After a long week full of great performances, legendarily bad missteps and seemingly hours of filler, "American Idol" finally revealed the pool of finalists during Thursday night's (March 3) two-hour broadcast. Host Ryan Seacrest teased out the selections all night, and in the end the voters had selected 10 singers (five men and five women) to move on to the next round (which kicks off with the first of the season's live performance shows next Wednesday, March 9).
On the male side, America gave the nod to Jacob Lusk, Scotty McCreery, Casey Abrams, James Durbin and Paul McDonald — the same five singers who finished in the top five spots in the MTV Newsroom poll conducted earlier this week. The last male spot was handed to Stefano Langone, who was given the only male wild card and who finished sixth in the aforementioned blog poll. Outside of the dismissal of cult favorite Brett Lowenstern, there weren't a whole lot of surprises on the male side.
When it came to selecting the women, however, there were a few curveballs. American gave the go-ahead to Thia Megia, Lauren Alaina, Pia Toscano, Karen Rodriguez and Haley Reinhart (with Naima Adedapo and Ashthon Jones snagging two wild card slots). Though those results matched up exactly with the results of the MTV Newsroom poll taken on Thursday afternoon, many were shocked to see the likes of Julie Zorrilla and Rachel Zevita get the boot. In fact, MTV News "American Idol" expert Jim Cantiello thought many of the female selections were inexplicable, a sentiment he expressed on Thursday night's episode of "Idol Party Live."
Who do you think will be the first contestant eliminated from this season of "American Idol"? Let us know in the comments!
Don't miss "Idol Party Live" at 10 p.m. Thursdays on MTV.com, following the "American Idol" results show, for analysis, celebrity guests and even some karaoke — get in the conversation by tweeting with the hashtag #idolparty! In the meantime, get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.