American Idol has been particularly rough this season. I’ll attribute most of it to growing pains since lots of factors screwed over the programming: Big Machine Records took over for Interscope (and ousted Jimmy Iovine as mentor, replacing him with Scott Borchetta), Coca Cola pulled their sponsorship after a decade of product placement, and Fox forced it to a single night in order to give space to Empire. So I’ve been sounding like a broken record each week (does that analogy mean anything to the kids?) because I can’t help but mention how awkward and terrible this all is for everyone involved. I’ll be going over this season in better detail in a separate post, so stay tuned for that.
The reason I bring this up is because it’s done quite a number on these poor contestants. They’ve been put through the ringer this season, and with the finale next week, the fatigue is starting to show more and more. This week, the Top 3 contestants had three songs: Scott Borchetta’s choice, Hometown Dedications, and Judges’ Choice. All four of the remaining Idols sang regardless of whether or not they were going home at the end of the evening. The four of them also got the big homecoming parade they do every year, so it was a bit weird but not as awkward as I expected.
And after weeks of playing “The Comeback Kid,” Rayvon’s run has finally ended. Going home in a respectable fourth place and even enjoying all sorts of things like the hometown visit and three swan songs, Rayvon ended his run on a falsetto. He fought for his place, and as much criticism as I’ve given him over the weeks, I can’t fault that effort. On the next few pages, I’ll get into American Idol XIV’s Top 3 night.
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