The field of 13 is now down to 11 after all of the viewer votes were tallied. Jasmine Murray, a 16 year old Mississippi high school student and Jorge Nunez, the 20 year old college student from Puerto Rico received the least votes and got the boot.
The group sang Michael Jackson tunes this week. The judges didn’t find fault with Jasmine’s rendition of I’ll Be There but thought she lacked personality. Nunez was hammered by the judges for his lackluster performance of Never Can Say Goodbye.
Ryan Seacrest announced a new AI twist this year. Until the top 5 have been chosen, the judges will have an opportunity to override the weekly vote and save one singer from elimination. If they unanimously decide that America got it wrong, that person will stay on – the twist is that two will be eliminated the following week.
The motivation behind that new angle is that Chris Daughtry and Jennifer Hudson were both eliminated and went on to launch successful careers. The judging panel did not opt to save either of the eliminated contestants this week.
Jasmine singing I’ll Be There.
Jorge singing Never Can Say Goodbye