American Idol may have taken a Top 13 for season 8 but it meant a double elimination after this week’s performance.  The theme was Michael Jackson and some singers, who looked great in Hollywood and in Top 36, suddenly fell flat and found themselves at the bottom of the pack.  On last night’s live elimination episode of Idol, Jasmine Murray and Jorge Nunez received the lowest amount of votes.  In a new twist, the judges were given the power to save a contestant and keep them in the competition but they passed on Jasmine and Jorge.  Today, the two spoke to reports in a conference call about their song choices and their feelings on not being saved.

On their song choices, Jasmine‘s rendition of “I‘ll Be There“ and Jorge‘s “Never Gonna Say Goodbye“…
Jasmine: 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.  It's a beautiful song with a great message and I really liked it.
Jorge: I just wanted to do something different because I didn't want to stay in the same kind of vibe of singing.  I didn't wanna sing ballads throughout the whole competition. And since it was the first time on the big stage I wanted something I could play with, move around, have a little fun on stage, and I had a lot of fun there.

On the new rule where the judges can save one contestant from America’s vote…
Jasmine: 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.  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.
Jorge: 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.  I expect that's gonna help out with the competition and with who gets the prize in the end.

On how they felt when the judges decided not to save them…
Jasmine: 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.  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.
Jorge: I was not hurt by it because I believe a person shouldn't have any excuses, and when something happens it's because it's meant to be so.  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.

American Idol returns next week with the Top 11, Tuesday night at 8pm ET on FOX.

(Image courtesy of FOX)