American Idol 9: First Eliminations

Each of American Idol’s Top 24 had just one chance, over two performance nights, to grab the nation’s attention. Which four out of this group failed at the endeavor? Only Thursday’s elimination round would yield the answer.

Ryan Seacrest started with Simon Cowell, saying that “people were buzzing” about Simon being “harsh” during Wednesday’s performance round. Perhaps if the show hadn’t been so terrible, his comment would have been more enthusiastic. “Some of the performance last night weren’t very good,” he explained to the host.

“There were some surprises,” Ellen DeGeneres said of her first week of truly judging Idol. “They gotta step it up now,” she said of the contestants.

“It’s really make it or break it time,” Randy Jackson explained.

The Top 24 performed “American Boy,” the only group performance they will have to offer. By the time the group performs again, they’ll be minus four contenders. The number started out with the girl contestants, who managed to perform ably (surprisingly so). The men didn’t sound as great, and when all twenty-four began to sing together the number really became horrible. Such is usually the way with Idol’s big group numbers. Once the Idols are narrowed down to twelve, the group numbers become much, much better.

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