Which Contestants Will Be Shoved Down Our Throats During “American Idol”‘s Wild Card Round?

noah | March 4, 2009 2:00 am

So, tomorrow night is American Idol‘s Wild Card round, in which the judges bring back their favorite singers who didn’t make the cut over the last few weeks, then grant three of them passes to the Top 12, whose finals begin in a mere six days. There are going to be eight or nine contestants—two chosen by each judge—singing for their lives on tomorrow’s show, and by the hour’s end, the judges will have placed three of them into the top 12. But who will we have to sit through tomorrow? After the jump, I pick the contestants who will probably/maybe give us a second performance tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET. (For the sake of argument, I’m going to assume that last night’s winners were Lil and Scott, as DialIdol predicts; since the third member of that top three is still up for some debate, the other 10 contestants are in the pool.)

DEFINITELY Matt Giraud, Ricky Braddy, and Anoop Desai, who were photographed canoodling with Top 12 members Alexis Grace and Kris Allen yesterday in Los Angeles.

Which leaves five or six slots. So…

PROBABLY Felicia Barton. Because everyone loves a comeback story, especially American Idol producers who are in desperate need of storylines. Megan Joy Corkrey. Her commercial potential keeps getting hammered on by the judges, and I suspect the judges were actually expecting her to make it through instead of White Chocolate. Ju’Not Joyner. Got a lot of compliments and “see you in the coming weeks” comments from the judges, even though his sixth-in-line spot probably hurt his chances a bit. (Is this season signaling the demise of the “pre-9 p.m.” secondary pimp slot? The judges’ fawning for each contestant who completed the past three episodes’ first hour makes me wonder!)

MAYBE Jesse Langseth. It’s wishful thinking, to be sure, and her asking Randy to clarify his incoherent critiques probably didn’t endear her to the higher-ups all that much. Still, I like her. Jasmine Murray. She was terrible last week, but she’s “commercial.” Von Smith. He dialed it down enough last night to be tolerable. And he does have that build-in Internet fambase! Mishavonna Henson. Weirdly, people liked her “Drops Of Jupiter.” She did get dinged about her song choice, which makes me wonder if she’s going to get another shot.

IF THE PRODUCERS START GETTING WORRIED ABOUT THE RATINGS Tatiana Del Toro. She’s crazy! She’s unpredictable! Or at least she was, until she got camera-fright. Maybe this “unpredictable” slot will go to… Nick “Normund Gentle” Mitchell. Who at least performed wacky when wackiness was called for.

NO CHANCE AT ALL, SORRY INTERNET Alex Wagner-Trugman. I bet he’ll appear, “I Am Your Brother”-style, on the season finale to knock over some of the set, though.

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