'Close Enough' Counts on 'American Idol'

Tatiana Del Toro (americanidol.com)

They say close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, but this year it’ll also get you pretty far on American Idol.

Eight “close enough” contestants were given the grand consolation prize of a second chance Wednesday after the show revealed the last three to be admitted to the finals courtesy of America.

As predicted, Lil Rounds, Scott McIntyre and Jorge Nunez are the latest additions to the Season 8 Top 12. The Wild Card picks, however, were a bit more surprising.

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Especially for Nathaniel Marshall who seemed to think he’d secured his spot with the convincing argument that he does have a killer voice – we just haven’t heard it yet. Good tactic considering he’s already been through five different televised rounds of auditions. Sorry Nate, not sure why you hid that “killer voice” so well, but it’s time to pack up the headbands and head home.

Nathaniel may have been the only one shocked by his exit but there had to be quite a few people out there sad to see Felicia Barton, Arianna Afsar and Kendall Beard slighted of a second (or third) chance.

And do we really need another week (or more!) of Tatiana Del Toro? Yes, the girl can sing. But from the banshee laugh, to the phony cry, to the now-you-hear-it-now-you-don’t accent, listening to someone try to clear popcorn from their throat for two hours would be preferable to hearing anymore of her acceptance speeches.

Luckily, though, Tatiana should be a small part of the Wild Card show as she has to share the stage with Von Smith, Jasmine Murray, Ricky Braddy, Megan Corkery, Matt Giraud, Jesse Langseth and Anoop Desai.

Of the crew, I’m most excited about seeing Matt, Anoop and Ricky return, but considering the current group of finalists already looks like somewhat of a boys club, chances of the three of them getting through is highly unlikely. But the remaining girls in the group are hardly unworthy, too. So basically tonight’s Wild Card round is going to be pretty unpredictable but for one thing – it’s definitely going to be a close one.