American Idol Results: 3 More Finalists Selected

Ryan Seacrest was decked out in a suit for last night’s results show because he had a lot of work to do. Not only did he have to announce the show’s three finalists, two of which we predicted (are we getting better at this?), but he had eight wildcard spots to give out too. This week’s finalists were Lil Rounds who, as Paula Abdul so gleefully put it, we’ll be seeing for a lot more lil’ rounds, Scott MacIntyre, and the one person we didn’t predict, Jorgé Nuñez (pictured above). After seeing Jorgé’s excitement and the way that native tongue of his befuddled Ryan so, we were thrilled for him.

The first order of the night was the group song and as soon as Ryan announced it, we couldn’t avert our eyes. The group song has always been highly mockable but until last night’s version of Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold,” we never thought it was pre-recorded. Trying to find out who was singing what part was a fun game because no one’s lips matched anything that we were hearing. Our eyes started to blur from looking at the TV so hard.

Lil Rounds was the first of the finalists to be announced — no shock there, she was a lock. Ryan asked Kara DioGuardi what she thought we could expect from Lil this season and Kara replied with “Just … ridiculous vocals every single week. Unless something ridiculous happens.” In Kara’s world, ridiculous is like Aloha, it means many things. And apparently one of the meanings is “amazing” and another involves a Tonya-Harding-esque plot against our songstress.

Ryan then had Arianna Afsar, Taylor Vaifanua, Alex Wagner Trugman, Kendall Beard, Scott MacIntyre stand up and he said, “One of these people is through to the next round. Which one is it?” Hilariously, someone in the audience thought they were being personally addressed and yelled “Scott!”, ruining the surprise that yes, it was indeed Scott. We then had to sit through a commercial break that was all for nothing.

Back from the break, Ryan quickly told Arianna, Taylor and Alex that they didn’t make it and for a good minute we doubted ourselves and thought Kendall Beard was going to be the night’s Michael Sarver/Kris Allen — it seemed very possible that she, the cute little package artist with the commercial appeal these judges are always going on about, could have a shot instead of Scott. Our mind raced! Could the power of country music fans be stronger than the power of people wanting to see a blind man singing Hornsby? In the end, no.

We are worried, though, that for as long as Scott remains on the show, Ryan will continue to narrate his every move like he’s been doing, for Scott’s benefit. Last night it was “Scott, we’re standing center stage,’ and “Scott, I’m handing you the microphone now,” but the best was from Tuesday night’s show “Scott – someday I’ll describe my friend Simon for you.” Good lord. Can you imagine Ryan trying to negotiate a conversation between Scott and Jorgé Nuñez? “SCOTT, Jorge is right NEXT to you.” “JORGÉ, Scott is blind, can you say BLIND? No eyesies!”

Nathaniel Marshall and Kristen McNamara will forever be linked, such is the power of the duress the were under during their time in Team Compromise. Neither of them made it to the next round, and we suspect Nancy Wilson leaped up during her anger management class and applauded that decision when it was revealed. Von Smith and Felicia Barton both made our blah list Tuesday night and America concurred, giving them the boot, too. (Although lucky Von was handed a second chance in the wildcard round — the judges must see something we don’t.)

It sucked to be these four contestants because, knowing how Idol works and how they save one finalist for a big reveal at the end, it was probably pretty disappointing to stand up in front of Ryan and America knowing your fate before he even said it.

That left Ju’Not Joyner and Jorgé Nuñez, to vie for the last seat and while we predicted Ju’Not for his heart-melting baby and asthma attacks, we were wrong. Jorgé’s enthusiasm was, for lack of any other word, delightful, and he took a rightful seat on the Finalist’s Barstools. Ryan deferred Jorgé’s performance so he could list off the wild cards, including Von Smith, Jasmine Murray, Ricky Braddy (Will this mark the return of his mom and dad, the Braddy Bunch?), Megan Joy Corkrey, Tatiana del Toro (but of course), Matt Giraud (yay, another prediction we got right!), Jesse Langseth, and Anoop “Dogg” Desai. A couple of surprises thrown in there, so we’re anxious to see how tomorrow’s show plays out. If nothing else, a show with Tatiana at least means we’ll have something good to write about.

[Photo: Fox]