Dear Judges………. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MINDS?

February 25, 2011 at 1:14 PM

American Idol named the Top 24 this week. Overall, I think it’s a good group of 24 contestants. Much better than the last couple of years, in my opinion. There are several contestants that I could see as having what it takes to go all the way, something that was missing at this point last season.

But there are people who are missing from the Top 24 that I thought would make it. Many people who I thought had great auditions were never or barely shown once Hollywood Week came around and got cut along the way. I get that it’s not possible for American Idol to show every contestant singing in Hollywood Week. Even if the show stopped featuring people they think makes good drama or they want to pimp, the sheer number of people who made it means it’s not possible to showcase everyone. The downside to this reality is that we are left wondering just what went wrong for those we liked early on.

What frustrates me more than anything, however, is the “long walk” episode that reduces the contestants from 40 to 24. People we have seen all week-long that have no business still being there are put through to the voting rounds while people we have, often, seen little of, but what we’ve seen is excellent, is denied a shot to win America’s vote.

Which makes me want to grab the judges by their collars and yell, ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MINDS?

There were two contestants that I was sure would be a lock to make the Top 24 that were sent home this week. Again, I know we only got to see a small portion of their Hollywood Week, Las Vegas, and Sing For Your Life performances, but their exclusions leave me puzzled. Especially when others who had much weaker performances made it through.

The first of the two surprise eliminations for me was John Wayne Schulz.

I knew from the beginning that John Wayne would have to battle Scotty McCreery for a spot on the Top 24. Although American Idol always allows as many pop singers through as they can find, they’ve always been resistant to the idea of allowing more than one singer of other genres through at a time. Especially two smooth-voiced country crooners who evoke memories of Garth Brooks and Clint Black and would likely set female hearts aflutter.

John Wayne has a polish about him. While I haven’t been able to find much from him on YouTube, it’s clear that he’s been singing for a while and has some experience under his belt. I think he would have been well-suited for this competition, and was certainly better than many of the other guys who made it through.

The second of the two surprise eliminations for me was Colton Dixon.

We never saw a tremendous amount of Colton. He auditioned in Nashville with his sister, but it wasn’t aired. Nor was his initial Hollywood Week performance aired. The first time we saw Colton was during Group Round when his group, the Stars, had a massive falling to earth. Colton did a great job during his solo in the song and was the only one of the five to make it through. We saw another short clip of him in the Round 3 portion of Hollywood Week, where once again he brought his A-game and delivered a solid performance.

To add insult to injury, American Idol had Colton make that long walk with Jacee Badeaux and Brett Lowenstern. They showed clips of all of their Sing For Your Life songs, with Colton delivering what I thought was his best performance to date and blowing the other two out of the water.

Yet Colton didn’t make it through. Unlike with John Wayne, where I can point to a reason why he didn’t make it, I can’t find any such reason to explain Colton being cut. Not when Brett made it through. Not when Colton out performed him along every step of the way. And while I know the final spot wasn’t really a “Colton against Brett” situation, it still burns me up that Colton was shown being eliminated in favor of Brett.

Those are the two from the Top 40 group that should have made it but didn’t. I hope they will both come back next year and try out again, but as I said on the air this week, I can’t remember someone who made it to this level ever coming back. Hopefully Colton will break with tradition and come back next year, ready to win it all.

Do you agree with my two picks? Was there another Top 40 contestant who you thought should have made it through but didn’t? Post your thoughts in the comments below.