ABC American Idol judges Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan
During the May 3, 2020 episode of American Idol, judges Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie will have the chance to save one of the contestants who were voted off by viewers.
The save was first introduced into Idol years ago, and since then, it has been used in ways that shock and satisfy viewers. How it works is that, once a season, the judges are able to save a contestant that was voted out by America. That contestant, then, competes alongside the remaining performers.
If the judges choose to use the save option tonight, then the Top 11 rather than the Top 10 will be performing songs inspired by their hometowns.
The Top Ten Will Be Announced Tonight
Last week, the Top 20 contestants performed from their homes and urged the viewers to vote for them for their chance to compete in the Top 10 and get closer to their goal of becoming the next American Idol.
There are three separate ways to vote for your favorite contestants. First, you can vote at AmericanIdol.com/vote or download the American Idol text. The other convenient way to vote is via text message. For texting, you simply text the number of the contestant you would like to vote for to “21523.”
The numbers for the contestants are:
Kimmy Gabriela: text “1” to 21523
Jovin Webb: text “2” to 21523
Franklin Boone: text “3” to 21523
Olivia Ximines: text “4” to 21523
Louis Knight: text “5” to 21523
Makayla Phillips: text “6” to 21523
Aliana Jester: text “7” to 21523
Faith Becnel: text “8” to 21523
Nick Merico: text “9” to 21523
Lauren Spencer-Smith: text “10” to 21523
Cyniah Elise: text “11” to 21523
Francisco Martin: text “12” to 21523
Sophia James: text “13” to 21523
DeWayne Crocker Jr.: text “14” to 21523
Dillon James: text “15” to 21523
Arthur Gunn: text “16” to 21523
Julia Gargano: text “17” to 21523
Grace Leer: text “18” to 21523
Just Sam: text “19” to 21523
Jonny West: text “20” to 21523
You don’t have to limit your vote to just one contestant. Instead, you can split your 10 votes between contestants if you’d like to. On the website or the app, you can split them up however you want. When it comes to texting, you just have to text 21523 the contestant’s number however many times you’d like to vote for them. Altogether, you can vote up to 30 times per week.
The ‘American Idol’ Season Finale Airs on May 17
While there has been no official announcement about how many contestants will be in the finale, we do know when the rest of the episodes will air. Here’s what the remainder of the season looks like:
Sunday, May 3: Top 10 Reveal and Performances
Sunday, May 10: Top Idol contestants compete for a chance to be in the finale.
Sunday, May 17: Three-hour season finale of American Idol, revealing the winner of Season 18.
There were originally going to be a total of six live shows, which would have started with a Top 14 show on April 12, a Top 10 show on April 18 and a Top 8 show on April 26; however, due to the circumstances, the number of live shows got cut down to just a four.
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