind on the tempo?
I didn’t think they would make it through the song. I kept thinking that it must be hard to sing when you don’t know if you’ve made it yet.
At the end, Sylvia was so flustered she couldn’t speak. That was mean though. Right when Carson was supposed to reveal the last person eliminated, he changed it up to ask questions, without doing a preface or changing tempo or anything.
Poor Amanda. She’s been one of the last people to be saved in both announcements.
I wondered last time if the eliminations were in the order of most votes, but this time, I doubt it. I doubt Trevin was that low on the list.
I don’t really care for Carson as a host. He just doesn’t seem genuine to me.
Yeah, Carson totally tripped up Sylvia. That more than anything is what left her unable to say anything.
I don’t know about any of you, but when Carson asked Terry to “say a few words” I had a desperate urg to say “spaghetti, tinsel, cornfield - how many do you want?”
And I agree the announcements don’t appear to be in order. I wonder how they are selected. I expect there’s some strategy with trying to maximize the drama. Amanda’s performance was much better than third last.
I really hate the forced drama of putting extended pauses before each announcement.
My girlfriend and I actually both think Carson is doing better this season. He’s still not great, and comes across as stiff and maybe trying too hard, but more natural than he has been.
Christina, on the other hand … could she make it all just a little bit more about her? She treated Dez and Sylvia like backup singers during their number last night, and then later when Carson asked her about Dez’s song choice, talked about how *she *is working to help him stand out. Didn’t he talk about he had been listening to that music with his dad since he was a kid? I remember a bit last season with Blake and his team where he didn’t even sing, just played guitar for his group.
That was just mean. Not that I think it was intentional, but good lord. Of course she can’t talk, she just swallowed her heart.
I think the order of announcement is pretty clearly designed to maximize drama, but I also think that sometimes a person like Amanda or Trevin gets screwed by the fact that everyone assumes s/he’s safe and votes for their second favorite.
And yeah, I hate the pauses. I know it’s the industry standard, but break the mold Carson! Move this shit along. (By the way, the first season I hated Carson with the fire of a thousand suns; he’s either gotten better or I’ve become inured to him. I do appreciate that he seems genuinely fond of a lot of the performers, and his “Blake Shelton, Entertainer of the Day/Week/Millennium” thing amuses me.)
One thing I hate even more than the pauses is the lame guest performers. Thank og for DVR.
Just caught up on this week… I actually didn’t think Dez was that great. Maybe it’s just because he sang a song that I actually know pretty well (as opposed to a lot of the pop and country that I’m less familiar with) but it seemed like he dodged the most difficult notes in that song, and struggled a little with one of the big notes near the end as it was. That said, he’s so very, very pretty, and I’d think he’ll continue to stay safe until nearly the very end because of that.
No real argument with the two who went home, though. I actually like both of them more than at least four or five that are still left, but they were both “good” in a week that had a lot of “really good” and “best I’ve seen them yet”. I was briefly worried about Trevin for the same reason, but good sense prevailed there.
Just got through tonight’s performances. Here’s my rundown.
Amanda came out with a stellar performance, doing a rock version of Adele’s “Someone Like You”. I was thinking “they’re going to have to work hard to beat that”. Then Cody came out and sang Queen’s “Somebody to Love”. DAMN! He definitely had the top performance tonight.
The thing is, even a year ago I don’t think I would have really known what big shoes he was trying to fill, but within the last year I’ve developed a sincere appreciation for Freddy Mercury and his vocal talent. This was a great match up, I’ve been pondering someone doing a Freddy Mercury song, and this was an ideal pairing. Cody had the voice, he had the notes, and he had the moves and the grace for the stage. It was awesome.
So 1. Cody Belew, 2. Amanda Brown.
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Cassadee Pope had a really strong performance with “Are You Happy Now?”. She really captured the venom.
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This one for me goes to Melanie, doing a Melanie version of “Too Close”. The thing is, this is one of those songs that I turn the radio when it comes on, but she made it appealing. I enjoyed it and could sense the personal emotion dumped in it.
And an aside, I wasn’t fond of the harping on her personal life. I know Adam’s line about making the guy miserable for not being with her is supposed to feel comforting, but I got the sense she didn’t feel it that way, she was practically shaking her head no in rejection of that sentiment.
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Gets a little gray here, but I think this was Trevin. He had a great performance again, but I just wasn’t getting the amazing I was from the others.
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I’m leaning toward Nicholas David here, for “What’s Going On?” His delivery was pretty good, even though he was once again behind on his performance in the group song, he didn’t seem to have that problem here. I give it to Mr. Smooth.
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I go with Terry McDermott here. It wasn’t a poor song choice, but once again it feels like my TV or my ears are broken, because Adam is applauding him for his perfect notes, and I still feel he’s missing some of them. It just doesn’t sound on to me. I want to root for Terry, but not when he’s missing notes, I can’t root for him over Amanda and Cody.
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Dez Duron. You see where I mentioned above where Melanie had me listening and connecting to a song I normally avoid? This was a case where I was wanting desperately to hit fast forward. I didn’t because as a competition I still feel it important to hear all the competitors, but this one was a challenge for me. So even though his vocal performance was better than Terry, his song style and song choice kill me. He’s the only one I wanted to skip listening to.
I’m sure America won’t agree, and Dez will come in higher. But this is my vote.
Yes, I gave Adam and 50 Cent a chance on the start up, but Fiddy blew it by being hip hop, so FFW it went. I wasn’t that impressed by the first group song. The second one with Amanda and Cody wasn’t bad, except where Nicholas was messing up the tempo.
I’m a middle-aged white woman so maybe it’s a dumb question, but my reaction was “Oh. Fiddy. Is he still here?”
I mostly agree with your rankings (with an especial if repetitive Go BamBam!!!) except that I think that Cassadee’s song choices continue to be horrible, the worst of the grrrrrrl pop of her adolescence. Someone play that girl some records, ferchrissake.
Loved the group version of Rhythm of Love. IMHO, best group song of the season.
I am glad Dez was voted off. I didn’t particularly like his voice and I hate mean girl Christina.