The Unexpected Top 11?

We go into this week with one less player. As voted off last Thursday, Jeremy wouldn't be joining us this week. His performance last week wasn't his best and he's always been on the fence, so this wasn't a huge shocker.

What was a huge shocker is that we lost ANOTHER competitor BEFORE the show began. Jermaine Jones was disqualified earlier this week. What for? Well, apparently he chose not to disclose a criminal past to the producers and the producers don't take crap very well. He apparently posted about it on Twitter earlier before it was deleted. A very unfortunate situation; he had plenty of potential. More on the situation will be explained during the show.

In any case, as we head into this week it is the always reliable "Year of Birth" theme. The perfect opportunity for the contestants to perform any song they feel like, as I'm expecting heading into this, a lot of the performances will just be covers of older songs.

And Away We Go....

Phillip: Very well performance. Especially after coming off of surgery stemming from kidney problems. He certainly rocked out "Hard to Handle". It fit him well.

Jessica: She decided to go with "Turn the Beat Around" she wasn't bad. Not her best. The song was way too fast for her. She said she had a hard time finding a song, but she could've picked much better.

Heejun: He actually performed a song written and released in his year of birth going with "Right Here Waiting". He had a hard time keeping together for me. It seemed like that any moment he could unfurl into terrible. He thankfully kept it in.

Elise: Now reverting back to cover song mode, she went with a classic, Al Green's love standard "Let's Stay Together." Very good performance. And who can argue with a duet with the President?

DeAndre: He was going to go with "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", but Will.i.am and Jimmy didn't feel it. So he went to a love duet, "Endless Love." I don't think he was going to do well with either song. The judges said he couldn't feel the song, and they weren't completely wrong. Something was just off. Not the worst of the night, but room was definitely there for improvement.

Shannon: Not a bad job at all, certainly a huge improvement of last week. She took on the monster mega hit of 1995/6 "One Sweet Day" and while it's hard to match Mariah and Boys II Men, she certainly didn't disappoint in my mind.

Colton: Great song choice for him doing "Broken Heart." Yeah, a lot of people might not remember it, but still I thought it fit him like a glove (despite what Steven says). Very well done. Colton is slowly but surely becoming one to watch out for.

Erika: Going with "Heaven", she didn't do badly. It was alright for me. Sometimes she was very good, but for the most part he fell flat. Not flat tonally, but just flat. I thought she sounded better in rehearsal.

BREAK
Jermaine Jones did not disclose two arrests that he incurred in 2011, as well as the fact that he had four outstanding warrants out for him. The producers were already hurt that he did not disclose the prior acts to them and that they would've helped him though those had he done so. At that point it didn't seem like things were going to end badly. Then the producers told him that they can't allow someone who is currently wanted to be on the show. And with that statement, they sent him packing. Really unfortunate because the producers had noted that his performance set for this week was one of his best (slightly debatable). Very unfortunate situation; that his stupidity, blinded from himself by age, cost him a great shot to get into not only the Top 10, but perhaps Top 6. A lesson to be learned indeed.
BREAK

Skylar: She's back from her phenomenal performance last week going with "Love Sneakin' Up on You" and as per usual, she rocked it. Another great performance. Not as good as last week, but I'm ready to vault her to best of the night anyway.

*Apparently, Jermaine's pre-show elimination left the show a bit short on time. Ryan, Joshua, and the girls come back from break and go over the fine art of eating craw fish. Okay....*

Joshua: So...I just gave Skylar the best of the night....well....I'M TAKING IT BACK. This was AMAZING. GREAT performance. The BEST so far this season at anytime. Singing "When A Man Loves A Woman" he tore....it...a...part. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. And HE was in the bottom three last week? Surely America this won you over. I better not see him AT ALL close to the bottom 3.

Hollie: "The Power of Love" closes us out tonight and she was pretty good. She had a tough act to follow, but she held her own very well. In all, she performed up to expectations.

In all this was another good night. Usually these Top 7-13 shows are good because of the variety and tonight proved that. Very sad to see Jermaine go and with the producers not willing to make the competition this week become useless someone still has to go. Who will that be? I don't know. I do know that it better not be Joshua.

Go vote.

J out.