Welcome back friends. Here we are with the finale of American Idol 2012 season 11. Thousands started, 2 finish, one will be revealed as The American Idol. If your a watcher of the show, you already know who won, if you’ve been waiting for me to tell you, here is the announcement. Let’s get to it.

Last week, the final two were chosen by the producers 90,000,000 votes cast by the American Tween. Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips. They aren’t the ones I would have chosen but I’m not the target audience of this show. That much is clear to me and has been for quite some time. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the performance show this week. I’m sure if you really want to see them and missed them, they are on youtube somewhere or on American Idol’s website. I did note however, some of the judge’s reactions to the 3 songs each sang. By the end of the night, I could tell that they were kind of pushing for Phillip Phillips to win. Particularly after Jessica’s 2nd song. The judges weren’t tripping all over their tongues to praise her. Both of these finalists are good at what they do. I don’t want to take that away from them. They are good at what they do when they stay with what they know. IMO, and this kind of goes for all singes, not just these two, when they step out of that comfort zone, it falls short. One of Randy’s favorite lines is ‘s/he can sing the phone book’. Some can, most can’t and I lump most of these contestants, even some of my favorites, into that latter category. I like some of these contestants for who they are, not for what I’m told by the Idol producers I’m supposed to like from these people stepping out of their comfort zones. You’ve no doubt noted that I typically don’t ‘watch’ the performance show but ‘listen’. If anything grabs my attention, I’ll rewind the DVR and replay it so I can enjoy the full performance. There were only a few contestants that got the rewind from me. I liken that rewind to the standing ovation from the judges. So, by the end of the performance night we were left with the choice between the ballad singer and the I don’t care what anyone thinks, artist. Which one will it be? Let’s see.

The ‘results’ night opens with the usual painful montage group sing. I guess if they want to do these on this show, this is the week to do it where, they bring back all of the top 12 for the show. If you’ve been following along with me, both here and when I was making a short blog in the comments at another blog, you know how I feel about most of these people. So there’s no need to hate on any of them here, again. They all gave it their best shot, made it further than I ever could have, so to continue bashing them is pointless. I’ll try to keep that to a minimum and just bash the show instead 😉 You know you’re not going to get away from The Hound’s snark that easily.

Anyway, Next up was Phillip Phillips with John Fogerty from CCR. The songs were okay but all it really did is remind me why I say that most of these people cannot sing the phone book. I mean you really can’t go wrong with John singing his own songs. Put Phillip in the mix though, and I’m not bashing him here, it’s just the way I heard it, he had a 2 or 3 note range on these songs. The two just didn’t blend well IMO and if John is considering taking Phillip on tour, he should probably reconsider. All in all though, not the worse I’ve ever felt about Phillip. I say that to point out, he’s never been one of my favorites on the show. Next up on the performances was Joshua Ladet and Fantasia. I don’t know a whole lot about her. Didn’t see her on the show (wasn’t she an Idol contestant?) but whatever they were singing, I couldn’t figure out if she was trying to out Joshua Joshua or if he was trying to out Fantasia Fantasia. You all know I love to hear Joshua church it up but for me, this performance was just a lot of screaming for the sake of the screaming. Again, IMO. If I’m wrong and this is truly a vote driven competition, then I think going to this sort of thing too often is in part, what cost Joshua his spot in the final 2. Still, this is apparently who he is and what he wants to be as a performer.

In the next segment the top 6 women performed. With most if not all of the 5 other than Jessica, I was reminded of why I liked most of them. None can, as Randy says, sing the phone book but each had her own style that really drew me to her, If I like their sort of style that is. Chaka Kahn joined the ladies for this performance and I’ll say I didn’t fast forward very much past it. This was followed up by a replay of some of the Ford Video stuff, There was no new one this week and I can’t remember if there ever is, in the final show. It would have been just Jessica anyway because for some reason, Phillip is absent in the last 4 or 5 of them. The car that Ford has been pushing all season long in these videos is the Ford Escape. Next we see the people that inspired each, Phillip and Jessica. Phillip’s ‘mentor’ was his brother in law and Jessica’s was a family friend that she’s known since she was 9 or 10. For their putting up with their now AI contestant friends for so long, each are given Ford Escapes. Surprise!!! 😀 Not really, I think they do this every year but Jessica’s friend seemed thrilled as could be by, the surprise. Next, Ryan surprises 🙄 Jessica and Phillip with keys to their own new cars. I kind of got the feeling that for the crowd, this was more of an intermission piece than part of the show. Not much reaction from them. Maybe they aren’t surprised anymore? They really need to freshen this show up.

Up next on the stage is Rihanna. She was there pushing whatever it is she’s done in the last 100 years and without an Idol contestant featured. These are the ones I hate on this show. These plug artists. I call them that because they are there for no other reason than to plug whatever their latest stuff is, for a fee. If one or more of the idol contestants got to perform with her, I wouldn’t have had a problem with it but I would really rather that the show was kept, about, the contestants. I feel the same way about all of these people every week. I just don’t care to see them on the show. Up next is Reba McEntire with Skylar Laine. I enjoyed this. I always enjoyed watching Skylar and she showed that she can definitely hold her own on stage with someone like Reba.

Now it’s time for Jessica to give us a solo performance. “I Will Always Love You”. I like this song- when Dolly Parton sings it. IMO, it doesn’t get any better than the original (I never saw The Bodyguard because I never liked Whitney and I Hate Kevin Costner). This was followed up by the top men doing a Neil Diamond montage. It was okay I guess but as I’ve noted, some of them, this kind of stuff just doesn’t fit. During this show, Neil himself came out. The girls had Chaka, the boys had Neil. I could not help but notice that they had Neil’s microphone turned down or he had a defective one. I could barely hear him. I don’t know what’s up with that if it’s anything more than a technical glitch. I didn’t think the whole thing came off very well both, before and after, Neil came out.

Throughout the show, they’ve been giving us extras. One was a tour of Stephen’s dressing room. It featured playboy type bunnies, some other rather odd stuff, and a couple animals, one being, a Sloth. Ummm, Why? Is this for show or does he really have these types of creatures as pets (not talking about the ‘bunnies’ here). It left me shaking my head. Another of these ‘extras’ was a featurette on Randy’s ‘you can sing the phone book’. So they put that statement to the test. It was all of the top 12, in a choir, singing from the phone book. It was campy, kind of fun for about 30 seconds, and then it was old. I guess if one is to take that phrase literally, they can, all sing the phone book 😉 This led us into Jennifer Lopez’s spot. Fast forward time. I’m sorry. I’ve really grown to dislike her because of her stint on this show. Stephen Tyler, as a judge, isn’t too far behind that and I’ve hated Randy ‘Yo’ Jackson on the show for years. If you enjoy them, consider that to be one of the many things that makes us different. Next, I guess a couple people got engaged. Nice. Why? In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I would rather have the half hour that they spend on this shit replaced with another show on the network or something different within the show.

Out next, Hollie Cavenaugh with Jordan Sparks for a duet. Very nicely done. Nothing bad to say about it and it was nice to see Hollie again. Now it’s time to remember Robin Gibb (RIP) who recently passed away. The top 6 guys did a tribute that probably should have stayed in the idea stage rather than execution. Not that the tribute was a bad idea, it was just bad. It’s no secret that I enjoyed the women more than the men this year and I was reminded throughout the show of Why. It’s time to wheel out Jessica and Jennifer Holiday. Ummm, WTF was that? Jessica must be trying to lose the ‘cute’ because she was trying to channel Joshua with these stink faces she was making. The both looked like they were trying to.. well, that’s gross. I’ll spare you but – fill in the blanks on your own if you wish. To me, Jessica’s performance in this was a whole lot of yelling and very little singing. Maybe it’s just that type of song but between that and the facial expressions, that she clearly cannot pull off, she isn’t going to live this down anytime soon. She blew her ‘cute’ idol image with this one. In contrast, her rival for the night, Phillip, always makes faces too. He often looks like someone is squeezing his nutz in a vise but he always looks like that when he sings. (SMH).

The last non idol performance of the night was Aerosmith. I kind of feel the same way about this as I do Rihanna’s bit and especially Jenni’s. I like Aerosmith though because I happen to still like the band. I’m more of a 70s child with them but when they play the classics, I’m a fan. What can I say. We all have our favorites and I never said I was impartial.

The final performance, pre-reveal, of the night is Phillip and Jessica singing ‘Up Where We Belong’. It didn’t suck. I’ll give it that. I listened rather than watch so I don’t know what the performance looked like but the musical part of it sounded decent. It’s time. Finally. Dim the lights, Here We Go! The official vote counter guy hands Ryan the envelope and certifies the result as authentic, it’s read. Phillip Phillips is the winner. Scotty McCreapy hands him his trophy and he sings his first song for the album, I guess, Home. Not bad. You Phillip fans will probably enjoy it when it’s released. The End.

Comments and thoughts. I only have one comment. Vote count. This is the reason I think this show is contrived and these vote counts are bullshit. No coughing around that word either, it’s just pure bullshit. I’m going to invite you to go back and look at what I said about it last week at This Link. Direct your attention to the second to last paragraph and read the first few lines. This week’s vote count? 132,000,000. Just sayin.

Thoughts- Our Empress, has provided me with a link to an ABC story on where are they now with these contestants. Sometimes, I think they’ve gotten it right with the winner on this show. Most of the time, they do not. Check out where your favorite Idol contestant may be doing now.

Link here.

It’s been fun kids but I’m Idol’d out for about another 25 years. This show needs to freshen up or go the way of the old Ed McMahon program that featured hopeful stars.

Peace.

MTH.