I really do not understand why American Idol must change their stupid rules every year. This year has been no exception, when their Top 40 was really 42 and now their top 12 is really 13. Why do we need an extra guy? I must admit the 12 guys they currently have does not include any obvious standouts who could actually sell records (no Scotty McCreery this year), but if they were really looking for a winner who could sell, I am curious at the four options they picked. With some grooming and growth David Leathers and Johnny Keyser may be able to become legitimate recording stars, but I cannot imagine Jermaine Jones or Richie Law actually winning and becoming stars. American Idol could NEVER want Richie to win the year after Scotty won. Two deep voiced country teen guys in a row? They may as well cancel themselves. And whereas I do find Jermaine a likable character (when he is not crying), I do not think he could ever gather enough votes to win, and could never sell records as well as James Durbin, let alone more easily promotable country artists like Lauren or Scotty. However, if David Leathers wins, that would make two teen boys from North Carolina in a row, and that would look bad for Idol too. So the obvious person to add back would be Johnny Keyser, but he did not even make the original Top 42, and he also lost a lot of popularity when he kept singing when that one girl fainted on stage. So I question why they picked these four at all if they insisted on being unfair and adding a 13th guy.
The problem I see with the Top 12 girls are they are too difficult to tell apart. Too many blondes with similar names (Haley/Hollie/Hallie) and too many country singers (none of which sound as good as Lauren Alaina). The only female that stands out for me right now is Jessica Sanchez, and I still think she needs some polish to become a "star". I also noticed that Jessica is now the only girl in the Top 12 who is not Caucasian. I found out she is actually half Filipino and half Mexican, so that helps cover two demographics, but still I am surprised there are no other non-Caucasian females who made it, especially after last year when there were two African-Americans (Ashton & Naomi), a Hispanic American (Karen) and an Asian American (Thia) female in the Top 7 ladies. I wonder if the fact that all 4 of them were the very first contestants eliminated had anything to do with it! The guys are a bit more ethnically diverse with 2.5 remaining African-Americans (Aaron, Joshua and Deandre who is biracial), a Hispanic (Jeremy) and an Asian (Heejun). David or Jermaine would increase their diversity even more, but I do not think we can include the "large black woman" hiding inside Adam Brock!
The age distribution of the Top 24 is interesting as well. There are 5 minors under 18 right now, 3 gals (Brielle, Jessica, Shannon) and 2 guys (Deandre, Eben), which sounds like a good mix, but if you look for the next oldest ladies, there are two right at 18 (Hollie, Skylar), but then there are none until you reach 22 (Baylie). There is also an age gap for the guys, where there are none who are 23 to 25, but there are four who are 26 or older (Aaron 27, Adam 27, Creighton 28, Reed 26). The oldest ladies are Elise at 28, Erika at 26 and Jen at 25. It is not surprising that the 25 and older group tend to have the most mature voices, and I will be curious to see how well they can get votes. I know last year the older contestants were eliminated quickly (Ashton, Naima, Paul) so lets see if these older contestants can survive.
