American Idol 2012 delivered quite the “shocker” last night and it wasn’t just the audience who was stunned, but the judges as well. After Jessica Sanchez began her “Save Me!” song we saw JLo, Randy, and Steven all storm the stage and halt her performance to declare her safety. Sanchez’s elimination by the voting public was negated and the judges were quick to admonish the audience for their actions. After the show ended E! Online caught up with Randy and Steven to discuss what happened and they were happy to share their thoughts.
“I think every season it happens every time,” Randy explained. “It’s funny that Ryan and I were remarking tonight that Jennifer Hudson was on, we used the save for her and she came in sixth. You look at the stardom she’s got, but what I think what happens, honestly, is people forget to vote and they think their favorites are safe. I mean you saw that bottom three. Oh my god, it’s like ‘What’s going on?'”
So Randy was obviously taken back by the American Idol results, but was quick to point out that like Hudson, if Sanchez doesn’t make it to the end she still has plenty of potential for a full career in the music industry. Steven pointed the blame at Jessica’s song choice this week with her performance of “Stuttering” (watch it again).
“They’re all one song away [from elimination], because this is a game show,” he told us. “It’s a reality show where America’s vote is on if they don’t sing [well]. It’s because they don’t have a good song. It doesn’t mean they can’t sing. [Jessica] is as good as it gets and she’s 16.”
Didn’t we just hear the judges tell us this week that song choice wasn’t a potential issue because it’s all about how they sing it? Ah well, anyways.
Randy went on to say that the judges find out the results as the same time as America, so there’s no premeditation for using the Save ahead of that night’s live broadcast. I’d assume all three of them have singers in mind though for who they’d save and who they wouldn’t.
Speaking of saves, I was hoping we’d hear from JLo, but nothing yet. Remember that JLo wanted to use the one-time-only Save for the past two weeks. Could you imagine if they had saved Heejun or DeAndre and then been forced to let Jessica be eliminated?
Next week on American Idol 2012 the slate is wiped clean and the remaining finalists start anew in their pursuit of the Season 11 crown. There are no more saves from the judges and the decision will fall to the voting public. No matter how things turn out I’m expecting some season high votes coming in as the Top 7 take to the American Idol stage once again.
Watch Jessica Sanchez’s elimination on American Idol and subsequent save by the judges: