American Idol 9 Contestants to Watch Summary – Who Will Make It Through Hollywood?

As I thought about the “Contestants to Watch” columns I’ve done over the past few weeks of American Idol auditions, I thought I had been too nice and too generous in handing out passes to the semi-finals and finals. In going back through all of them, though, I guess I wasn’t!

In fact, I predicted exactly 24 semi-finalists, which is indeed how many there will be. Of these, I specifically predicted up to seven for the finals, which is too low a number. For now, I’m just going to stick with those seven rather than going back and trying to figure out who else might make it – that’s what the Hollywood rounds are for, after all!

Mind you, I already know I’ve got to be wrong. Every season, at least a few contestants make it to the semi-finals even though we didn’t get to see them in initial auditions (heck, some we barely get to see even in Hollywood!), so the fact that I have a full list here means some of them just won’t make it. The ones I’m listing as “maybe” are those who are, in my opinion, the least likely of this group to get to the semi-finals, and therefore the most likely to be replaced by somebody we haven’t met yet.

Semi-Finals

In no particular order other than putting those with additional commentary on top and the “maybe”s at the bottom, here are those I picked to progress only to the semi-finals, but not to the finals:

• Angela Martin will make it to the semi-finals this year after just missing last year
• Lacey Brown made it through Hollywood once, but just missed the semi-finals – this time, like Angela, she’ll make it
• Dave Pittman and his back story of having Tourette’s Syndrome will make it – and it will hopefully be a boon so viewers can learn more about this highly-misunderstood condition
• Christian Spear and her story of how she overcame childhood leukemia will be there – but I don’t think it will be enough to get to her to the finals
• Barney-girl Erica Rhodes will crack her whip and make the judges say, “I love you,” in order to make the semi-finals
• Tasha Layton the minister
• Maddy Curtis
• Tyler Grady
• Jermaine Sellers
• Mallorie Haley
• John Park
• Jermaine Purifoy is a maybe – the judges liked him more than I did
• Kimberly Kerbow has a precious little girl and a sweet voice, but I don’t know if that’s enough, so she’s a maybe
• Jess Wolfe is also a maybe, mostly because we only saw a few-second clip
• Thaddeus Johnson is a maybe for the same reason as Jess
• Katie Stevens – maybe
• Bryan Walker, the singing police man, is our final maybe, though he probably has a better chance than the other maybes I’ve listed

Finals

Again, these are in no particular order other than putting those about whom I have added commentary at the top of the list and the maybes at the bottom.

• Haeley Vaughn will stand out enough as an African-American country singer to get to the finals
• Seth Rollins had a heck of a voice and his back story played up his son’s autism
• Amadeo Diricco
• Justin Williams
• Matthew Lawrence
• Katelyn Epperly is a maybe, mostly based on if her Dad shows up for the semi-finals so we get an emotional boost to her back story
• Andrew Garcia is our final maybe

So there we have it! I will continue my column through Hollywood and make any changes as necessary along the way. Will I be right? Will I be wrong? Who knows! But we’ll find out soon enough.

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