American Idol's Mass Elimination: Top 13 Revealed! (But Were There Any Surprises?)

Half the competition is cut in one fell swoop—did your favorites make it?!

By Natalie Finn Mar 02, 2012 4:27 AMTags
AMERICAN IDOL, TOP 24 Michael Becker / FOX

American Idol lost a lot of blood tonight!

Ryan Seacrest presided over the ouster of nearly half the competition, leaving the lucky top 13 to sing it out next week.

Now, five guys and five girls made it through solely based on votes. And we guessed who every single one of them would be beforehand (which means you probably did, too).

But it was up to Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson—who admitted to being too easy on the fellows and somewhat tougher on the ladies—to pick three wild cards. So, we were mostly looking forward to finding out what that kooky trio was thinking, especially after Interscope honcho Jimmy Iovine had cut a few contestants down to size...

As we expected, viewers voted Phillip Phillips, Heejun Han, Joshua Ledet, Colton Dixon, Jermaine Jones, Hollie Cavanagh, Skylar Laine, Jessica Sanchez, Shannon Magrane and Elise Testone into their top 10.

Jimmy called Shannon out for being dressed more for the prom than a live performance last night, but other than that, he had rave reviews for pretty much all of them.

For instance, he said he could listen to a whole album with Jermaine's voice on it, that Colton could win the whole thing and that Elise actually brought something fresh to Adele's "One and Only."

Jimmy didn't much care Heejun's comedic "schtick," though. (We get it—dude, your self-deprecating-to-a-fault thing is getting old. J.Lo didn't get to where she is because she likes to make fun of herself.)

But on to the more suspenseful part...

Of the 15 hopefuls America cast aside, the judges picked six of them—Jen Hirsh, Jeremy Rosado, Brielle Von Hugel, Deandre Brackensick, Erika Van Pelt and Reed Grimm—to sing for their lives, and of those six, they settled on three wild cards.

First off, however, so long Adam Brock, Haley Johnsen, Creighton Fraker, Chelsea Sorrell, Baylie Brown, Hallie Day, Eben Franckewitz, Chase Likens and Aaron Marcellus.

But congratulations to Erika, Jeremy (he did make Jennifer cry, after all!) and Deandre, who all get to stick around for at least another week.

Do you agree with this Top 13? Is there anyone you're going to miss? Sound off in the comments!

(Originally published March 1, 2012, at 7:22 p.m. PT)

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