'American Idol': The Top 13 Finalist Results Show with Debut of JLo's Latest Music Video

Even though it was a rare two-hour results show Thursday night (March 3) there was a lot of ground to cover on "American Idol." They not only announced the automatic Top 10 finalists in the first hour, but also featured a "sing for your life" mini audition for a wildcard spot during the second and final hour. It was indeed an emotional, if not predictable, night.

A vast majority who made it into the Top 10 were heavily featured in the auditions and favored to make the finals. There was one member of the Top 10 that had critics and myself not very happy with. It was a complete surprise to say the least. Thankfully the Top 24 did not have to do a cheesy, happy go lucky group number for our entertainment. It was all business Thursday night

Introducing the Top 10 Finalists One at a Time

With the very first live results show of season 10 Ryan Seacrest asked Kiernan to dim the lights and off it went one by one. It was either in groups of twos or threes they went to center stage to learn their fates. The very first Top 10 finalist was teen sensation and country boy crooner Scotty (babylockthemdoors) McCreery. I sure hope he does that song as a duet with Josh Turner in the finale.

Basically, it was excruciatingly predictable who was going into the Top 10 until the last two girls were up onstage next to Ryan to learn their fate. Rachel Zevita and Haley Reinhart each had bland performances during the semifinals, especially the latter. "Fallin'" by the awesome Alicia Keys has been overdone on "American Idol" they need to retire it, stat. Believe it or not Haley made it into the Top 10. Her performance was panned by some of the judges. Some other TV critics also feel the same way. At any rate here is a complete list of the Top 10:

Scotty McCreery
Lauren Alaina
Pia Toscano
Casey Abrams
Paul McDonald
Karen Rodriguez
Jacob Lusk
Thia Megia
James Durbin
Haley Reinhart

The Emotional Wildcard Auditions and Selections

This is when the show got to be fascinating, suspenseful and dramatic. All of the remaining Top 24 semifinalists who had not been chosen into the Top 10 were back sitting at their stools. It was up to the judges to select their wildcards whether it would be 2 or 3 spots. The judges would select only 3 ladies and 3 men to compete. Out of those six they would make their selections based on their performances.

The first one up was Ashton Jones. She reprised her Hollywood audition song by Jennifer Hudson "And I Am Telling You" for her WC performance. It was not nearly as good as the clip we saw from her earlier audition. However, the one who stood head and shoulders above everyone else in his mini audition was Stefano Langone. He sang Smokie Norful's "I Need You Now" that was powerful, emotional and brilliant. The audience and judges were definitely moved.

The other ladies who auditioned were Kendra Chantelle and Naima Adedapo. The other two men, Jovany Barreto and Robbie Rosen, were good, but could not touch the depth of Langone's performance. After the judges deliberated for a while they decided on three wildcard spots. The first one went to Ashton Jones, second was the favorite of the night - Stefano Langone and last but never least was Naima Adedapo. I was thrilled Naima made it, but also wanted Kendra to make it over Haley Reinhart. Here are the wildcards along with the Top 10:

3 Wildcards:
Ashton Jones
Stefano Langone
Naima Adedapo

Top 10:
Scotty McCreery
Lauren Alaina
Pia Toscano
Casey Abrams
Paul McDonald
Karen Rodriguez
Jacob Lusk
Thia Megia
James Durbin
Haley Reinhart

Debut of JLo's "On The Floor" Music Video

"American Idol" was fortunate enough to debut Jennifer Lopez's newest single and accompanying music video "On The Floor" featuring rapper Pitbull. One thing I must say JLo looked stunning in all of her various outfits. It was a standard dance club music video with people dancing with a lot of fast cuts to JLo, Pitbull and the crowd all the way through. Naturally the recording was heavily laced with massive autotuning, reverb and all the makings of a technologically-enhanced song. It's your typical dance club song to party the night away.

SOURCES:

American Idol - Official Site for Videos, Photos and Community, American Idol.com

Gil Kaufman, "'American Idol' Top 13: The Experts Weight In", MTV.com

"'American Idol' has its Top 13 for the season", The Marquee Blog - CNN.com