‘American Idol XIV’ review and results: Jax, Nick Fradiani, and Clark Beckham compete

Tonight kicked off the two-part finale of “American Idol” with some news that we really did not enjoy at all: Learning that Jax was sent home in third place. She probably had the most originality of any remaining artist, and also has the best chance of being a star after the fact on the pop charts. Then again, can we really be surprised? This is a show that has long supported the guy with the guitar (or in this case also a piano?), and this season we have both Nick Fradiani and Clark Beckham at the end.

We wanted to be more upset with this final pairing than we were, mostly because something most welcome took place tonight: Nick finally started to perform like the singer we knew that he could be going into Hollywood Week! We loved his audition, but there was something still missing during most of the live rounds that we couldn’t place. He was always very good, but typically not amazing. Then, he performed “Bright Lights” and his coronation song “Beautiful Life” is actually very good. We think the missing link was mostly that extra spark of energy, and he had it tonight!

If we were to assess Clark to some degree based on what we have seen, it would be by saying that he is a very good singer, and for the most part, his performances across the board have probably been stronger than Nick’s. What we imagine is that Nick has the benefit of recency, while Clark has longevity. It will be close.

Now that we’ve said all of that, Nick is probably the more commercial of the two, and will probably be the better winner if the show wants to start to wind down its run with people who have a shot to work with Big Machine on something.

If you do want to get some other news related to “American Idol’s” end next season, head over to the link here. Also, sign up to get some other news worthy of a song or two, courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)