American Idol host Ryan Seacrest shocked viewers during the first live show when he delayed the announcement of season 24’s Top 12 contestants.
The ABC reality competition was seemingly set to reveal which of the 14 hopefuls would make it through “Songs of Faith Night” during the Monday, March 30, episode when Ryan, 51, confirmed that there would be a delay due to an “unprecedented” 10 million votes being cast. Citing ongoing voting tabulations, Ryan explained that the Top 12 would now be revealed at the top of next week’s live show instead.
The Top 14 contestants and American Idol‘s judges — Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood and Lionel Richie — appeared to be stunned as Ryan announced the first-of-its-kind delay in voting results for the franchise. Fans can expect elimination overload on the show next week because Idol is supposed to whittle the contestants down to the Top 11 by the end of the night on Monday, April 6.
Earlier in the two-hour program, American Idol narrowed down the field to the Top 14 by eliminating Abayomi, Genevieve Heyward, Kutter Bradley, Madison Moon, Makiyah and Ruby Rae.
The first live show of Idol season 24 saw the Top 14 hopefuls performing inspirational or spiritual songs in hopes of landing a spot in the Top 12. The contestants also performed “Jesus Is Love” with Lionel, 76, as a group number while Carrie, 43, teamed up with Idol alums Filo Ebid, Canaan James Hill and Kolbi Jordan for a rendition of “How Great Thou Art.”
The delay in announcing the “Songs of Faith Night” results means that Keyla Richardson, Jesse Findling, Lucas Leon, Daniel Stallworth, Philmon Lee, Rae, Jake Thistle, Braden Rumfelt, Julián Kalel, Kyndal Inskeep, Jordan McCollough, Brooks, Hannah Harper and Chris Tungseth will have to wait one whole week to find out which of them makes it through to the second live show.
Standout performances during “Songs of Faith Night” included Keyla’s cover of Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music’s contemporary worship track “Jireh.”
“You have that star look, that star sound, and more important, that star strut,” Lionel told the Idol hopeful. “You were walking the walk! Your presentation was wonderful.”
Former American Idol winner Carrie seemed particularly impressed with Jesse’s take on Rascal Flatts’ iconic cover of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s 1984 song “Bless the Broken Road.”
“That was great, Jesse,” Carrie told him. “That song is such a singable, beautiful song, but when people say you made it your own, you really did make it your own. I loved the arrangement.”
Later in the show, country music superstar Luke congratulated 17-year-old Gallatin, Tennessee, native Lucas for delivering his best performance of the competition thus far.
“That was my favorite performance I’ve seen you do. It felt like everything came together,” Luke told the contestant. “Your voice worked in this room. You had everything together and you were ready to be a star.”
American Idol continues on ABC next Monday at 8 p.m. ET.
