‘American Idol’ preview: Johnny Keyser, Charlie Askew, Jimmy Smith set to rock

Last night on “American Idol,” we had the chance to watch some of the ladies give noteworthy performances, and impress the judges enough for them to be put through to the next round. Now, it’s the guys’ opportunity to shine. Five of the ten men performing Thursday will advance to the live voting round beginning in March, and with the other five next week we’ll have that half of our top 20.

So who should you be watching out for tonight? Based on the editing of the show thus far, here are a trio of people who could end up being major players for the rest of the season if they advance. (You can see the full schedule for the rest of the performances over at the link here.)

3. Johnny Keyser – Johnny’s someone who has received a pretty hefty amount of screentime over the course of the past two seasons, and he has been eagerly awaiting this opportunity to perform on this sort of show for a long time. But will he be good enough to move on? It’s been a bit of an uneven season for him thus far, in particular when it comes to some struggles during Hollywood Week that he was lucky to move on from.

2. Jimmy Smith – We’ve long proclaimed him to be a favorite for the guys, and there’s one simple reason for it: he’s good-looking, sings country music, and has a good sense of humor about himself. He’s basically Kris Allen, Scotty McCreery, and Phillip Phillips rolled into one guy … and if the judges put him through, he’ll be around for a while.

1. Charlie Askew – Nicki Minaj has already proclaimed her love for Charlie, and we have a feeling most of America has done the same. His voice is almost like David Bowie mixed with Kurt Hummel, and we mean this as an absolute compliment. There’s nobody like him when it comes to personality, and we have a feeling that he is going to be someone America has a very hard time sending home at any point before the tour.

One thing that we are particularly interested in seeing with the guys is just how Fox decides to handle their “white man with a guitar” problem from the past couple of seasons. We’re starting to feel that given the massive hyping that has happened with the ladies this season, the only way one of these guys gets through is if they are so good that the judges cannot justify sending them home. This is why we would not be surprised if only one of the two guys above makes it, even if two or even three of them deserve it.

Who are you most excited to see on “American Idol” Thursday? Be sure to share some more of your thoughts below, and you can read some more performance highlights from Wednesday’s show over at the link here.

Photo: Fox