Second Elimination (or, Exposure has its benefits) by spacecitymarc

A big nothing of a results show last night, with a minimum of bullshit, filler or surprise. I suspect that their hijinks last week got such overwhelmingly bad publicity that TPTB opted to simplify as much as possible. Celena Rae is told that she's out in the simplest, most straightforward manner that I think I've ever seen on this show, and it would be wonderful to see it again. Aloha Mischeaux is only forced to jump through one insignificant hoop to be told she's gone and gives a yawnworthy pageant farewell speech.

When they bring out the men and it's down to Joe Murena, David Brown, Mario Vasquez and Travis Tucker, I'm giddy to see that it's a win/win situation for me. Ryan takes the opportunity to make the only snarkworthy comment of the evening, when he observes, "One of these guys has the lowest number of votes, the other has the second lowest number of votes" in reference to four men. Jeez, Clever Hans could count better than Ryan, and he was a horse.* Anyway, Joe and David are out, and when Joe takes the opportunity to pull a bit of a Melinda and complain gently that he didn't get more airtime, I wonder if they cut the show down to a half hour precisely to avoid being revealed as the charlatans and hucksters that they are. Then Ryan talks to David about having had biscuits at his family's house, and I ponder what an odd breakfast that had to have been.

Like last week, I'm not particularly saddened by the way things turned out. I would have liked to hear more from Celena and David, but my affection for her was really only a hunch at this point, and David just hasn't shone since his audition. I flat-out wanted Joe and Aloha gone, on the other hand, so that's nice. You know, for me.

In other, more horrifying news, spacecityotherroommate'sgirlfriend thinks Constantine is super-hot. This is amusing to me, for reasons that I shall keep entirely to myself.

And Ryan has, it appears, tired of his own stupid catchphrase. We can only hope.

So, looking at the semifinalists, I note the following (flower bullets totally not my choice, but we'll call them a tribute to Aloha) [Better now? -WS]:

Saw their auditions:

• Lindsay Cardinale
• Mikalah Gordon
• Nadia Turner
• Amanda Avila
• Carrie Underwood
• Vonzell Solomon
• Mario Vasquez
• Anwar Robinson
• Constantine Maroulis
• Scott Savol
• Travis Tucker
• Nikko Smith
• Anthony Federov
• Sarah Mather - first elimination
• David Brown - second elimination

Saw during "Hollywood" rounds:

• Jessica Sierra
• Janay Castine
• Bo Bice
• Judd Harris - first elimination

Appeared out of nowhere (i.e., we never heard them sing before the semis):

• Melinda Lira - first elimination
• Aloha Mischeaux - second elimination
• Celena Rae - second elimination
• Jared Yates - first elimination
• Joe Murena - second elimination

Now. I'm not going to get all Grassy Knoll here, because I'm not claiming any sort of conspiracy. But when all but three of the surviving competitors were showcased right from the start, and when all five of those who had no exposure at all before making it to the semi-finals have been voted out, Melinda's bitching from last week suddenly takes on extra weight. The sociologist in me (who just won't die no matter what I do) tells me that there is a causality question here: did they get voted out because they weren't given the same airtime as the others, or were they not given the same airtime because they weren't as good? Based on some of the performances I've seen from some of the people who were shown early on, I'm far more inclined to put stock in the former. Which tells me that TPTB have a fundamental problem on their hands.

*Yeah, I know, it was actually a hoax. Clever Hans referenced for snark purposes only, and should not be taken as gospel.