TheGreenKnight

Yeah, I think the only people who want Democrats to keep thinking about a politician who is no longer in politics now are people who want Democrats to continue losing. People like Alyssa who continue to twist the truth just so they have an excuse to criticize anyone but Trump, like how she said Biden didn't drop out this morning? Come again? I find it ironic that the same people (Sara and Alyssa) who whined and moaned every day until Biden finally did drop out are now the same people whining and moaning the loudest when Democrats inevitably failed because he did what they wanted. I think they have the least to add to the conversation, considering how things worked out by going their direction. Anyway, everybody knows in politics that looking backward is never a recipe to success, only failure.

Yay! The perfect winner this year, a perfect end to a pretty good season. I remember some worrying Carrie joining the judge's panel would slant the show a little too heavily country; thankfully that didn't end up being the case. I'll follow all of the top 3 + Kolbi and Gabby post-show. Anyway, I was thinking of the show's winners as the show was airing, and I believe Jamal would just round out my top 10 favorites. And it is pretty amazing, too, to see a Black guy win the show two decades in. I wasn't really sure that was even possible this far into the series, tbh! Happy to be wrong. :)

Brianna going third feels right. Aside from Kolbi, this was definitely a guy's year. Her "The Climb" was characteristic of her run on the show, as far as the performance began well, but just didn't take off the way you know her voice is capable of considering she has the pipes to do it. Both John and Breanna felt like they were being very strategic with their song choices and video packages, while Jamal just gave his usual good performances. I definitely think she could do well in Gospel--and I hope so. Hopefully Carrie could help her in some way in meeting the people who can help her to do that.

I have no doubt about Alyssa, she's just gross during these types of topics which tells you who she really is. Sara, on the other hand, I'm sure would never have voted for Trump. She's overall a decent person, she just comes across bitter when it comes to the whole age-related discussions. Probably for having been called ageist, I suppose.

Actually, that's one of the things that I find very likable about Jamal. He's not as drawn in by all the glamor of it all while everyone else is taking it so serious, it always ends up making me laugh. And the audience never responds well to anyone who wants to win too much.

The Biden conversation is always poisoned anyway because the truth is anyone pushed into the nomination at the last minute like that was not going to win. Alyssa and Sara want to rehash Biden of course, but they can't really because--as much as they will say Democrats supposedly didn't listen--Biden was not on the ballot. Because people in the media like them obsessed over it every day nonstop for months, Biden dropped out and there's no knowing what the numbers would've been if he had stayed in. Alyssa and Sara want to have their cake and eat it, too, as usual. I was glad Ana hammered the two of them at the end of the first segment instead of letting them steamroll everyone. I mean, comparing Biden's age to insurrection, those two are crazy as hell. Personally, I think it's that kind of insanity that is more responsible for the state of things anyway, but naturally they would like everyone else to "take responsibility" while they themselves never look in the mirror and take responsibility for their own role in getting us to this point.

I can believe they don't "fight"... I think it's more they probably go to their dressing rooms and ignore one another. Not like when McCain was there, she would pursue the others and continuously argue with them backstage. I can't remember exactly which, I think she was eventually pushed out of their pre-show meetings because if it, or maybe they made her do hair/makeup in a separate place? It was one of those. I'm sure Alyssa doesn't do that at all, but I don't believe the others besides Joy and Sara are overly friendly with her. Joy gets along with everyone though, I don't see her as being "close" to Alyssa like Sara/Brian are. I imagine Whoopi is polite, Sunny puts on a nice pretense (she did it with McCain, too, after a while because McCain's friends at the top threatened her place on the show if she didn't; I wouldn't be surprised if something similar's happened here), and Ana doesn't talk to her at all, LOL. As for Sunny specifically, I think she's learned it's best to sit back and let the trash take itself out, so to speak, rather than have "sparks" on the show. Sunny doesn't have quite the same level of name value to protect her that Joy, Whoopi, and Ana have, it's better to let them fight with the producer's pet since he can't push out big draws to the show that are critical to their ratings like those three for her sake. Anyway, Alyssa's already made waves in the media with her extreme defenses if Trump the past couple of months on her own, I recall seeing a People headline about her a few weeks back, so Sunny's smart to let the others fight those battles.

Loved Joy and Sunny on today's show. That's all. I'll have to finish the Grammar interview later.

I think John's cute and talented, that's the main reason I knew he would be a hard one for anybody else to beat. A male country contestant already has an advantage on shows like this even when they aren't talented or attractive, but when they have that on top of it all... Idol's only found a few male country voices I've liked over the years. Of those, I'd say I don't like John quite as much as Noah Thompson, but more than Laine Hardy (who had a good voice, but mostly picked songs I had no interest in) and Aaron Kelly. I liked Josh Gracin, too, but that was more based on his post-show material; he wasn't that great on the show itself. But I don't write off anybody's chances on the show these days. They've had quite a wide range of winners ever since the show moved to ABC, which is what makes the show more entertaining to watch. It definitely would be nice if Jamal somehow pulled off an upset win, considering I really only thought of Kolbi, John, and Brianna as the contenders back during auditions. For someone else to grow over the weeks and take it all instead would be fun.

A surprisingly wonderful end to the season they've had lconsidering they lost Kolbi earlier than expected. The two worst went, yay, so now whoever wins, they're guaranteed another good winner this year. Still pulling for Jamal, but I like John almost as much. I feel like Brianna has slowly pulled it back together these past three shows; loved her audition, but she lost me for a little while there. As far as repeat performances go for the finale, I'd actually say Brianna's and Jamal's was Reflection and Go the Distance, respectively (although Jamal has quite a few to choose from), while John's was the Elvis song, imo.

I wouldn't say not interested so much as the ones they had this year either weren't very good (Amanda, Mattie), were boring and struggled to emote (Brianna), or picked poor songs to showcase themselves with (Kolbi, Gabby). Anyway, it seems almost a lock that Brianna will be in the top 3 unless she really screws up and both Jamal and John have delivered strong vocals pretty regularly, so... Thunderstorm and Slater are the only two who are pretty poor vocally and even saying they don't belt isn't really true. Slater does attempt to belt pretty often, he just sounds pretty awful when he does, much like Zaylie or whatever the guitar girl's name was who also had a weak voice. Putting that aside, Slater seems nice and the Dylan and Reba songs he's done were actually alright some of the time. Same with Thunderstorm on the Adele song a week back. Thunderstorm reminds me a lot of MacKenzie from the last season on FOX.

Not really shocked myself. He has a guitar to hide behind and she didn't. That said, she did gave a very poor first performance last night. I would've preferred the song from the second Moana for her, tbh (partly because How Far I'll Go has been done to death), but Miranda didn't write that one and I guess it would've been a little insulting to sing a non-Miranda Moana song when Miranda was the mentor. Oh, well, she wasn't going to win either. TBH, I wish they could've got rid of Gabby, Mattie, Thunderstorm, and Slater all at once. I hope the finale is Jamal, John, and Brianna of those left. This was Brianna's best night so far. I liked that she brought Reflection down and fidn't just do big notes the whole time, it made it much more emotional, and she was better on Like My Mother Does than Alaina was. I like both Jamal and John although I'd give Jamal the edge as far as my favorite this season goes. Go the Distance ended up being more perfect than I thought. He has such a clarity to his voice and holds the audience/camera the whole time; Abi was like that last year, too, where you can't wait to see what they'll do next. Who knows, I still think this was always John's to win and he's really good no doubt (Almost There was a good choice, thankfully not a predictable one), but a Jamal win would be both sweet and surprising. They said Monday would be heroes and villains night, but almost all the songs they picked Sunday were hero / heroine themes already?

And I noticed she looked very odd when Joy was asking the last question in one segment about the pardons. I remember some people saying they thought Alyssa was angry about not having received a pardon herself as part of the 1/6 committee back when, and I believe it now.

The previous one could never have managed that strategy because that would have involved her being able to feign friendship with other people and she was too much of a narcissist to exhibit normal human behavior, lmao. Alyssa's a much better actor, much more in control of her emotions, I'll give her that. I enjoyed the Biden interview, just a shame we didn't get even one segment of Hot Topics as I expected. Not sure about the last part. I mean, I agree that Brian is the one feeding them the Trump-fodder questions to ask, but Alyssa's anger was palpable when Biden responded to Joy's question about Trump being obsessed with him. Biden could sense it, too, he babied Alyssa when he responded to her question afterwards.

Oh, it definitely was back when she first started doing it, but I actually think Whoopi and Sunny have come to like one another the past two years or so. I think Alyssa joining the panel actually caused that to happen; she caused the others to become more unified than they had been before. I think most of the panel seem to be friends these days except Alyssa and Sara seem off in their own little corner (likely with Brian), often hostile to the other four. Sara mixes with the others a little, but Alyssa seems to obsess over the others always looking for something, anything, critical to say. I'd say she's bitter--and she probably is--but mostly I think it’s an agenda-driven tactic. Probably the same reason she tried to cause so much friction between Sara and the others when she first started--as a former Trump lackey, the whole "divide and conquer" strategy probably comes as easy as breathing for someone like her.

With there being two Disney nights this season, I was just thinking about what I'd like Jamal, Gabby, and John to sing. "Go the Distance" would be a good one for Jamal, not sure what else. Maybe "Evermore" or "I'll Make a Man Out of You"? "Baby Mine," I guess, since he just had one, lol. Gabby should do "Beyond" and "Speechless," I can hear her singing those easy. Wouldn't be mad if she did "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" either though. I could hear Mattie on "So This Is Love," "In a World of My Own," but "Waiting On a Wish" could work, too. John's harder... Maybe "Will the Sun Ever Shine Again"? "Love Is a Song"? Not sure about Brianna either. I wouldn't mind "Lead the Way," I always felt like the lyrics to that one have a Christian message. "There Is Life" is one I could see either Brianna or John making work. Don't really care about Thunderstorm or Slater exactly, but could picture Thunderstorm doing "I See the Light." Possibly "Always Remember Where You Are" for Slater?

I didn't know that was the case since these topics are the kind I only follow superficially; I didn't know it was about communication between his security and the royal security. That makes the refusal even more crazy. Never liked Charles or Elizabeth though, so I'm not surprised.

Markle at least did have a choice in entering the public eye, but nobody born into royalty, least of all to Princess Diana, really had a choice in the fact that cameras and crazies will follow them forever. Security seems like something that should be locked in for them regardless of how they choose to live their lives.

I do agree with Sunny in a sense on Harry. Whether or not he wants to be a royal is irrelevant really, since he was a celebrity who requires security just from the fact that he was born in the family. He can't change the fact thst he would be followed forever because of it.

Oh, and I forgot JLO herself. One thing I liked about Katy and Paula is they never showed this enmity for the female contestants that could sing that JLO did. Carrie doesn't either (thankfully), just to be clear, I simply didn't include Carrie or Mariah there because they are both incredible vocalists themselves. I didn't think Josh was bad, but I don't mind him leaving here, although I'd much rather it had been Mattie, Slater, or Thunderstorm that left, personally.

I like Katy and Miley as people, but I'm not biased, they sound terrible. Of course, they make Britney, Taylor, Kesha, and Sabrina Carpenter sound good...even though they're also all pretty terrible vocally.

I think most non-belters on the show don't belt as a choice these days, but that's because they seldom put through full-blown terrible singers to the top 24 since they moved to ABC As for the music industry in general, I'd disagree. The Katy's, Miley's, and so on couldn't sing if they tried, it's not a choice so much as a lack of ability.

Looking forward to Star and Hugh Jackman. Won't mind hearing from Biden, I just know the interview will be the whole show.

I don't think it's about preferring one voice over another, it's more about whether non-belters don't belt because that's not the sound they're going for or they don't belt simply because their voice isn't capable of it at all. John Foster, Noah Thompson, Kris Allen, and a few others were more in the first camp; Slater, Thunderstorm, and probably the majority of the WGWGs during the JLO years lean more into the latter.

Sad about Kolbi. I would've thought she was guaranteed top 5 at least. I know when the number of contestants dwindles, it becomes about competing demos. That's why I was scared Jamal might go what with the lackluster performance and Thunderstorm actually doing pretty good for once, I didn't even think about Kolbi. I expected Gabby would go before Kolbi, tbh. She did make some poor song choices the past few weeks though, so probably too late to turn it around, I guess. Not surprised about Canaan though. I know " Love Wins" is not among Underwood's biggest songs or anything, but there is a part (the second verse and chorus) that always gives me chills, and Canaan didn't channel it at all. Unfortunately, Slater did an okay performance out of nowhere, too; I mean, the last third was terrible, but it was actually okay before that. Brianna made a good song choice and was good until the last third of her song also... Something about the arrangement went off-the rails. My personal pick of those left to win would be Jamal, then Gabby, then John in thst order. Josh or Brianna wouldn't be bad winners either. Brianna's just been more boring than I expected, since I thought she, Kolbi, and John would all likely make it to the finale back during the auditions. "Water Under the Bridge" started off great and I also liked "Open Arms" from her, that's about it so far. I love "You Say," but somehow she made it boring. As for Jamal, I didn't care for "Shout" and "Undo It" came across as if he only started rehearsing it the day of the show, not sure what was going on there. But I like him, he has charisma and stage presence. His voice reminds me a little of Billy Porter. I don't dislike Maddie, but I'm not crazy about her voice, it's a little grating sometimes. "The House That Built Me" is an instant tearjerker for me and "Because of You" is one of my absolute favorite songs; I didn't like her performance of the former at all and the latter was middling at best. Glad Abi got a performance slot after all. Too bad she didn't come in the show's earlier years, they could've launched someone like her. I'm just happily surprised she got an album (and obe that I enjoy at that) out, since I know she's not on a label and I didn't think she was a songwriter when she was on Idol.