Joesplace, the anonymous online spoiler who managed to correctly reveal the names of last year's American Idol semifinalists before they were formally announced, has now released the alleged names of this season's Top 36 semifinalists.
The list also includes at least two contestants who made it to previous seasons' Hollywood Week rounds -- Junot Joyner (Season 7) and Mishavonna Henson (Seasons 6 and 7) -- and former Nashville Star finalists Brent Keith Smith (Season 2) and Kristin McNamara (Season 4) as well as Jessica "Jesse" Langseth, the sister of Grammy-winning singer Johnny Lang.
Similar to the show's previous seasons, American Idol's eighth-season semifinalists were selected earlier this month at a special taping in which the final 50 contestants from the Hollywood Week round which took place in November were flown back to California to learn whether they'd been selected as one of this season's Top 36 semifinalists.
However unlike other recent seasons, American Idol's broadcasts of the eighth season's Hollywood Week round will run for two weeks, not one.
American Idol's Hollywood Week coverage will begin with next week's one-hour Tuesday and Wednesday broadcasts and continue with the following week's one-hour Tuesday broadcast. Then, on Wednesday, February 11, Fox will air a special two-hour broadcast in which the final 50 contestants will face their "final judgement" and the season's Top 36 semifinalists will be formally revealed.
Idol's eighth season is the first season to ever feature 36 semifinalists and the first season since the show's 2004 third season to utilize a "Wild Card" semifinals round. Idol had previously featured 24 semifinalists since its fourth season in 2005. Prior to that, Idol's second and third seasons had featured 32 semifinalists while its first season had featured 30 semifinalists.
Once the semifinalists are revealed, they will be grouped into three groups of twelve and Idol will begin three weeks of broadcasts in which twelve semifinalists will perform during two-hour pre-taped Tuesdays at 8PM ET/PT performance episodes and the results of the subsequent home viewer voting will be revealed during live one-hour results shows airing Wednesdays at 8PM ET/PT.
At the conclusion of each results show, the male and female semifinalists who received the highest number of home viewers votes for their previous night's performance will instantly become a Top 12 finalist. In addition, another semifinalist that had received the next-highest number of votes after the performance episode -- regardless of whether he or she is male or female -- will also become a finalist.
Then on Thursday, March 5, Fox will air a special "Wild Card" performance episode in which each semifinalist group's highest remaining votegetter who didn't already automatically advance to the finals will get a second chance to perform along with several additional semifinalists that the judges will select.
After all the "Wild Card" semifinalists perform, the judges -- not the show's home viewers -- will immediately select three of them to complete the season's twelve finalists.
American Idol's eighth-season Top 12 finalists will then take the stage for the first time on Tuesday, March 10, with one finalist's journey coming to an end the following night.
According to Joesplace, the eighth season's Top 36 semifinalists are allegedly:
- Adam Lambert, a 26-year-old from Los Angeles, CA
- Alexander "Alex" Wagner Thugman, a 19-year-old from Studio City, CA
DISCUSS AND COMMENT ON THIS STORY Reality TV World has launched a trial program offering Facebook Comments on our stories to provide an enhanced user experience to our readers. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then 'Add' your comment. To report spam or abuse, click the 'X' in the upper right corner of the comment box.Get more Reality TV World! Follow us on Twitter, friend us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed.