American Idol top 12 13

Well, it's time for another season of American Idol. I think it takes some time getting used to new contestants. At the beginning of every season I can't help but think that I don't love(or hate) these contestants like I did last year. Then I remember that I feel this way every year. As we get to know them better we start to love them and hope they do well. There are several contestants that I think do a great job and I'm sad that they don't get through even though I know others deserved it more. For the most part anyway, there are some I would have gladly traded. So I don't love any of them, but I'm sad when they don't make it... It's a very complicated emotion.

So it looks like we're down to the top 12 13 already and it feels like we're just getting started. Having 36 instead of 24 gave more people a chance, but then only taking 3 out of every show kind of cut it short. It's probably a good thing. Some contestants you know are just not going to make it so why postpone the inevitable. The wild card round is probably a good thing too, like Simon said, we wouldn't have had Jennifer Hudson without it. However, splitting the 36 into three groups means that we only hear each person once(or twice if they're in the wild card round) before they are in the top 12 13. In previous years we had more time to get to know them and pick our favorites. Then we'd feel it more when they succeeded or failed. I barely know this top 12 13. If I'm not the only one who feels this way the contestants might have to work a lot harder to show us who they are in less time than contestants in previous years. One thing that possibly could counter that problem is the way they did Hollywood Week. I LOVE that they extended Hollywood Week over several weeks. I love seeing what they do on group day. Some do really well, and it did give us more of an opportunity to get to know the contestants. However we do end up spending a lot of time on contestants that we'll never see again, and the good ones kind of get lost in the mix so it's hard to remember who we like. So I guess there are a lot of pros and cons to different formats. At the very least it shakes things up, and that's almost always good.

Speaking of shaking things up, we had a bit of a surprise tonight. It turns out our top 12 is a top 13. This seems a little weird to me for some reason. Anoop is great and all, but he didn't seem to come close to the others. Maybe I just didn't "get" his song, but it seemed kind of average to me, certainly not worth changing the show's format for. There was something they said in their comments that made me wonder if they wanted him there because it makes the show more diverse or something. I could be wrong, maybe he just really rocked the house live but it didn't come through to me. Honestly, it doesn't matter, we'll vote for who we vote for. Although if they didn't have the time to do the Wild Card round in it's own week, do they have time to eliminate 12 contestants in the same amount of time, or will they just kick two in the first week? These are questions that will most likely be answered next week. So, I'm getting excited for this season even if I don't feel like I really know any of them. That will come with time, and I'll fall in love with one or two of them during the show and then never listen to any of their music afterwords. That could just be me, though.