Eight hopefuls competed tonight for the final three spots in the top 12. The three were chosen by the four judges: Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Paula Abdulm, and new this year, Kara DioGuardi.
Kicking off tonight’s show was Jesse Langseth. I think she did a great job on the song and put on a great show.
Matt Giraud was next, choosing to sing a blues version of an old Jackson 5 tune. This guy has a really, really good voice and it was a nice interpretation.
Megan Joy Corkrey chose an interesting song, but it didn’t show off her voice. It was, as Simon would say, indulgent. Funny – Simon really liked it.
From a technical standpoint, Von Smith did a pretty nice job. No doubt he has a wonderful voice, but I was bored with the performance.
Jasmine Murray has a decent voice for being so young. But like many young singers, she chooses songs that are too big for her voice.
Choosing a Stevie Wonder song is always a dangerous move. Ricky Braddy did that – and he did a pretty good job. He’s got tremendous control but I don’t know that the song showed that as much as a different choice would have.
Drama queen Tatiana Del Toro chose a – surprise! – dramatic song. In fact, it was the third time she sang the same song. She does sing well – and this is a singing competition – but she’s still annoying.
Closing out the competition was Anoop Desai. He put on a heck of a show, singing Bobby Brown.
This was the best single night of the show so far. The performers laid it all on the line. Unfortunately, all of them (well, all but Tatiana) couldn’t make it to the finals.
The judges chose Jasmine Murray, Megan Corkrey, and Matt Giraud.
The biggest surprise? That instead of 12 final contestants, there will be thirteen! Geting the last spot was Anoop Desai.
Let the games begin 😉
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I couldn’t watch the show because I was at a School Board meeting and forgot to set my DVR, but it seems like the right folks went through.
I don’t know since i didn’t watch it last night, but I’ve heard that it almost seemed like the judges knew exactly who they wanted to put through and were going to do so unless there was something drastically different than what was expected. If that was the case, I don’t know if a whole new show was really needed because an announcement at the end of Wednesday night would have been just fine.
Pretty close. Since the break was so short, I don’t doubt that they hadn’t already made up their minds.
But then, they had another show to sell to advertisers, right? 😉