Even though they didn't receive the benefits of it after their eliminations from American Idol's eighth season on Wednesday, you can count both Jorge Nunez and Jasmine Murray as fans of the show's new "The Judges' Save" rules twist.
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"I think it's a really good thing because you know what, there's been people like Chris Daughtry, like Clay Aiken, like Jennifer Hudson that didn't win, and they've done great and you always think that they should've gone farther, Nunez, a 21-year-old who currently resides in Carolina, PR, told reporters during a media conference call on Thursday. "I expect that's gonna help out with the competition and with who gets the prize in the end."
"I think that it's actually a good idea like amongst the other things they're doing this year with the Top 36 and the Wild Card and the Top 13, I think it's great," Murray, a 17-year-old who currently resides in Starkville, MS, added later in the call. "They're giving people extra chances to get closer to reaching their dreams and reaching that goal so I think it's a great idea."
Murray said that the fact the judges had already "saved" her once and picked her during last week's "Wild Card Round" had given her a little bit extra reason to hope that they might have used "The Judges' Save" on her after last night last night's elimination.
"Well, you never know in this kind of competition, because in the [Wild Card round] it was just unbelievable that they picked me for that. So I mean, yeah, you always have to have hope and you have to have faith and believe that it could happen and that there was a possible chance," she told reporters. "I mean they could've said yes, but they didn't and that's okay, I understand. They know what they want from the competition and they wanted to probably save it, so that's okay with me."
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While Nunez didn't share Murray's lingering optimism that the judges may have been willing to save him, he added that he wasn't insulted by their decision and instead put a positive spin on the situation.
"I was not hurt by [not getting 'The Judges' Save'] because I believe a person shouldn't have any excuses, and when something happens it's because it's meant to be so," Nunez told reporters. "I just took the hit like a man and you know what? Things are gonna be great for me because this is going to be the start of something much, much bigger."
Although they were panned by the judges, both Murray and Nunez also stood by their Top 13 song choices.
"I thought it was a good song choice. It's a beautiful song and The Jackson 5, they were really young when they did it so I thought it would be a good idea for me to also do something that they did when they were young," Murray told reporters about her selection of The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There." "It's a beautiful song with a great message and I really liked it."
"I just wanted to do something different because I didn't want to stay in the same kind of vibe of singing," explained Nunez about his choice of The Jackson 5's "Never Gonna Say Goodbye." "I didn't wanna sing ballads throughout the whole competition. And since it was the first time on the big stage I wanted something [that] I could play with, move around, have a little fun on stage, and I had a lot of fun there."
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Nunez added that while he had appreciated him as a judge and had seen the humor in his comment, he had not particularly enjoyed Simon Cowell's comment that he had, in a way, still sung Michael Jackson's "Bad" after Nunez had admitted he considered singing that song for Tuesday's show.
"Simon is the kind of person where... if you say something, he's very fast. I mean, you can't play with Simon, he's very fast, he's smart, he's witty. But to me it was like, at the moment it was funny but it was like 'You know what Simon, come on,'" Nunez told reporters. "But that is the first time he had told me something like that throughout the whole competition, and I am really happy with his comments towards me. I knew that he liked me in some way."
About The Author: John Bracchitta