Those of you in time zones west? You want to see this episode. Trust me. There are some scary bits at the beginning, particularly the one involving Meat Loaf, but this was the best finale ever.
The afterthought being, oh, yeah, Taylor won.
Final pool standings:
Shmuel: 18
Pam and TeKay: 17
Heather: 16
Mel: 13
Mo Pie: 12
Jesse: 8
I win the bragging rights for the first time, which I shall now exercise: WHOO HOO! ...although, y'know, I was rooting for Kat anyway. Pam and TeKay will both get a mix CD, just edging out Heather. I'm hoping to have one last followup post soon, but in brief, thanks to everybody for playing! It's been a fun season.
Live! At the Kodak Theater!
Taylor won the coin flip last week and opted to go second.
Kat: "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree"
Fun! Good foundation to build on in the next two songs.
Taylor: "Living for the City"
Close your eyes and it's brilliant. (Putting aside the bit where he's a white guy with graying hair, this song is not meant to be unreservedly chipper, not even at the start!) But vocally, he's got it.
Kat: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
She's still oversinging it, but not as much as last time, and how can you resist that face?
(Incidentally, Taylor and Katharine are both using earphones at times; Taylor when going off the stage, Kat for the a capella bit at the start. After the Diana DeGarmo debacle two years ago, I'd say this is a good call.)
...oh, and now it turns out the ear monitor was supposed to establish her starting pitch, but it didn't work. But she got the right key without it. Yay!
Taylor: "Levon"
Eh. Whatever.
Simon says Taylor won Round 1, Katharine won Round 2. Third round pays all.
And on to the official singles. Which, thank goodness, are different for each performer, for the first time since season 2.
Kat: "My Destiny"
Eh. Okay. The ball's in Taylor's court, at least for the swing voters.
Taylor: "Do I Make You Proud"
Also not brilliant, but, let's face it, both singles follow the time-honored Idol tradition of sucking. That said, he takes this round.
Simon agrees.
Randy, Paula, and Ryan gleefully rub in the fact that Simon voted against Taylor going to Hollywood in the first place.
I'm voting for Kat, but it's probably a doomed effort. (On the bright side, if she loses, I win the pool for the first time. Not a total loss either way!)
And we close with a live performance of "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter, who hit the jackpot this season.
In the event of a tie for first place in my pool, both first-place finishers will get a mix CD. In the event that I take first place and there's a tie for second place, anybody who comes in second will get a mix CD. There will be no tiebreaker.
Both of these scenarios are within the realm of possibility this year.
A detailed breakdown of everybody's scores follows the jump, including what will happen if either contestant wins. If you'd rather work it out for yourself, go no further. In either event, please feel free to check my math on the spreadsheet; it's not impossible that I screwed up somewhere.
Okay, here goes.
If Kat wins, the scores will be as follows, not including the two points still to be assigned next week:
Heather: 16
Pam: 14
Mel: 13
Mo: 12
Shmuel: 12
Jesse: 5
TeKay: 5
Heather comes in first no matter what. There's one scenario in which Pam can tie for first. The rest of us get to battle out the rest of the rankings.
If Taylor wins, the scores will be as follows, not including the two points still to be assigned next week:
Shmuel: 16
Pam: 15
TeKay: 15
Heather: 14
Mel: 11
Mo: 10
Jesse: 6
I can assure you that I am going to put Taylor in first next week, so if he wins, I take the top spot and the bragging rights. The mix CD could potentially go to Pam, TeKay, Pam and TeKay, or Heather, depending on the predictions.
One could go a bit further than this, but I'll leave the strategic implications as an exercise for the reader.
Is almost everybody in the pool correct in predicting Elliott will go home this week? Read on!
50 million votes, and a really, really close margin of victory. Looks like technological limitations just might settle this. Shades of season two!
(I couldn't manage a successful call for Kat all night, myself. Either it was busy, or it just rang, or it rang and then it was busy.)
33.06%, 33.26%, and 33.68% are the proportion of votes that went to the three remaining contestants.
33.06% was, indeed, Elliott's share; he's going home.
They need more phone lines for the final, man.
Unless there's a late entry from Mel, she gets 0 points; everybody else gets 1 except for Pam (4) and me (2).
I stayed home from trivia and watched the show live this week...
Simply put, Taylor had the best performances, followed by Katharine, followed by Elliott. I'm voting for Kat anyway, because I am biased and am taking the longer view.
(On the plus side, Katharine turned in her most subdued performance ever on "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," doing a better job with it than any prior contestant. On the minus side, she still oversang the thing. That song demands to be belted, but that demand must be resisted for optimal results.)
Results after the cut!
Taylor is singing "Jailhouse Rock" again at the request of Rebecca Romijn. (WTF?)
Taylor and Elliott are on one side of Ryan; Chris and Katharine are on the other. Which is the bottom two, and which is the top two?
Taylor and Elliott are the top two. Drat.
Simon looks stunned.
And based on the wording of this next bit, he now thinks Chris is out in the latest Top 4 fluke.
Which is what has happened. Wow. I'm not totally shocked -- based on past history and the likelihood that his fans would assume he was safe, I didn't think anyone was safe -- but still. Ouch.
Mo Pie picks up one point; the rest of us are shut out this week.
Elvis week. Okaaaaay...
Taylor: "Jailhouse Rock"
Good song choice! Decent performance, but it does seem to indicate that he's now out of his league.
Chris: "Suspicious Minds"
Nice.
Elliott: "I Can Dream"
S'okay. I think. I got a phone call in the middle of this, and lost track. He did avoid the "don't impersonate Elvis" trap, which is something in itself.
Katharine: "Hound Dog"
Hmm! Interesting choice... works well from a woman's standpoint.
The cameramen love her butt this week.
Ooh, it's a medley! With "All Shook Up"!
Huh! That was fun. Sort of an over-the-top parody of The King's gyrations. Not the most challenging vocal, but I like it!
Taylor: "In the Ghetto"
...I suppose him singing this is no more ridiculous than Elvis taking it on.
This performance just might save him for another week. Much better than his first one.
Chris: "A Little Less Conversation"
He is so winning the title this year.
...except, what the hell was that in the final few notes? He suddenly had to cough up a hairball?
Elliott: "Trouble"
Hmm. Goodness only knows who's gonna leave the show this week.
Katharine: "Can't Help Falling in Love"
...I'm not even going to comment on the latest fashion atrocity.
Not bad. Not the showstopper she really could've used, though.
I have no idea what's going to happen in the voting this week.
Umm, right. Here's the thread!
Still haven't seen the performances, but here are the results!
Aside: shouldn't we have had a single from this year's finalists by now?
Taylor is safe.
Chris is safe.
Paris is in the bottom two.
Katharine is safe; Elliott is in the bottom two.
Elliott is safe; Paris goes home.
Mel picks up 4 points; Heather and I, 2; Mo and (barring a late entry) Tekay, 1.
Here ya go.
(I realized just before I left this morning that my VCR wasn't set properly, but had no time to fix it. But I'm optimistic that I'll be able to torrent it in time.)