The American Idol season 8 wild card round will air as a special 1 hour episode on Thursday March 5 at 8/7c on Fox. During that episode, we will also find out live who the top 12 contestants are, so apparently it will be the judges picking the three people who America did not select. MTV has revealed how the selection process for the wild card round will work.
“Quite simply, each judge can pick two contestants from the top 36 — from which everyone is eligible — and those eight (or possibly nine) singers will perform a song on the one-hour March 5 show, with three advancing into the top 12.”
“The same rules apply as during the audition phases, with majority picks winning the day and judge Simon Cowell casting the tie-breaking vote should there be a 2-2 deadlock, the spokesperson explained.”
The eight people who will appear in the wild card round were chosen during American Idol Season 8 Episode 17. The wild card results were revealed in American Idol Season 8 Episode 18.
How sad that we have to watch America (and now the judges) vote through “featured personalities†rather than superior vocal talent. Case in point: Round One…Michael Saver gets voted through (after a terrible song presentation) over a clearly better vocal presentation by Ricky Braddy because America has been given extensive coverage of Michael’s “personal storyâ€. I was hoping that this error would be corrected during the wild card show. It was not to be. Instead we get two more women (who did “OK†during the wild card round) because we don’t have enough women in the final 12…or make that 13. We then get to watch Simon (whose honesty I have always respected…even if he does tend to favor attractive women) having to “dig deep†to say something nice about another lackluster Anoop Desai performance, while downplaying the superior vocal talent of Ricky Braddy, simply because they have decided to let Anoop through no matter how poorly he performs. We have heard time and again that this is “a singing contestâ€, when unfortunately it comes down to poor choices by the show’s producers to feature early promising talent (who may or may not live up to this promise on future shows) and then have to advance these same people because they have built up a fan base because of early exposure. We have lost one of the best vocal talents in Ricky Braddy and I can only say again, “how sadâ€.