American Idol

  1. Episode 42 Finale
    Vulture Is Officially in Mourning When Ryan made the terrible announcement last night, we thought of nothing but the immortal lines from Housman.
  2. Episode 41 Top Two Finalists Perform
    ‘American Idol’: Archuleta Clearly the Superior David Not that it makes any difference to the show’s cheat-happy producers.
  3. Episode 40 Top Three Elimination
    ‘American Idol’: It’s Only Davids Now Why was Syesha Mercado eliminated?
  4. Episode 39 Top Three Finalists Perform
    ‘American Idol’: So Long, Syesha! Tragically, Syesha will not be in next week’s all-David season finale.
  5. Episode 38 Top Four Elimination
    ‘American Idol’: Exodus Why was Jason Castro eliminated?
  6. Episode 37 Top Four Finalists Perform
    ‘American Idol’: Jason Castro Commits a Capital Offense He sang “I Shot the Sheriff”! We can’t believe it either!
  7. Episode 36 Top Five Elimination
    ‘American Idol’: We Bet Paula Saw This One Coming Why was Brooke White eliminated?
  8. Episode 35 Top Five Finalists Perform
    ‘American Idol’: Paula Abdul Undermines the Integrity of Neil Diamond Night The top five performed the songs of Neil Diamond — and the entire show was exposed as a fraud!
  9. Episode 34 Top Six Elimination
    ‘American Idol’: Another Shocking Exit! Sort Of! Why was Carly Smithson eliminated?
  10. Episode 33 Top Six Finalists Perform
    ‘American Idol’: The ‘Phantom’ Menace The contestants tear out their vocal cords on Andrew Lloyd Webber night, and Vulture charts the results.
  11. Episode 32 Top Seven Elimination
    ‘American Idol’: Finally! Why was Kristy Lee Cook eliminated?
  12. Episode 31 Top Seven Finalists Perform
    ‘American Idol’: Mariah Carey Night Goes As Well As Could Be Expected Last night, the remaining finalists sang selections from the Mariah Carey songbook. Sadly, there were very few high notes.
  13. Episode 29 Idol Gives Back
    ‘American Idol’: Give It Away Now Last night, American Idol took a break from crushing dreams to raise money for the needy!
  14. Episode 28 Top Eight Finalists Perform
    ‘American Idol’: One Percent Inspiration Last night, the Idol finalists sang “inspirational music.” Also, Sindbad was there!
  15. Episode 27 Top Nine Elimination
    ‘American Idol’: Another Contestant’s Dreams Cut Short Why was Ramiele Malubay eliminated?
  16. Episode 26 Top Nine Finalists Perform
    ‘American Idol’: Dolly Parton Helps the Finalists Desecrate Her Songbook Last night, Dolly Parton visited the nine remaining American Idol finalists, none of whom had any idea who she was.
  17. Episode 25 Top Ten Elimination
    ‘American Idol’: Smutty Singer Gets Off Why was he eliminated?
  18. Episode 24 Top Ten Finalists Perform
    ‘American Idol’: You’re Old Last night, contestants picked songs released the year they were born. Also, Paula Abdul wore this on television.
  19. Episode 23 Top 11 Elimination
    ‘American Idol’: Now 90 Percent Less Raspy Why was Amanda Overmeyer eliminated?
  20. Episode 22 Top 11 Finalists Perform
    ‘American Idol’: David Archuleta Now Officially Bigger Than Jesus Last night on American Idol, the contestants took another swing at the Beatles songbook and front-runner David Archuleta got his groove back.
  21. Episode 21 Top 12 Elimination
    ‘American Idol’: David Hernandez Stripped of His Place in the Competition Why was he eliminated?
  22. Episode 20 Top 12 Finalists Perform
    ‘American Idol’: A Hard Day’s Night for the Beatles Catalog Even David Archuleta forgot the lyrics!
  23. Episode 19 Live Results Show: Top 12 Finalists Revealed
    ‘American Idol’: Top Twelve Named; Bottom Four Return to Being Unfamous Why were they voted off?
  24. Episode 18 Top Eight Female Singers Perform
    ‘American Idol’: Zzzzz Last night on American Idol, the female half of this year’s top 16 performed songs of the 1980s. Sadly, all singers were struck by the very same problem that affected seven of Tuesday’s male contestants: none of them are David Archuleta.
  25. Episode 17 Top Eight Male Singers Perform
    ‘American Idol’: The Battle for Second Place Continues But what about the stripper?
  26. Episode 16 Live Results Show: Two Men and Two Women Eliminated
    ‘American Idol’: For Four Contestants, There’s Hell Toupee Who got voted off?
  27. Episode 15 Top 10 Female Singers Perform
    ‘American Idol’: You’re So Vain, You Probably Think This Recap Is About You Charts!
  28. Episode 14 Top 10 Male Singers Perform
    ‘American Idol’: Sucking in the Seventies Charts!
  29. Episode 13 First Results Show
    ‘American Idol’: Whose Dreams Has Ryan Seacrest Crushed Now? Who went home?
  30. Episode 12 Top 12 Female Singers Perform
    ‘American Idol’: Top Twelve Girls Take a Sick Day Boring.
  31. Episode 11 Top 12 Male Singers Perform
    ‘American Idol’: Twelve Gangly Men Last night, with this season’s freeloading rejects now thankfully returned to obscurity, American Idol weighed the talents of the top twelve male contestants.
  32. Episode 10 Hollywood Round Two
    ‘American Idol’: Everybody Cries Plus: Who cried the best?
  33. Episode 9 Hollywood Round One
    ‘American Idol’: Say Good-bye to Hollywood Last night, American Idol flew successful contestants from eight previous episodes to Hollywood, California, ostensibly to pick the best singers, though really to weed out the ones who looked bad under real TV lighting.
  34. Episode 8 Best of the Rest Auditions
    ‘American Idol’: Thus Ends the Fruitless Search for the Next Sanjaya Last night’s episode of American Idol featured leftover contestants from the previous seven audition shows, presumably because Fox executives think they can air whatever they want these days and still top their strike-addled competition in the ratings.
  35. Episode 7 Atlanta Auditions
    ‘American Idol’: No Clear Winners in Atlanta Last night, American Idol traveled to Atlanta where the show had previously discovered the hidden talents of Clay Aiken, Fantasia Barrino, and Jennifer Hudson.
  36. Episode 6 Miami Auditions
    ‘American Idol’: Miami Sound Latrine No Clay Aikens in Miami either.
  37. Episode 5 Omaha Auditions
    ‘American Idol’: No Clay Aikens in Omaha, Sadly Last night the Idol judges auditioned contestants in Omaha, Nebraska. It wasn’t very good.
  38. Episode 4 Charleston Auditions
    ‘American Idol’: South Carolina Fails Its Audition Last night, Ryan Seacrest & Co. rolled into Charleston, South Carolina, to audition 10,000 American Idol hopefuls, none of whom will likely end up in the finals, or even the Top Twelve.
  39. Episode 3 San Diego Auditions
    ‘American Idol’: Nope, Nothing Interesting Happening in San Diego Either American Idol is boring.
  40. Episode 2 Dallas Auditions
    ‘American Idol’: Everything’s Worse in Texas American Idol was back again last night, this time on a hunch that there might be talent somewhere in Dallas, Texas — the producers probably won’t be making that mistake again!
  41. Episode 1 Philadelphia Auditions
    ‘American Idol’ Returns: Vulture Charts the Season Premiere American Idol came back last night to see if there’s still a single decent singer left in the United States that’s not already been signed and dropped by RCA Records — and we made pie charts!
  1. Episode 40 Finale, Part Two
    American Idol Season Finale: Kara DioGuardi Strips DioGuardi ripped open her dress to reveal a black bikini and a very toned 37-year-old-body. Oh, dear.
  2. Episode 39 Finale, Part One
    Nobody Watched the American Idol Finale Only 23.7 million!
  3. Episode 38 Top Three Elimination
    American Idol: the Incident So sure were we yesterday that Kris Allen would be voted off this week that we Photoshopped him into a coffin. Oops!
  4. Episode 37 Top Three Perform
    American Idol: Funeral for a Friend Kris Allen sure picked a bad week to win us over.
  5. Episode 36 Top Four Elimination
    American Idol: Time to Stop Watching! Even after all the other awful things that happened on last night’s ‘American Idol,’ Allison Iraheta’s premature elimination was still a bummer.
  6. Episode 35 Top Four Perform
    American Idol: Disaster Strikes! Adam gets out-screeched!
  7. Episode 34 Top Five Elimination
    Matt Giraud Makes American Idol History He’s the first contestant in the show’s history to be voted off an incredible three times.
  8. Episode 33 Top Five Perform
    American Idol: Swing and a Miss Apart from a couple of performances, last night’s episode was easily the most boring, skippable one of the season so far.
  9. Episode 32 Top Seven Disco Elimination
    Idol Casts Out Two Contestants, Celebrates Swedish Indie Pop Lil Rounds, we hardly knew ya.
  10. Episode 30 Top Seven Elimination
    American Idol: Farewell, Judges’ Save Never again will we know the hilarious thrill of seeing a contestant humiliated twice.
  11. Episode 29 Top Seven Perform
    Quentin Tarantino: Greatest AI Mentor Ever “Let me just see you do it one more time with your hands in your pockets — no hand gestures.”
  12. Episode 28 Top Eight Elimination
    American Idol: Scott Sent Home, Wrongly Has America condoned a funk cover of a Don Henley song?
  13. Episode 27 Top Eight Perform
    American Idol: So Who Will Come In Second? Now that Adam Lambert seems to have this thing locked up, who will he destroy on this season’s finale?
  14. Episode 25 Top Nine Perform
    American Idol: Turn Your Sound Down Low Last night, contestants were allowed to sing anything they wanted. Results varied.
  15. Episode 24 Top Ten Elimination
    Results Shows Now Officially the Best Part of American Idol Last night, obnoxious roughneck Michael Sarver was sent home to work on an oil rig — twice!
  16. Episode 23 Top Ten Perform
    American Idol Embroiled in Lip-sync-Controversy Shocker All thanks to Sideshow Bob!
  17. Episode 22 Top 11 Elimination
    American Idol Shows How Not-Fixed It Is With Meanest-Ever Elimination Not only was Alexis Grace voted off last night without being rescued, but ‘Idol’ offed her in what was surely one of the most brutal dismissals in the show’s history.
  18. Episode 21 Top 11 Perform
    American Idol: Will the Judges Save Alexis Tonight? Producers were allegedly hoping she’d be in the finale — but she stunk last night! So will they save her?
  19. Episode 20 Top 13 Elimination
    American Idol Losers to Be Humiliated Twice Now Vulture completely approves of the new “Judges’ Save” rule.
  20. Episode 19 Top 13 Perform
    American Idol: What the Heck Is With This Thing? Did ‘Idol’ producers just think this season’s contestants looked too comfortable performing in front of 25 million people?
  21. Episode 18 Wild Card
    American Idol Changes the Rules Again Jasmine: Not that great.
  22. Episode 16 Group Three Performs
    American Idol: The Curious Case of Scott MacIntyre We like the guy, but when will the judges give him some honest feedback?
  23. Episode 14 Group Two Performs
    Did the Producers of American Idol Accidentally Buy This Idiot Another Week on Televison? Man, we hope not!
  24. Episode 13 Group One Eliminations
    American Idol: Bring Back Tatiana! When yesterday we called for the immediate dismissal of the worst-ever ‘Idol’ contestant, we didn’t want it to be like this.
  25. Episode 12 Group One Performs
    American Idol Pits Most-Annoying-Ever Contestant Against a Bunch of Boring Ones Sadly, Tatiana Del Toro will probably live to see another week.
  26. Episode 11 Judges’ Mansion
    American Idol: Your Top 36 Revealed! Who deserved Tatiana’s spot?
  27. Episode 10 Top Six Perform
    American Idol Recap: Do You Want It This Way? The FAREWELL SEASON is so screwy.
  28. Episode 7 New York Auditions
    Brave Actress Survives Uwe Boll Movie, Becomes American Idol Finalist Her continued willingness to show her face in public is truly an inspiration, and almost makes up for the Jason Mraz song she auditioned with.
  29. Episode 1 Phoenix Auditions
    American Idol: New Judge, Same Bad Contestants We recap last night’s eighth-season premiere in typical chart-based fashion.
  1. Episode 43 Finale
    American Idol Finale Recap: It’s All About Simon The Crystal versus Lee showdown is decided, but it’s an afterthought to homages to the departing Cowell.
  2. Episode 42 Week 13 Performances
    American Idol Recap: Everybody Hurts, But Mostly Lee In Simon’s second-to-last episode, Mama Sox shows why she should have the win.
  3. Episode 41 Week 12 Eliminations
    American Idol Recap: We Get Our Final Two, to the Sounds of Justin Bieber Our finalists are exactly who we thought they’d be months ago.
  4. Episode 40 Final 3 Perform
    American Idol Recap: Who Had ‘the Moment’? The final three play the judges’ choices, and damned if the judges weren’t right.
  5. Episode 39 Week 11 Eliminations
    American Idol Recap: Daughtry Shows That Fourth Place Ain’t So Bad Another contestant goes home, reassured by Daughtry that there’s still a career out there if you miss the top three.
  6. Episode 38 Final 4 Perform
    American Idol Recap: Jamie Foxx, Movie Star and T-Shirt Dispenser The returning mentor handed out T-shirts labeling each contestant either “Artist” or “Contestant.” None read “I’m With Stupid.”
  7. Episode 37 Week 10 Eliminations
    American Idol Recap: Sinatra Takes Another Man Down The top five become four after Harry Connick Jr.’s tutorials.
  8. Episode 36 Final 5 Perform
    American Idol Recap: Ol’ Blue Eyes Impersonations Are Back The final five take on the Sinatra songbook with the wiseassed help of Harry Connick Jr.
  9. Episode 35 Week 9 Eliminations
    American Idol: Amid a ‘Country’ Cavalcade, Another Voice Silenced Everyone excelled on Shania Twain night, so for the first time in a while, there was suspense in the bottom three.
  10. Episode 34 Final 6 Perform
    American Idol Recap: The Judges Try to Pretend Crystal Bowersox Isn’t a Sure Thing on Shania Twain Night Is Crystal the inevitable victor? The judges feign doubt.
  11. Episode 33 Idol Gives Back
    American Idol Recap: Charity and Cringing on ‘Idol Gives Back’ It was all for a good cause, even if the Black Eyed Peas seemed like they were wishing viewers ill.
  12. Episode 32 Final 7 Perform
    American Idol Recap: A Rare, Shining Moment of Purity Alicia Keys warily and politely mentors, while one contestant lives up to her hopes.
  13. Episode 31 Week 7 Eliminations
    American Idol Recap: Mediocrity Minus Two In the midst of a double elimination, Adam Lambert demonstrates what he meant by “performance.”
  14. Episode 30 Final 9 Perform Again
    American Idol Recap: Adam Lambert Is Officially Anointed the New Elvis Last year’s runner-up comes back to mentor the contestants in singing the King’s songs.
  15. Episode 29 Week 6 Eliminations
    American Idol Recap: To Save or Not to Save For once, the judges seem to really deliberate on whether or not to use their Judges’ Save, as opposed to just be talking about where to have dinner after the show.
  16. Episode 28 Top 9 Perform
    American Idol Recap: Meet the Beatles Knockoffs The top nine take on Lennon and/or McCartney songs, with special didgeridoo and bagpipe accompaniments.
  17. Episode 27 Week 5 Eliminations
    Idol Recap: And Then There Were Nine In between variety-show-big performances by Diddy, Usher, and Ruben Studdard, someone else gets the boot.
  18. Episode 26 Final 10 Perform
    Idol Recap: A Very Little Bit of Soul The top ten take on soul and R&B with guest mentor Usher, who needn’t worry about the competition.
  19. Episode 25 Week 4 Eliminations
    Idol Recap: We All Saw This One Coming The judges didn’t even debate a save for what was widely considered the worst ‘Idol’ performance ever.
  20. Episode 24 Final 11 Perform
    Idol Recap: Miley Cyrus, World-Weary Tutor Hannah Montana stopped by to mentor the top eleven.
  21. Episode 23 Week 4 Elimination
    Idol Recap: Ke$ha Visits, Shows Fame Isn’t Hard The first of the top twelve goes, while guest performer Ke$ha hobnobs with dancing TVs.
  22. Episode 22 Final 12 Perform
    American Idol Recap: You Can’t Always Get What You Want On Rolling Stones night, some of the final twelve are hot stuff, while some leave us so cold, cold, cold.
  23. Episode 21 Week 3 Eliminations
    Idol Recap: Crushed Dreams and Bad Taste Two surprise eliminations puts the voting public’s taste in question … as usual.
  24. Episode 20 Top Eight Men Perform
    Idol Recap: Meh Enough to Make a Woman Cry Some early favorites tank, some early disasters redeem themselves, and one man drives Kara to tears.
  25. Episode 19 Top Eight Women Perform
    Idol Recap: The Good, The Bad, and the Weird Risk-taking was hard to find in the performances of the final eight women.
  26. Episode 18 Week 2 Eliminations
    American Idol Recap: Down Go Four More Though all four of the ousted contestants were minorities, you could only blame their talent for their elimination, not their race.
  27. Episode 17 Top 10 Women Perform
    Idol Recap: Now We’re Getting Somewhere The top ten women perform, and we’ve finally got a competition.
  28. Episode 16 Top 10 Men Perform
    American Idol Recap: Men of a Certain Range Unexpectedly performing a day early, the men show a modicum of improvement. Is that a compliment?
  29. Episode 15 Week 1 Eliminations
    Idol Recap: The First Eliminations Is it coincidence that the first singers booted are both Hispanic? And that one of them was actually good?
  30. Episode 14 The Final 12 Men Perform
    Idol Recap: The Dangers of Listening to the Judges Though Simon et al scolded the girls for unoriginality last night, the men who attempted originality were slapped down.
  31. Episode 13 The Final 12 Women Perform
    Idol Recap: 12 Women, 11 Soundalikes On a largely unoriginal night, most of the dozen women came out desperately trying to sound like someone famous.
  32. Episode 12 Final 24 Revealed
    Idol Recap: Say Goodbye to Hollywood Week The judges break all the news, and we finally have our top 24.
  33. Episode 11 Hollywood Day Three
    Idol Recap: The Three Rooms of Doom The judges start narrowing down to 24, and take their sweet time to give semi-finalists ample time for coronary episodes.
  34. Episode 10 Group Night
    Idol Recap: Group Night Finds Its Villain Two Lady Gaga covers, one Fleetwood Mac, and a whole lot of late-night tears.
  35. Episode 9 Hollywood Week Begins
    Idol Recap: Ellen Begins, Paula’s Forgotten Degeneres proves able to criticize in her maiden voyage at the judges’ table.
  36. Episode 8 Unaired Audition Footage
    Idol Recap: Reheated Leftovers A compilation of unaired auditions from the last seven shows proved we saw all we needed to.
  37. Episode 7 Denver Auditions
    American Idol Recap: Mile-High Mediocrity And guest-judge Victoria Beckham is back to make sure all is pretty, pretty, pretty.
  38. Episode 6 Dallas Auditions
    Idol recap: Neil Patrick Harris Out-Simons Simon NPH brought honesty and great judgment to the show. Joe brought his hair.
  39. Episode 5 Los Angeles Auditions
    Idol Recap: Katy Perry Outmatures Avril Lavigne The two judges prove a study in contrasts. Guess who’s the snotty one?
  40. Episode 4 Orlando Auditions
    Idol Recap: Sob Stories & Beatboxing in Florida Kristin Chenoweth of ‘Wicked’ joins the judges for sob stories and beatboxing in Florida.
  41. Episode 3 Chicago Auditions
    American Idol Recap: Second City, Second-rate Talent Your next ‘American Idol’ likely won’t be coming from Chicago, based on these tryouts.
  42. Episode 2 Atlanta Auditions
    American Idol Recap: Pants Hit the Ground in Atlanta Lifetime-movie tales and a whole lot of shrieking drive Simon to his sickbed.
  43. Episode 1 Boston Auditions
    American Idol Recap: Simon’s Last Go-round Begins in Boston As season nine begins, is his farewell tour the beginning of the end for the show?
  1. Episode 39 Finale
    American Idol Finale Recap: Paul F. Tompkins Loves That It’s Over So Big His long country-scored nightmare has come to an end.
  2. Episode 38 Final Round
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins Makes It to the Final Round Alive! “I am excited that it is the last two nights, but not about watching the last two nights. It’s like if you referred to the night before you had kidney stones removed as ‘Kidney Stone Eve.’”
  3. Episode 37 Eleventh Elimination
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on Homecomings and Disasters, Both Natural and Show-Related Who likes country music? Because you have no choice in the matter.
  4. Episode 36 Final 3 Perform
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins Sees the Light at the End of the Tunnel His head hurts from trying to parse Ryan’s statement that Beyoncé is “a triple threat two times over.”
  5. Episode 35 Tenth Elimination
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on Enrique, Jordin, and Another Tear-Stained Elimination Ryan says of the contestants, “All four will get to go home and see their families, but only three will do it in style.” I guess the fourth one has to go home hanging off the side of a train, like in India.
  6. Episode 34 Final 4 Perform
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on the Lady Gaga Tutorial Scotty appears to be calmly but eagerly studying Lady Gaga to see if there is some gender trickery going on, as he’d heard tell of such shape-shifters and wants to be on guard against bewitchments.
  7. Episode 33 Ninth Elimination
    American Idol Recap: Tears and Omelette Making, Not Necessarily in That Order Maybe I should have asked this before, but are we supposed to like Ryan Seacrest?
  8. Episode 32 Final 5 Perform
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins Breaks Down James’s Song-Induced Breakdown That was a bad performance. This is a singing contest, not a crying competition.
  9. Episode 31 Eighth Elimination
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on the Carole King Aftermath and the World’s Oddest Viewer Questions “One question caught my eye because it was astounding in its self-absorption, another because it involved a very specific type of dream.”
  10. Episode 30 Final 6 Do Carole King
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on Carole King Night Guest mentor Babyface looks good! He could be referred to at most as Adolescentface!
  11. Episode 29 Seventh Elimination
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on the Elimination Kanye West Stopped By For Plus, Casey shows off a fan-made painting.
  12. Episode 28 Final 7 Do Hits of the 00’s
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on Contestant Impersonation Night These kids are all really good at imitating each other. Maybe that should be the show: one month of establishing who they are as individuals, then one month of them mocking each other in clip packages.
  13. Episode 27 Sixth Elimination
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on Movie-Night Fallout “Am I being hard on a bunch of kids who entered a contest? If so, I am the only one.”
  14. Episode 26 Final 8 on Movie Music Night
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on Movie-Music Night Perhaps advance knowledge of this theme led to Pia’s being voted off — it was all to avoid her inevitable cover of “My Heart Will Go On.”
  15. Episode 25 Fifth Elimination
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins Is Shocked to Feel Bad About an Elimination He wonders what has gone wrong in his life that he will actually miss an ‘Idol’ contestant.
  16. Episode 24 Final 9 on Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Night
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Night “So, Will.I.Am is on the show every week, now? It is seriously giving me anxiety that his presence on the show appears to be open-ended.”
  17. Episode 23 Third and Fourth Eliminations
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on the Double Elimination This is the “fall back” side of the daylight saving time seesaw that balances out the “spring forward” of the Judges’ Save.
  18. Episode 22 Final 11 Perform Elton John
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on Elton John Night “I wonder what the ratio of early/good to late/garbage will be in the songs we hear.”
  19. Episode 21 Third Elimination/Casey’s Save
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins Weighs In On the Casey Save Oh, the mind boggles trying to imagine the turbulent seas churning in Casey’s perfidious stomach upon this hour!
  20. Episode 20 Final 11 Perform; Motown Week
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on Motown Week Motown classics are undeniable works of art, the result of concentrated greatness, and they will live forever in the pantheon of songwriting. But many of these treasured songs I never, ever want to hear again, ever in my life, hear me God.
  21. Episode 19 Second Elimination
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on the Second Elimination Scotty is becoming an exact doppelgänger of George W. Bush. By the end of this season he will at least own a baseball team.
  22. Episode 18 Final 12 Perform
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins Endures the Birthday Song Choices “But think of it, gentlemen: what if they sang a song from the year they will die?”
  23. Episode 17 First Elimination
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on the First Big Elimination But first, let’s get ready for the placement of some products!
  24. Episode 16 Final 13 Perform
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins Judges the Top Thirteen “The top thirteen will be working with producers from Interscope records. This is a big deal, because the music industry is doing so great!?
  25. Episode 15 Final 13 Revealed
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins Judges the Final Thirteen “I don’t know why they can’t just stick to ten people. People like the decimal system; it’s comforting.”
  26. Episode 14 Final 12 Women Perform
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on the Top Twelve Women “I find it hard to believe all of these kids would be choosing stuff ever-so-slightly out of their range. But maybe they like a challenge! All of them!”
  27. Episode 13 Final 12 Men Perform
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins on the Top Twelve Men They pick their own songs. Is that good news or bad news?
  28. Episode 12 Final 24 revealed
    American Idol Recap: Paul F. Tompkins Makes It Through the Final 24 Fake-Outs We have our finalists, but Steven Tyler never masters the art of “Bad news … you made it!”
  29. Episode 11 Las Vegas Round
    Paul F. Tompkins’s American Idol Recap: Las Vegas Makes J. Lo and Beatles Fans Cry The judges start to narrow it down to 24, and the task may break Jennifer Lopez.
  30. Episode 10
    Paul F. Tompkins Recaps American Idol’s Solo Night I was relieved to see that the contestants are going back to singing individually, even though I knew I would not like most of their singing.
  31. Episode 9 Hollywood Week, Part 2
    Paul F. Tompkins Recaps American Idol’s Group Night Why are they really doing this, I wonder? Is ‘American Idol’ broke, and they’re subcontracting sleep-deprivation studies?
  32. Episode 8 Hollywood Week, Part 1
    Paul F. Tompkins Recaps the Kickoff of American Idol’s Hollywood Week “327 contestants will parade across the stage, but only none of them can justify this arbitrary number of people.”
  33. Episode 7 San Francisco Auditions
    Paul F. Tompkins Recaps American Idol’s San Francisco Auditions “‘Idol’ wrote the book on milking it and must be rereading that book on a rainy day.”
  34. Episode 6 Los Angeles Auditions
    Paul F. Tompkins Recaps American Idol’s L.A. Auditions “I am starting to really kind of like J.Lo on this show. Wait, what did I just write?”
  35. Episode 5 Austin Auditions
    Paul F. Tompkins on American Idol’s Austin Auditions “Okay, Texas. This has gone on long enough. You can’t have both: Hats or belt buckles, time to choose.”
  36. Episode 4 Nashville Auditions
    Paul F. Tompkins on American Idol’s Nashville Tryouts, Singing Exes and All He wonders whether the dueting exes are really suited for the reunion the judges hope and pray for.
  37. Episodes 2 and 3 New Orleans and Milwaukee Auditions
    Paul F. Tompkins Recaps American Idol’s Milwaukee Auditions Jerome Bell gets through with the loudest version of “Let’s Get It On” you’ve ever imagined. That song is about sex, does he know that?
  38. Episode 1 New Jersey Auditions
    Paul F. Tompkins Recaps the American Idol Premiere Randy has been joined by “former actress/eventual Zsa Zsa Gabor successor Jennifer Lopez, and a creature some say is a living candle, but whom I believe to be the Ghost of Steven Tyler.”
  1. Episode 40 Winner Announced
    American Idol Recap: Take Us Home, Season Eleven It took them six tries, but they’ve finally cast the White Boy With Guitar role perfectly.
  2. Episode 39 Two Finalists Compete
    American Idol Recap: A Shock in the Mire After the most predictable season ever, the show has one surprise in it after all.
  3. Episode 38 Top Three Results
    American Idol Recap: Lisa Marie and Lambert, Too The only questions left are who will lose to Phillip next week, and exactly how will the producers waste your time.
  4. Episode 37 3 Finalists Compete
    American Idol Recap: Homeward Bound Idol, you can tell that your top three isn’t making much of an emotional impact when most of the signs are for Ryan Seacrest.
  5. Episode 36 Top Four Results
    American Idol Recap: The Case of the Absent Charisma It is time for our results, delivered in a one-hour show built around four seconds of action.
  6. Episode 35 Top Four Compete
    American Idol Recap: Slog of Ages We wish they’d give up the pretense and just say: Tonight’s theme is “Songs.”
  7. Episode 34 Top Five Results
    American Idol Recap: Go Directly to Nashville Someone gets kicked off, but not before performances by Coldplay and Carrie Underwood.
  8. Episode 33 Top Five Compete
    American Idol Recap: Britpop, But Not Really We saw last night’s episode live from the Idoldome and, let us tell you, it’s like a completely different show in there.
  9. Episode 32 Top Six Results
    American Idol Recap: The Mercy Kill We will spend the next few weeks in the stage I call The Purging of the People You Knew Couldn’t Win.
  10. Episode 31 Top Six Compete
    American Idol Recap: Crazy Little Things Our top six rock the songs of Queen.
  11. Episode 30 Top Seven Results, Part II
    American Idol Recap: Colton Apologizes to Us All Also, thoughts on the destructiveness of LMFAO. 
  12. Episode 29 Top Seven Compete, Part II
    American Idol Recap: The End Is the Beginning We weren’t really expecting last night’s Idol to start with a T.S. Eliot quote.
  13. Episode 28 Top Seven Results
    American Idol Recap: Watching From the Sky Does Not Make It Better Jennifer Hudson and James Durbin stop by. No one acknowledges that neither won their seasons.
  14. Episode 27 Top Seven Compete
    American Idol Recap: Comments From the Peanut Gallery Dave Holmes recaps this week’s episode from a gay bar in New Orleans.
  15. Episode 26 Top Eight Results
    American Idol Recap: Did Anyone Else See That Giant Yawn? And this is why you shouldn’t choose “Master Blaster” as your “Save Me” song.
  16. Episode 25 Top Eight Compete
    American Idol Recap: Duets Abound on Eighties Night Did anyone else notice how crazy Ryan Seacrest was acting last night?
  17. Episode 24 Top Nine Results
    American Idol Recap: Accidentally Entertaining The producers, judges, and host of American Idol seem genuinely surprised at how good last night was.
  18. Episode 23 Top Nine Compete
    American Idol Recap: How Many Wind Chimes Does Stevie Nicks Have? Tonight’s mentor has become your high school drama teacher.
  19. Episode 22 Top 10 Results
    American Idol Recap: What Exactly Is the Voting Strategy Here? Tonight’s elimination: Some serious bullshit.
  20. Episode 21 Top 10 Compete
    American Idol Recap: Diddy Explains Your Favorite Billy Joel Cuts “Only the Good Die Young” clearly details “money fallin’ out the sky, big-ass mansions and 767s.”
  21. Episode 20 Second Elimination
    American Idol Recap: Let’s Ignore the Daughtry Factor Why does this show pretend early elimination is the end of the line?
  22. Episode 19 12 Finalists Perform
    American Idol Recap: A Night for Feeling Old In which will.i.am says “swaggernaut.” Ughhh.
  23. Episode 18 1 of 13 Voted Off
    American Idol Recap: One of Them Goes Home Now let’s spend an hour finding out which child we’re going to humiliate.
  24. Episode 17 13 Finalists Compete
    American Idol Recap: The Ballads of Stevie and Whitney The top six women have a bare-knuckle throwdown over who gets “I Will Always Love You.”
  25. Episode 16 Finalists Chosen
    American Idol Recap: Speeding Up “He’s a handsome guy, but handsome is not enough for American Idol!”
  26. Episode 15 Semifinalist Girls Perform
    American Idol Recap: Six-Hour Week Let’s pick the ladies.
  27. Episode 14 400th Episode Special: Semifinalist Boys Perform
    American Idol Recap: ‘I Forget That I Am on a Show and Judging Anything’ The GOP nominating process is like greased lightning in comparison.
  28. Episode 13 Final Judgement Part 2
    American Idol Recap: And Then There Were … 25 “We watched you very vividly, and it was transcendental.”
  29. Episode 12 Final Judgement, Part 1
    American Idol Recap: The Rapture We’re almost to the voting. Almost.
  30. Episode 11 Las Vegas Week
    American Idol Recap: On the Set of Elvis Presley Oh, here we go to Vegas.
  31. Episode 10 Hollywood Round Part 2
    American Idol Recap: You Ret to Rock? At Group Night.
  32. Episode 9 Hollywood Round #2
    American Idol Recap: Team Time It’s the beginning of Group Week/Day.
  33. Episode 8 Hollywood Round #1
    American Idol Recap: To Be Continued The Girl Who Fell Off The Stage.
  34. Episode 7 Auditions #7
    American Idol Recap: The Auditions End in Dave Holmes’s Hometown; It Is Not an Honor Yes, there’s an arch in St. Louis. No, you don’t have to keep showing it.
  35. Episode 6 Auditions #6
    American Idol Recap: Welcome to Portlandia Tonight Steven Tyler looks like all of the regular female cast members of Six Feet Under.
  36. Episode 5 Auditions #5
    American Idol Recap: It’s Just So Phenomenon American Idol will suck the life right out of even a happy, music-loving guy.
  37. Episode 4 Auditions #4
    American Idol Recap: It’s God’s Paintbrush Oh, these painful audition rounds.
  38. Episode 3 Auditions #3
    American Idol Recap: There Were Seven Triple-Threats! And Jim Carrey’s daughter.
  39. Episode 2 Auditions #2
    American Idol Recap: TV Show of Dreams Idol, you are mad hyperbolic tonight.
  40. Episode 1 Auditions #1
    American Idol Premiere Recap: Let’s Pretend to Make History “The spirits of the children in the woods snuck into you.”
  1. Episode 37 Finale
    American Idol Finale Recap: Huh. Good for Her The producers’ opinions of Mariah Carey are definitely shining through.
  2. Episode 36 Final Performances
    American Idol Recap: The Final Face-off This could go either way. “Dave caring” is neither of the ways.
  3. Episode 35 Top Three Results
    American Idol Recap: The Intervention Worked This week, Idol admitted it had a problem.
  4. Episode 34 Finalists Compete
    American Idol Recap: We’re Almost There We are so close to the finish line we can taste it, and it tastes like rainbows.
  5. Episode 33 Top Four Results, Again
    American Idol Recap: Amber Alert Down to three. Finally. Finally, finally, finally.
  6. Episode 32 Top Four Compete, Again
    American Idol Recap: I Can See Clearly Now Harry Connick Jr. was last night’s real winner.
  7. Episode 31 Top Four Results
    American Idol Recap: The Night Nothing Happened If you watched last night’s episode, you were a sucker.
  8. Episode 30 Top Four Compete
    American Idol Recap: The Trouble With Girls The judges went all in for one particular contestant on last night’s American Idol.
  9. Episode 29 Top Five Results
    American Idol Recap: You Go, Girl With appearances by Fantasia and Paula Abdul.
  10. Episode 28 Top Five Compete
    American Idol Recap: All the Real Girls We are down to the first all-female top five in the show’s history.
  11. Episode 27 Top Six Results
    American Idol Recap: Free at Laz Jimmy Iovine really gave it to Lazaro last night, huh?
  12. Episode 26 Top Six Compete
    American Idol Recap: Glitter in the Air Ladies and gentlemen, the songs of Burt Bacharach.
  13. Episode 25 Top Seven Results
    American Idol Recap: Rock-and-Roll Homicide Can we get some more Jimmy Iovine up in here please?
  14. Episode 24 Top Seven Compete
    American Idol Recap: You’re No Rock-and-Roll Fun Last night was rock night! Or, as we call it, countdown to “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” night.
  15. Episode 23 Top Eight Results
    American Idol Recap: Bropocalypse Now The results shows have basically turned into an hour-long variety show in which the action takes place in the last fifteen seconds.
  16. Episode 22 Top Eight Compete
    American Idol Recap: Hasn’t Detroit Suffered Enough? Man, those group numbers are just the worst.
  17. Episode 21 Top Nine Results Show
    American Idol Recap: Lost Boys Is Lazaro our new Sanjaya?
  18. Episode 20 Top Nine Compete
    American Idol Recap: Help Can we please retire Beatles Night before an entire generation grows up thinking this is how Beatles songs sound?
  19. Episode 19 Live Results Show
    American Idol Recap: The First of the Gang to Die The thing with Idol is just when you write it off as a bloated waste of time and effort, it comes back with a nice, tight hour of television.
  20. Episode 18 Top 10 Live Performance Show
    American Idol Recap: The Competition Starts NOW? If the competition starts now, what the hell have we been doing for the last eight weeks?
  21. Episode 17 Top 10 Finalists Revealed
    American Idol Recap: Ryan Seacrest’s Long Halftime Walk The long, cold march to Idol’s top ten men and top ten women ended last night.
  22. Episode 16 Top 10 Men Semifinalists
    American Idol Recap: Go Away, Boys, You Bother Me Last night, we spent two hours on ten guys a whole network is actively rooting against.
  23. Episode 15 Top 10 Women Semifinalists
    American Idol Recap: Supervote for the Worst You guys! After only seven weeks of this show, it’s time for us to start voting.
  24. Episode 14 Semifinalist Round 4
    American Idol Recap: The Boys Who Fell to Earth Where’s Zoanette? Where’s Zoanette? Where’s Zoanette?
  25. Episode 13 Semifinalists Round 3
    American Idol Recap: Zo My Freaking God In which Zoanette does “Circle of Life” from The Lion King and it’s wonderfully bananas.
  26. Episode 12 Semifinalist Round 2
    American Idol Recap: The Boys With the Thorns in Their Sides Have we mentioned that Idol producers would like you to choose a lady this year? Because they really would.
  27. Episode 11 Semifinalist Round 1
    American Idol Recap: Sudden Death Takes Forever It’s a sudden death round, wherein ten women will sing and five will go home.
  28. Episode 10 Hollywood Round 4
    American Idol: Manic Pixie Dream Contestants Boy oh boy is American Idol desperate for a girl to win this year.
  29. Episode 9 Hollywood Round 3
    American Idol Recap: Somebodies That We Used to Know Hollywood Week continues! Or, really: Hollywood Week stops, rewinds, and replays last week’s episodes.
  30. Episode 8 Hollywood Round 2
    American Idol Recap: Darling Nicki Season twelve of American Idol would be lost without Nicki Minaj.
  31. Episode 7 Hollywood Round One
    Idol Recap: Hollywhatever Week on Something-Idol At this time every year, American Idol stops meandering and just takes off. It’s Hollywood Week!
  32. Episode 6 Auditions #6
    American Idol Recap: Oklahoma City Is Burning This audition cycle is finally over. That’s it! Nine hours that felt like a lifetime.
  33. Episode 5 Auditions #5
    American Idol Recap: You’ve Got Me Feeling Emotions This episode made us feel lots of things. Some good, most not.
  34. Episode 4 Auditions #4
    American Idol Recap: #idolaccidentallyinspire One-hour episodes are immeasurably more palatable.
  35. Episode 3 Auditions #3
    American Idol Recap: In Defense of Nicki Minaj Idol never met a potentially interesting moment it couldn’t neuter with endless padding.
  36. Episode 2 Auditions #2
    American Idol Recap: Please, Sir, May I Have Some Less? Boy, this “feud”! It is imitation beef. It is beef by-product.
  37. Episode 1 Auditions #1
    American Idol Recap: The Battle of Who Could Care Less It’s all frightfully tiresome.
  1. Episode 39 Winner Announced
    American Idol Season 13 Finale Recap: We Did It! American Idol season 13 limped across the finish line like a poorly trained marathoner.
  2. Episode 38 Top Two Compete
    American Idol Recap: Puncher vs. Boxer Dave Holmes heads to night one of the American Idol finals.
  3. Episode 37 Top 3 Results
    American Idol Recap: Take Me Home Can we vote to keep Georgia the puppy and send everyone else home?
  4. Episode 36 Top 3 Compete
    American Idol Recap: 500 Episodes of Bummer It’s the 500th episode! What an accomplishment! But seriously, this show is killing us.
  5. Episode 35 Top Four Results
    American Idol Recap: We Are Not A-Meused God dammit, Randy Jackson.
  6. Episode 34 Top Four Perform
    American Idol Recap: Selfie-Destructive Tendencies It’s “Love Night,” which is a theme that is utterly without meaning.
  7. Episode 33 Top 5 Results
    American Idol Recap: An Exciting Twist, Almost A voting quirk!
  8. Episode 32 Top 5 Perform
    American Idol Recap: America, This Is You Jason Mraz was last night’s guest mentor, and he embodied the showmanship that the top five mostly lacked.
  9. Episode 31 Top 6 Results
    American Idol Recap: 5 to Go Ryan Seacrest is really knocking it out of the park when it comes to weird show-opening lines this season.
  10. Episode 30 Top Six Perform
    American Idol Recap: I’m Not in Love Grumpy Cat appeared last night. People sang, too, but Grumpy Cat, everyone.
  11. Episode 29 Top 7 Results
    American Idol Recap: Good-bye, Stranger Kevin Bacon does his best Seacrest and then is never heard from again.
  12. Episode 28 Top 7 Perform
    American Idol Recap: Come Back to the Five & Dime, Lee DeWyze, Lee DeWyze Somewhere, Pia Toscano is kicking herself for not waiting until this season to audition.
  13. Episode 27 Top Eight Results Again
    American Idol Recap: My Dear Watson In a season of stinkers, a true one-star stinker.
  14. Episode 26 Final Eight Perform Again
    American Idol Recap: Gag Me With a Spoon Back to the 1980s, for better or for worse (leaning heavily on the latter).
  15. Episode 25 Top Eight Results
    American Idol Recap: Somebody Save Me In which the girls in the audience chanted, “Save him! Save him!” like they were at Sam’s crucifixion.
  16. Episode 24 Top Eight Perform
    American Idol Recap: The End Is in the Beginning Well played, Idol.
  17. Episode 23 Top 9 Results
    American Idol Recap: Wake-Up Call Are we so afraid of our need for acceptance that we can’t even beg for acceptance on a show that is a literal plea for acceptance?
  18. Episode 22 Top Nine Perform
    American Idol Recap: They’re Near the Band We all hope these kids will develop some kind of personality.
  19. Episode 21 Top-Ten Results Night
    American Idol Recap: Top 10 Results Night Remind us when the results show is going down to 30 minutes again?
  20. Episode 20 Top Ten Perform
    American Idol Recap: Top-Ten Song Night Top-ten song night, and someone definitely sings “Pumped Up Kicks,” even though we all know what that song is about.
  21. Episode 19 Top 10 Results
    American Idol Recap: Selling the Summer Tour The top ten competitors are revealed.
  22. Episode 18 11 Finalists Perform
    American Idol Recap: Movie Night It was movie night and not one person sang Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” Miracles happen.
  23. Episode 17 Top 12 Results
    American Idol Recap: There Are No Highlights Who are we going to we root for?
  24. Episode 16 12 Finalists Perform
    American Idol Recap: A Rush to Judgment Eleven finalists perform songs. One performs a song by Rush.
  25. Episode 15 1 of 13 Voted Off
    American Idol Recap: Candice Glover in the House A glimpse at the contestants offstage before they sing like mad on stage.
  26. Episode 14 Top 13 Perform
    American Idol Recap: This Is Us The Idols got to pick any song that defined them as artists. Someone picked Coldplay’s “The Scientist.”
  27. Episode 13 Final 13 Revealed
    American Idol Recap: And Then There Were Ten (Plus Three Wild Cards) At last, we’re down to a baker’s dozen.
  28. Episode 12 Top 15 Men
    American Idol Recap: You Did Your Thing The top 15 boys performed, and they mopped the floor with Tuesday night’s girls.
  29. Episode 11 15 Girls Perform
    American Idol Recap: Hello (and Good-bye), Ladies! Fifteen women — some of whom our recapper swears he’s never seen before — fight for five slots.
  30. Episode 10 Hollywood Round 3
    American Idol Recap: Good-bye, Hollywood In which we call at least one person who’s a lock for the top three.
  31. Episode 9 Hollywood Round 2
    American Idol Recap: Countdown to the Top 30 In the race to have the first openly gay competitor, American Idol is beaten by 72 hours by a college football program.
  32. Episode 8 Hollywood Round 2
    American Idol Recap: The Pointless Ritual of Group Night Every year it’s a flurry of pointless heartache as everyone has to prove skills they will never ever need again on this show.
  33. Episode 7 Hollywood Round 1
    American Idol Recap: Hangar Stakes You do not want to be on that one bus.
  34. Episode 6 Auditions: Omaha
    American Idol Recap: We’re Just Wild About Harry And with that, it’s off to Hollywood.
  35. Episode 5 Auditions: Salt Lake City
    American Idol Recap: Salt Lake City Talent Presenting the first person to make it to Hollywood via The Jeffersons theme song.
  36. Episode 4 Auditions: Atlanta
    American Idol Recap: Hey, Wait a Minute, This Season Is Good! For one thing, they haven’t ruined the life of any effeminate boys or autistic teens.
  37. Episode 3 Auditions: Detroit
    American Idol Recap: Detroit Dreams We’re three episodes into season thirteen, and we’re having a problem: It’s really, really enjoyable.
  38. Episode 1 Auditions: Austin and San Francisco
    American Idol Recap: No Country for Bad Singers “Some people wait their whole lives for this opportunity, and you’re disrespecting the process.” Tell it, Mr. Connick Jr.
  39. Episode 1 Auditions: Boston and Austin
    American Idol Premiere Recap: Pentatonics Anonymous Fun fact: “Every night before I go to sleep, I read your Wikipedia entry.”
  1. Episode 24 Winner Chosen
    American Idol Recap: The Final Finale Until the Next One American Idol will always get things exactly wrong, now and forever.
  2. Episode 23 Top Three Perform
    American Idol Recap: The Final Finals La’Porsha Renae or Trent Harmon?
  3. Episode 21 Top Three Perform
    American Idol Recap: The Beginning of the End It will be a crime if La’Porsha doesn’t win this thing.
  4. Episode 20 Top Four Perform
    American Idol Recap: So Very Close These kids don’t really have to stretch the way they used to.
  5. Episode 19 Top 5 Perform
    American Idol Recap: Let It Blow I don’t feel an emotional connection yet. I’m not in love, guys.
  6. Episode 17 Top 8 Perform
    American Idol Recap: Now We’re Getting Somewhere Avalon makes it through to the top eight. My faith in America is restored, at least until the next Trump rally.
  7. Episode 16 Top 10 Revealed
    American Idol Recap: Who Can Actually Win This Thing? After what seemed like an eternity, we finally have our top ten.
  8. Episode 15 Wildcard Night
    American Idol Recap: Fitting the Mold I truly have no idea how this works.
  9. Episode 14 Showcase #4
    American Idol Recap: It’s No Fair, No Fair This duets night is killing some of my faves.
  10. Episode 13 Showcase #3
    American Idol Recap: Solo Night, So Low-Energy Idol, you’re weird.
  11. Episode 12 Showcase #2
    American Idol Recap: Duet Till You’re Satisfied If you’re heading to Hollywood, be sure to wear kerchiefs in your hair.
  12. Episode 11 Showcase #1
    American Idol Recap: A Very Spayshoyrn Episode The judges choose who makes it past the top 24. Not you. Not yet.
  13. Episode 10 Hollywood Round #4
    American Idol Recap: Final Judgement I am Team Johnson. Or Team Blosil. Or maybe Team Bourg.
  14. Episode 9 Hollywood Round #3
    American Idol Recap: Solo Night Harry and I are fighting.
  15. Episode 8 Hollywood Round #2
    American Idol Recap: Hollywood Group Night Who will survive the latest installment of this “Hollywood Week” horror franchise?
  16. Episode 7 Hollywood Round No. 1
    American Idol Recap: Lines of 10 There is joy, there are tears, there are mothers. 
  17. Episode 6 Auditions #6
    American Idol Recap: ‘The Most Important Show Ever Made’ Yes, that’s a real quote from an actual person.
  18. Episode 5 Auditions #5
    American Idol Recap: Eh-Oh A “farewell” season isn’t necessarily the same as a “final” season.
  19. Episode 4 Auditions #4
    American Idol Recap: Harry, What Do You Carry? The best thing to do with the part of Idol where nothing happens is … supersize it?
  20. Episode 3 Auditions #3
    American Idol Recap: Child Care The Farewell Season Audition Experience rolls into Philadelphia.
  21. Episode 2 Auditions #2
    American Idol Recap: Screaming Infidelities Idol wants a final Kelly Clarkson so bad, you can taste it through the screen.
  22. Episode 1 Auditions #1
    American Idol Recap: The Farewell Begins This fascinating, confounding, irritating show returns for its final season.
  1. Episode 19 Grand Finale
    American Idol Finale Recap: We Have a Winner (and Some Thoughts!) Is it Caleb Lee Hutchinson, Gabby Barrett, or Maddie Poppe?
  2. Episode 18 Final Performances
    American Idol Recap: Please Start Believin’ You’ll never guess who came out on top unless you’ve been paying any attention at all.
  3. Episode 17 Top Five
    American Idol Recap: The Twang Dynasty Carrie Underwood night comes to Idol, and it’s a better fit for some than others.
  4. Episode 16 Top Seven
    American Idol Recap: Erratic City Put on your assless yellow jumpsuit because it’s time to watch baby millennials raid Paisley Park.
  5. Episode 15 Top 10: Disney Night
    American Idol Recap: When You Swish Swish Upon a Star I knew something was off with Idol’s Disney Night right from the start.
  6. Episode 14 Top 10 Reveal
    American Idol Recap: It’s My Right to Be Hellish! Idol is shedding contestants like an Agatha Christie whodunit.
  7. Episode 13 Top 14
    American Idol Recap: Fire Away, Fire Away I don’t know why Ada hasn’t called herself “Madam Lambert” yet, but it’s gonna happen.
  8. Episode 12 Top 24 Celebrity Duets
    American Idol Recap: Dragifying Gravity Ada Vox has all of her Idol competitors lip-syncing for their lives.
  9. Episode 11 Top 24 Solos
    American Idol Recap: Dancing on the Ceiling on My Own At the risk of sounding like Lionel Richie, there’s a stunning amount of talent here.
  10. Episode 10 Top 24 Celebrity Duets
    American Idol Recap: Flops of Jupiter This is no ordinary duet episode of American Idol.
  11. Episode 9 Top 24 Solos
    American Idol Recap: Hello, Is It Relevance You’re Looking For? Sorry if Lionel Richie’s critiques ranging from “Great!” to “Keep it up!” aren’t that helpful.
  12. Episode 8 Top 24 Reveal
    American Idol Recap: Swish Swish, Kids! Bring on the semifinals and the first death drop of Ms. Ada Vox, please.
  13. Episode 7 Hollywood Week
    American Idol Recap: Set Fire to the Meh All hail the American Idol solo round — it’s the meatiest and most underrated part of the competition.
  14. Episode 6 Hollywood Week
    American Idol Recap: Wig in the City It’s Hollywood Week!
  15. Episode 5 Auditions
    American Idol Recap: Let’s Slay Together Lionel Richie can’t help but steal this episode like the Jenna Maroney fame hoarder he is.
  16. Episode 4 Auditions
    American Idol Recap: Mrazzle Dazzle Advice for all Idol auditioners: Be raunchy and cocky and righteous and risky!
  17. Episode 3 Auditions
    American Idol Recap: It’s Just a Shot Away A dozen cute Golden Ticket holders are on their way to Hollywood.
  18. Episode 2 Auditions
    American Idol Recap: Teenage Dreams The talent level on Idol just jumped the height of Constantine Maroulis.
  19. Episode 1 Auditions
    American Idol Premiere Recap: Another Moment Like This As Kelly Clarkson once sang, “Some people wait a lifetime … for an Idol reboot that probably shouldn’t exist.”

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