American Idol: James Durbin Goes Home: Who is Next American Idol?:Poll – May 19

It had been looking all of Season 10 that James Durbin would be in the final two, but instead two of the three remaining contestants will be on stage that night.

When Lauren Alaina Suddeth was told that she was safe first, my first thought was would it be Haley Reinhart or Scotty McCreery going home, but instead it was James. It wasn’t that long ago when five straight girls were sent home with the boys having a 6-2 advantage. Now the tide has turned as there are now two girls and Scotty.

Television viewers could tell that James was very concerned when he found out that he or Scotty would be going home.

No rocker has ever won American Idol, but James looked like he might be the first rocker to be an American Idol. James may not sell albums as well as Chris Daughtry, but should sell better than last year’s American Idol Lee DeWyze.

I expected Haley to be sent home tonight after the negative comments from Randy Jackson and Jennifer Lopez last night. Who knows?…Haley may have even been the highest vote-getter since the voting results are never released.

American Idol fans will never forget how James rocked the house week after week, and as far as I know never received a negative comment. Being a front-runner is not always good though as voters may vote more for someone in danger rather than vote for someone they think won’t need their vote.

LAUREN ALAINA SUDDETH

Lauren has gotten stronger each week, as she has hit her stride at the perfect time in the season. She may be getting more votes for her popularity, more than for her singing, but she is singing very well now and could very well be standing with Haley or Scotty at the finale.

HALEY REINHART

Haley looked like she may have been going home tonight after she was criticized by Randy Jackson and Jennifer Lopez. I was afraid she was going to be thought of as a complainer by the voters after she didn’t accept the statements that Jackson and Lopez made about her singing. On the other hand she may have gotten a lot of votes from voters who thought Jackson and Lopez ganged up on her undeservedly.

SCOTTY MCCREERY

Scotty is another singer who has sang better and better as the competition goes on. If Lauren is around at the finals, Scotty will have to split the country vote with Lauren. However, if either of them goes home next week, the one remaining should garner almost all of the country votes.

WHO WILL GET THE VOTES FOR JAMES DURBIN?

It will be interesting to try to figure out who will get the James Durbin votes. Since none of the remaining singers are rockers, the rock voters may not even vote the rest of the way.

POLL QUESTION:

Today’s poll question asks which of the remaining three contestants will be the American Idol.

American Idol: Did Randy Jackson and Jennifer Lopez Set Up Haley Reinhart To Be Sent Home Tonight?

I couldn’t help but think that Randy Jackson and Jennifer Lopez may have set up Haley Reinhart so she will leave the show tonight.

It seems like Haley has received more than her share of criticism this season. She was the only one last night to receive negative comments from the judges. With eight songs and three comments per song Haley received the two  negative comments out of 24 comments by the judges.

It was almost like the judges knew Haley would be upset enough to show some attitude, knowing that could speed her exit off the show tonight.

Many commenters about Haley on American Idol blogs say they won’t vote for her because of her attitude. The judges put her in that situation. Haley is not like some contestants that will keep smiling while being trashed by the judges.

If Haley goes home tonight, no need for Randy and Jennifer to act surprised, because they knew what they were doing. They angered Haley enough to force her to have an attitude and now the voters are apparently posed to use that attitude against her. I could tell it meant a lot to Haley to have Steven Tyler go against Randy and Jennifer to say Haley sang well. This is one of the few times this season that one judge has disagreed with another judge or judges.

As far as I know, they have never made a negative comment about James Durbin. It was the same way during Season 8 for Adam Lambert, who received raves from the judges week after week.

LOPEZ WANTING SCOTTY TO KEEP COMING UP WITH SOMETHING NEW

I couldn’t believe it when Jennifer Lopez told Scotty McCreery that he needed to keep coming up with new way of singing. Scotty has already proved he can sing country and any other genre he has been asked to sing this year. He needs to be let alone, since he has already shown he can sing slow songs, plus he has excelled at singing up tempo songs. He doesn’t need to change anything.

IOVINE STAYED IN BACKGROUND

The American Idol mentor Jimmy Iovine, seemed to refrain from telling singers what to sing last night. After Jacob Lusk told the media that Iovine was intimidating into singing songs he didn’t sing, the producers must have told him to back off and let the singers pick their own songs. He may have been the one who told Haley to sing the Lady Gaga song which Haley apparently didn’t want to sing. Then when she sings it, she got trashed by the judges for singing it.

LADY GAGA FREAKED OUT CONTESTANTS

It was easy to tell the contestants were freaked out by Lady Gaga especially Scotty, who was told to make love to his microphone.

However, I do think she gave some helpful advice when it came to delivering songs with intensity. All four contestants seemed to have some extra intensity when singing the songs of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. If not for Lady Gaga telling Haley to show in her face what she was feeling from the song I Who Have Nothing the song would have had a lot less impact.

Lauren Alaina Suddeth showed that she deserved to be in the final four last night. I have heard Trouble sang in the past and she sang it as well as anyone plus the lyrics were changed a little by the arrangement in the last part of the song, but she handled it well.

NO CLEAR WINNER

There is no clear winner for Season 10 at this point. It would not surprise me to see any of the remaining four contestants become the next American Idol.

Scotty and James have been solid all season long, while Haley has been close to going home most of the season, but is peaking at the right time, if the judges didn’t ruin her chances of winning last night.

Lauren had avoided the bottom two or three until being in the bottom two last week. She had trouble adjusting to being in that situation after being sent to safety so many times in the weeks before. If Pia Toscano was still in the competition, Lauren or Haley or possibly both would be gone at this stage of the competition.

There is no remaining contestant that I would root against, since they all belong in the final four. Sadly, someone has to go home tonight.

Don’t be surprised if Haley sings her farewell song after being voted off the show. I don’t think she will be hugging Randy or Jennifer if she does leave since they put her in the position to be voted off.

The poll question asks if Randy and Jennifer hurt Haley’s chances of winning American Idol last night.