More often than not, theme nights feature themes so frequently recycled, even the worst tree-hugging hippie would be satisfied. To mark the new set, however, our top 12 got a chance to open the Lennon-McCartney song book. Uh oh.

Most of the top 12 turned in respectable performances. The only real disaster was Kristy, whose country version of Eight Days a Week will be long remembered – for all the wrong reasons. (However, we’re not sure she deserves all of the blame. More below.) We did have, however, four good performances that in themselves covered the spectrum pretty well. It wasn’t a brilliant night, but it was by no means bad.

Let’s get the train wreck out of the way first. Eight Days a Week will forever be recorded in the pages of Idol history as the worst performance of a Beatles song possible. However, is it really Kristy’s fault? Let’s consider. Her vocals, while not outstanding, weren’t bad at all. They were typical Kristy – not good, but not bad. The real trouble was in the arrangement. It was terrible, no two ways about it. It was all cheesy, overdone, ridiculous tripe that was more at home in a Bugs Bunny cartoon than the Idol stage. Kristy isn’t really responsible for that, is she? As far as arrangements are concerned, the buck stops with Rickey Minor. He’s “Musical Director”. That arrangement should never have left the rehearsals, plain and simple.

David Archuleta should be sending flowers to both Kristy and Rickey, because otherwise his lyric-flubbed version of We Can Work It Out would have been the most remembered “lowlight” of the week. He basically lost it this week. For his fans, it may not be a particularly good sign: many good contestants have off nights, but rarely do they descend to the level David did this week. If everything goes his way, he’s brilliant. But if something goes wrong – forgotten lyrics, bad song choice, faulty arrangement – he goes to pieces.

Beyond those two, we have some performances that the best word to use would be… flawed. David Hernandez was the epitome of “trying too hard”, even if he has a reasonably good voice. Syesha was forgettable, doing very little to make her stand out. Without the power notes we’ve heard from her before, Syesha is rather dull. As for Ramiele, she continues her “tradition” of lousy song choices. She’s not as genre-locked as Kristy is, surely there was something better than this. It would have been intriguing to see Jason or Brooke do a version of In My Life, but Ramiele? No. No, no, hell no.

The next rung up would be “okay”. We also have three people in that group this week. Jason did a reasonably good version of If I Fell, but the vocals were a little rough in places. He also needs to be careful not to box himself in too much. Michael delivered more of the what we expect from him: a good cover, extremely well done, but not much in the way of originality. Amanda found a good song to growl her way through this week, but just like Jason and Michael, we’ve seen this before.

Then we have four high-quality performances. Let’s start with Brooke. It would have been easy to overdo Let It Be, but she didn’t. Her vocals were spot on; she didn’t put in unnecessary flourishes, and there was nary a bum note to be found. She did this while conveying the emotion of the song perfectly. Excellent. David Cook may not please rock purists, but on Idol that doesn’t matter much. Another superb performance keeps him right on top of the pile. The same could be said for Carly; Simon finally liked her enough to compare her to Kelly Clarkson. That may well be a little premature, but right now her vocal form is as good as anyone else’s.

And then we have the biggest surprise of the night. Chikezie. Who knew he could pull that off? Where was the guy who specialized in slow, cheesy ballads? He was as good as anyone else this week. The vocals were okay, the stage presence was there, and rarely has the Idol stage seen anyone perform with that kind of energy. Well done.

It looks good, but…: We have to say something about this new stage. We’ve got no idea how much it cost, but it does look brilliant. More importantly, it’s more friendly to audience interaction than the old one ever was, with the new mosh pit. If the producers are smart, they’ve also widened the space between seats a little – in previous seasons, it was pretty obvious that contestants starting out in the audience tended to feel just a bit crowded.

But – there is always a but – we hope that the stage sounds as good as it looks. The one thing we’re not sure about the new set is the band: it’s very unusual, if not unheard of, to have the band up above the stage they way Idol did. At the very least, it’s not how things are usually done. For a TV show, of course, this makes perfect sense: if you want something to be seen, put it out in full view. However, sound-wise that may or may not be a good idea. Certainly, Kristy’s lack of coordination with the band makes us wonder. Given the well-established differences between how the Idols sound in person and on the TV screen, we could also expect a season full of even stranger than usual comments from Randy, Paula, and Simon. Oh, boy.

Here we go again: Sometimes we feel that even though Idol is a multi-million dollar enterprise it’s run by people with IQs approximately their age. How else could we explain the news that, once again, the song choice is artificially limited? Our top 12 singers had a grand total of 25 songs to choose from. Let that number sink in. Now, to put it in terms that Simon, Nigel, and all the other Brits behind Idol would understand: are you taking the piss? Didn’t you learn anything from the multitude of bad song choices just a few weeks ago? Are you all suffering from mad cow disease?

The Idol Power Rankings: We’ve already gone over how well the contestants did this week. However, Idol is not won or lost on the strength of one week alone. How go this week’s power rankings?

Our top 4 remained unchanged. Most of the movement is in the lower rungs, thanks to David Archuleta’s sudden vulnerability and Chikezie’s surprise appearance. Keep this in mind, however: the bottom half is very close together. In any given week, anyone could go home.

1. David Cook (Last week: 1)
Another great performance keeps David in the top spot. He even got the “you could win this” speech from Simon, which is saying something. However, praise like that can be double-edged. Being perceived as an early frontrunner is something of a double-edged sword. Once you’ve been proclaimed as such, you’re now expected to perform at a higher level than everyone else. Is David up to it?

2. Carly Smithson (Last week: 2)
That was fast. Last week, we said it was only a matter of time before Carly could win Simon over. Like David Cook, she got the frontrunner praise from Simon, this time in the form of a comparison to Kelly Clarkson. The question is now: can she build the deep and committed fanbase needed to run all the way to the finale?

3. Brooke White (Last week: 3)
Quite a few people wondered why we put Brooke ahead of Jason in last week’s rankings. Well, this week showed us why: Jason is a slightly better vocalist, but Brooke makes up for it with her superior musical intelligence. Let It Be was a perfect demonstration of that. If she can keep making good song choices and not get screwed by a silly theme, she should still do well.

4. Jason Castro (Last week: 4)
Jason is brilliant at conveying the emotion of his songs, but he has to be careful. You can’t do the same thing for 12 straight weeks and expect to win. He’s good at what he does, but if Jason doesn’t watch out he runs the risk of being called a one-trick pony. He’s safe – for now, but long term there are problems.

5. Michael Johns (Last week: 6)
Michael goes up a spot largely because other people screwed up badly. Our verdict from last week is unchanged. He is the most polished contestant in this group, but he doesn’t have the presence or personality to win. Right now, though, that’s enough to bump him up a spot.

6. David Archuleta (Last week: 5)
His misstep this week did show him up a little. He has yet to convince us he’s anything more than a supremely talented voice. His tweens will keep him in it for a while, but win it all? No.

7. Amanda Overmyer (Last week: 11)
Hey, what do you know? Amanda can sing after all. Hopefully, this means Carry On Wayward Son was just an exceptional bad off day. How far she goes depends on the theme and available song list. Still, for now, you could do worse. A lot worse.

8. Chikezie (Last week: 12)
What do you know? Chikezie could sing after all. Now, he needs to do something he hasn’t so far: put together two good weeks in a row. Still, one performance can provide a well-needed shot in the arm for someone’s confidence.

9. Syesha Mercado (Last week: 10)
What was that we were saying about Syesha being one-dimensional? Well, we have to say: we were right. Again. At the rate she’s going, she’ll be out of our lives sooner rather than later. Can she pull off a Chikezie-like recovery? Maybe, but we’re not holding our breath. Still, a stint in the bottom three does wonders for exciting a fanbase.

10. Kristy Lee Cook (Last week: 7)
Last week, we compared Kristy to Kellie Pickler. This week, though, Kristy proved she’s no Kellie: the Pickler was never in the bottom three in any week before getting eliminated. Still, she might not go home right away: the themes can only get better for her, and her fan base – what’s left of it – will be energized, like Syesha’s.

11. Ramiele Malubay (Last week: 9)
Ramiele’s best song was in the first week. If that’s not a sign of how much trouble she’s in, we don’t know what is. Her song choices have been so bad, she could probably make better choices by picking randomly from the approved song list. With the other fanbases energized by their bottom 3 stay, Ramiele’s might take it easy. Barring major improvement, she’s in the hot seat.

Don’t blame the scandal: Losing David Hernandez this early was something of a surprise, and some are blaming it on his “sex scandal”, if you can call it that. What do we think? Uh, maybe, but it was far from the only reason. Elliot Spitzer he isn’t.

Mid-game boots – and you can consider the top 12 to be the start of the mid-game – are determined mostly by one thing: fanbases, fanbases, fanbases. How do you build one? There’s no simple answer, but the one thing that can be said is David didn’t. One key step is simple: distinguish yourself. You need to establish your “musical identity” early on. David didn’t. For all her faults, you know what you’re getting with Kristy Lee Cook: a country singer. Same could be said for most of the other contestants. David? You knew he had a good voice, but you never exactly knew what kind of singer he was.

That’s not to say having an identity crisis is instantly fatal out of the gate. However, David chose a bad time to be bad. The fans of singers worse than him – Kristy, maybe Ramiele – got energized. They knew their favorite was in trouble, and voted like mad. If you have a good, established fanbase, you don’t need to worry about that so much. David, however, didn’t. Did the scandal make a difference? It’s hard to say. It might have tipped a few votes away from him, but had he stood out more pre-top 12 he wouldn’t have been in a position where that would have made a difference.

The theme this week was the 80s, and all the embarrassments of that notable decade. Even the producers chimed in, bringing back Blake Lewis for a performance that could be considered embarrassing. Now, did the contestants join in this orgy of things we’d rather not remember?

Thankfully, it wasn’t. We were spared the strange song choices of the top 20, although it was replaced by traces of over-ambition. Overall, though, both performance nights were quite enjoyable. It’s a welcome change from the two previous weeks, where one gender brought their A game, but the other sung about as well as the New York Knicks play basketball.

There were plenty of standout performances on the guy’s side of the equation. To be fair, just about everyone (except Luke and Danny) were acceptable, and many of those were quite good.

The prize for top performance of the night has to go to David Cook. If someone ever made up an Idol wiki, David Cook would be in the “make a song your own” category. It was a thoroughly complete performance. You could not ask for anything more from David; he definitely took his music up to the next level. Well done.

The other real highlight for the guys was Jason Castro. We asked, all the way back in the top 24, if Jason could sing without the guitar. Last week left us convinced, but this time he left few doubters. Jason doesn’t have the big vocals to match up with the very best, but he makes up for it with good control and an uncanny ability to convey the emotions of the song, as he did with Hallelujah.

Michael Johns, David Archuleta, and David Hernandez all turned in fairly good performances in their own right. Michael is highly experienced, and it definitely shows. His performances have the most “professional” feel, and he has the kind of experience to turn anything into something worth listening too. David Archuleta came down a bit from Imagine, but the singing was spot on. As for David Hernandez, it was something of an odd song choice – Celine Dion – but it worked fairly well. The reason they’re below David and Jason, however, is that none of them really took chances and raised their game the way the two did. “Safe” would be a fair adjective to use, particularly for Michael and David Archuleta.

We had five good performances, but it all couldn’t be good. Chikezie was good last week, but went right back to the dairy product this time around. To his credit, it was decently sung, but overall it was a good time to fetch a snack or relieve yourself. It’s close to a miracle that he sneaked into the top twelve.

Our two laggards were also the two evictees. Thank you, America! Luke and Danny were, by far, the worst singers in the competition. Luke had non-existent range, and only his good looks kept him in. The same thing happened to Danny, although his “good looks” were of a different flavor. His outstanding display of Yuletide cheer (check Youtube for what we mean) didn’t help either. Neither will be missed.

Call for the divas: If we never heard another Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey on Idol, we’d be a happy man. However, that’s about as likely as Paula becoming completely sober. Even then, however, the spate of diva songs on Wednesday left us all cringing in horror.

Of course, the night did have its share of good performances. Two were clearly above the rest of the field: Brooke did exactly what David Cook did the night before: take a seemingly unsuited song choice, turn it into something that does suit you, and sound good while doing it. Carrie Underwood tried to do it the straight “power” way, and came out with mixed results (at best). Brooke avoided that minefield, and let her control and unique style do the work. Brilliant.

As for Carly, she has far and away the best vocals of the girls by far. She turned in the second best song of the night. Again, we disagree with Simon – we thought that she connected with her song very well. Lots of people may not like her, but Carly will be around for the foreseeable future, and is finally living up to the hype that came in with her.

Amanda needed a good performance to get to the top 12, and she delivered. She found a song she could use that growl of hers, and she can command the stage fairly well to boot. It wasn’t going to win her worst critics over, but compared to anything she’s pulled off before it was far better.

After that, we have a range of performances that were just okay. Not really bad, but not good either. Song choice was, as ever, critical: most of these made bad choices. Asia’h did well to pick an uptempo song, but picking a Whitney Houston song? Uh, no. Syesha can only do one thing well – hit the power notes, but the rest of the song made her sound very ordinary. Ramiele picked another big powerful female diva to do this week, and it backfired. (We’re convinced that Ramiele did not do the 80s original of Against All Odds; she did the 2000 cover by Mariah Carey.) Kristy was, well, Kristy. She’s never really bad, but she’s never really good either.

Last, unfortunately, was Kady. The song just didn’t suit her at all, and even then it wasn’t all that well sung. She hit the power notes fine, but like Syesha she was very ordinary when she wasn’t doing that. The best word that could describe it was medicore.

The Idol Power Rankings: Let’s try to do something new starting from now on. Every week, we’ll rank the Idols in terms of how fat they’ll go. Take note that artistic merit isn’t the big determining factor here; it’s primarily how far these people will go before getting sent home. If you’ve read any Power Rankings for football, the format should be pretty familiar. Be warned, though: this list has quite a few surprises in it. If you disagree with us, feel free to let us know with your impassioned thoughts. Let’s go.

1. David Cook
Some may be surprised we have him this high. He hasn’t enjoyed the promotion that others like Carly, Michael, and David Archuleta have. So why do we have him ranked so highly?

First of all, not getting pimped may work out well for him, because he doesn’t have the weight of expectations on him. He is clearly the best rocker in this group, and a good rocker can get very far. Just ask Chris Daughtry. Two more things help David here: he’s got more crossover potential than Chris ever had, and allowing instruments into performances helps him too.

2. Carly Smithson
Simon’s right with her. She can sing the phonebook and sound good. While we here are more positive about her “connecting with the song” than Simon is, there are probably enough people who feel that way that it could be a problem for her. Still, her vocals and stage presence are really a cut above the rest of the field. Winning over people like Simon is probably a question of when, not if.

3. Brooke White
Up to now, Idol has not had any singers like Brooke go very far. She doesn’t have the big voice that, historically, you needed to advance in this competition. Still, the new instruments rule will help her. The historical lack of success of singers similar to her style will probably energize her fan base significantly. They will want her to prove that you don’t need to have a diva voice to win. She’ll go further than a lot of people think.

4. Jason Castro
Most of what we said about Brooke applies to Jason, as well. The big difference is, however, experience and flexibility: Brooke has more of it than Jason has. If vote-splitting its ugly head, Jason will lose out to Brooke as things stand. For now, though, they should both have plenty of support to move forward.

5. David Archuleta
Yes, despite all the proclamations of his talent, and the claims of many posters that the Idol Powers-That-Be have made him their Chosen One, we put him about the middle of the list. Yes, we’re running against the forces of Conventional Wisdom, but humor us for a moment here.

David has a brilliant voice. In terms of natural talent, he’s probably the best in the top 12. What he does at the age of 16 is brilliant. However, that exactly is his biggest problem – he’s 16. Just because Jordin won last year doesn’t mean all the disadvantages of being relatively young on Idol suddenly went away. The biggest problem there is that younger singers usually don’t have a firm musical identity; they haven’t figured out who they are musically yet. David could go the route he took with Imagine and Another Day in Paradise, but we doubt it. Simon was right about the “gloomy” song comment. Until then, David Archuleta will be a brilliant singer, but as an artist he needs work.

6. Michael Johns
The one word we’d use to describe his performances are professional. His singing skills are excellent, his stage presence is good, and his song selection is respectable. So why do we have him this low?

The trouble with Michael is that he has the vibe of a band frontman, a good frontman, even, but not a successful solo act. Unfortunately, American Idol is looking for just that. We have a disconnect here. The second problem is even more fundamental: what kind of artist is he, really? He’s performed good covers, but what kind of singer is he? What can we expect from a Michael Johns CD? We still don’t know.

7. Kristy Lee Cook
We’re sure that Kristy’s high ranking here will have people howling in agony. Why do we have her ranked so highly?

For all the flack we give her, Kristy is never really the worst of the night – a situation that hasn’t changed with the guys and girls competing together. More to the point, however, she’s the only country singer left in this competition. Much as it is in vogue with certain circles to disrespect both country music in general and country music voters in particular, their power cannot be doubted. They can push someone who would barely make the tour, if that, into a mid-place finish. Kellie Pickler and Phil Stacey both finished sixth, largely due to country voters. Kristy will probably be no different.

8. David Hernandez
Here’s another surprisingly low ranking of someone with a good voice. His problem is similar to David Archuleta’s: he’s a good singer, but so far he has not really established his artistic sense. Yes, he’s got a great voice. Pre-top 12, that’s good enough – but not post top-12. David has all the makings of an early surprising boot. It can happen. Just ask Mandisa and Nadia Turner.

9. Ramiele Malubay
The problem with Ramiele is she’s consistently inconsistent. When she’s on, she can sing as well as anyone. She’s got good vocals, that’s not in doubt. For two weeks running, though, she’s made dumb song choices. She can get better, but it may be too late for it to matter.

10. Syesha Mercado
There’s a reason Syesha’s been called everything from Screamesha to Syscreecha around the Idol punditocracy. Up to now, all she’s proven is that she can hit power notes reasonably well. Unfortunately, she adds those glory notes when they’re not really needed for the song, and when she’s not belting out she’s downright ordinary. You can’t go far if you’re that one-dimensional.

Unfortunately, doing anything else, she ranges from the ordinary to the bad. There’s a market for that kind of voice, but it’s not that large. She will probably make the tour, but only just.

11. Amanda Overmyer
Amanda is possibly the ultimate niche contestant Idol has ever seen. Even in the rock genre, there are only so many songs that suit that raspy, growling voice of hers. When it works, it’s brilliant. When it doesn’t… well, we’d rather listen to nails on chalkboard. She’s that bad.

She has a small fanbase that kept her in through two disastrous weeks. However, with the rock vote going over to the guys, particularly David Cook, her lifespan on the show is limited.

12. Chikezie
No one really expects Chikezie to go very far. It’s a near miracle he made it over Danny Noriega and his horde of tween supporters. He’s wildly inconsistent at best, and downright terrible and cheesy at worst. He’s not really top 12 material.

On the waiver wire: Keeping up with the last segment’s sports theme, what can we say about the four contestants who the folks at home decided to waive and send back to the couch?

There’s not much to say about the exits of Luke and Danny. Both were more interesting as personalities than as actual singers. Danny’s recent moment of Youtube fame didn’t exactly help his cause. It may be harsh to say, but we’ll say it anyway: they won’t be missed.

For the girls, however, they will definitely be missed. We said last week that whoever was the weaker in each of the Asia’h/Syesha and Kady/Kristy pairs would be at risk, and we were proven right. Asia’h made the worst possible song choice possible – she didn’t have the vocals to do Whitney, and with Syesha doing a better job of hitting the power with another Whitney song she came out way below second-rate. Kady, meanwhile, is a better vocalist than most people think or realize, but never learned to put it all together. There’s a lot of potential in her, but a lot of work had to be done to bring it out. Idol is not the best place to learn such things. With more experience and consistency, Kady would have been a real long-term threat.

Not just for management: The mantra “work smarter, not harder” is a favorite of time management “experts”. Whether or not it’s true there or not is up for debate, but one thing’s for sure: it applies in the Idol world, too.

Because it is the last week before the finals and the “big stage”, there are few weeks in the Idol calendar where there’s more stress than the top 16. Naturally, the contestants want to do their best – but, in their desire to do their best, they frequently reach for songs that are beyond their abilities. The spirit is willing, but the vocal cords are weak.

This really ties in to what we said last week – most, if not all, of those who go really far on the show have a good idea of their musical identity and abilities. Blake Lewis’s appearance on the results show was forgettable from a musical point of view, but it was a perfect opportunity for us pundits.

As we said multiple times last season, Blake really didn’t have the vocal tools to compete with the rest of the finalists. To his credit, Blake knew that perfectly well and adjusted what he did all season. He could never hope to compete with Jordin, Melinda, or Lakisha when it came to singing, so he turned each and every show into a performance, which was what he did best. It may not have been resulted in the best singing, but as a strategy, it was brilliant.

The temptation for an inexperienced singer is to think, “I need to impress this time, so I should pick the biggest song I can get cleared.” The songs that get picked are the ones with the runs, glory notes, all the things that impress some viewers. Not all, but some.

This wouldn’t be such a bad thing – if the singer in question can pull off the song. However, more often than not the contestants can’t. The question in their minds should be “can I pull this off?”; instead it’s “how hard can it be?” As it turns out… very.

Just take a look at the artist choices for this week and cringe. Whitney Houston – three times. Celine Dion. Mariah Carey. Freddie Mercury. If that’s not an ambitious group of artists to pick, we don’t know what is. If you are that good, if your power and control is that good, then it’s brilliant. Unfortunately, that’s rarely the case. It’s hard to come out the winner from such a comparison, because you’re not playing to your strengths.

In contrast, look at David Cook at Brooke White. Neither is the most powerful singer in their gender – David Archuleta’s got that for the guys, and Carly has that for the girls. So they looked at their own strengths, and picked songs and arrangements to suit. Just looking at the song titles, one would think they were both asking to be sent home, but nothing could be further from the truth. They made the songs their own and played to their strengths. Well done to both of them.

So what’s the lesson for future contestants? It’s easy to think that power runs and glory notes equal success. Sometimes it does. But that is, at best, a chancy route. Much better to pick a song and arrangement that plays to your strengths – not Whitney’s, not Celine’s, not Mariah’s. Sing smarter, not sing harder!

After the disappointment of last week’s episode, things could only get better. Right? Well, yes. And no. There were some legitimately good performances, but for every one of those there were more that left us scratching our heads in confusion.

On the upside, there were refreshingly few out-and-out singing disasters. On the downside, it seemed like a lot of the song choices were, to say the least, confused. Did someone drop Paula’s pills into the Los Angeles water supply?

To be fair, things did get off to an okay start with the guys. It’s something of a stretch to call it a “good” show, but it would be unfair to call it bad, either. David Archuleta’s version of Imagine created all the buzz from the episode, but there were 9 other people singing that night – which ranged from the good to the downright ugly.

Aside from our precocious David, there were three other standouts for the night. (We’ll get to him later.) Chikezie was, easily, the most improved: from last week’s disaster to a well-balanced performance with good vocals, stage presence, and no eye-gouging clothing. David Hernandez did exactly what we told him last week: he was able to relax and turn in a good show as well. He should be safe to the top 12, barring a major disaster next week.

We also thought David Cook was better than Simon thought. We didn’t think he had any charisma issues, and if anything it was the “authentic” rock performance of the night. As a whole, it “made sense”, as it were – which on the Idol stage, is not always a given. He should be safe to the top 12, too.

Then we had a wide range of performances that went from mediocre to just okay. Michael Johns was one of the much ballyhooed semi-pros coming into the top 24, but this particular performance was very average. At the rate he’s going, he might not make the tour. Another of last week’s standouts went back to being average – Jason Castro. Can he really sing without that guitar? We don’t know, but based on this week… the signs are not encouraging.

Another big improver from last week was Danny Noriega. We thought – surprise! – that in parts he was actually good. However… we do have to consider that last week was an utter disaster and just about anything would have been an improvement. It was a middling performance, but with the other “talent” on display it was good enough to make it to the top 16, and maybe even beyond.

Robbie Carrico was on the bubble between mediocrity and awfulness. The vocal, by itself, wasn’t terrible. However, the whole performance gave off the impression of someone trying too hard. More than the “authenticity” issue that the judges love to point out, that’s the real issue with Robbie – and the ultimate reason he got kicked off. More on that later when we go over this week’s boots.

Then we have the truly dreadful, a club occupied by only two people this week. Luke Menard sang Killer Queen, and it was unfortunately appropriate, given the musical carnage he inflicted on the song. As for Jason Yeager, the only thing missing was an announcement to tip the waiters. America put Jason out of his misery, but his looks kept Luke in. Have mercy on our ear drums, Idol voters – get him out soon, please!

Overall, the night went about as well as one could expect at this stage of the season. The girls, however, were a different story altogether.

The great Idol song lottery: The one thing that made the difference this week for the girls was simple: song selection. Only Carly and Brooke picked songs that suited them perfectly, and it showed. Carly mixed that song choice with her own superb vocals and stage presence. Simon was wrong on her: she’s already done what he wanted, at right know she has to be the favorite among the girls.

The only other good performance this week was from Brooke. She doesn’t have the vocal power that Carly commands, but given the right song she can really shine – and the control she showed this week was excellent. We’d love to see her go far – her sound is undeniably unique for Idol in general. Song choice is extremely critical for her, because she can’t hope to compete with the big voices and tweener appeal that the rest of the field can fall back on. One more thing she should consider: use the guitar more! You’re So Vain would not have been the same without the guitar. She has to be careful that it doesn’t become a gimmick, the way it might for Jason Castro – but if the song fits, use it!

Below the top two were two so-so performances, but weren’t really bad. Ramiele proved last week that she had excellent vocals, and that was all that kept her version of Don’t Leave Me This Way from turning into farce. Even then, it didn’t look or sound natural. The same could be said of Syesha , with the added issue that if she’s not reaching for the power notes she sounds very ordinary, and even then she can sometimes sound screechy. Still, in a week of multiple singing horrors, that was good enough to be considered “okay”.

And then we have the realm of Strange Performances. If we didn’t know any better, the theme was not 70s, but “Songs That Don’t Suit Your Voice”. Take a bow, Kristy,Alaina, Alexandrea, Kady, Asia’h : welcome to the Sanjaya Zone! Normally, you have to show “consistent and long-lasting incompetence” to get inducted, but we can’t ignore such multiple acts of Idol insanity.

What did the five of them do to earn their collective induction? Simple: could any five contestants have chosen any worse songs to sing?Alaina and Alexandrea are both on the young side, but they chose songs that made them sound ridiculously old and aged. Kady, Kristy, andAsia’h all seemed to forget what kind of singers they were and picked songs that were woefully unsuited for them. Whether the vocals were there or not was beside the point. The songs suited them so poorly that no matter how well sung they were, it would still be terrible. It was like taking the world’s bestfigher pilot… then asking him to cook a gourmet meal at a five-star hotel.

Last, and definitely the least, we have Amanda Overmyer. By itself, it was almost worthy of induction, but not yet. However, that doesn’t make it any better: Amanda looked like it was Halloween, and the singing was non-existent. Of course, there’s a reason she was not voted off – more on that when we discuss this week’s cuts.

No ifs and buts about it: girls night this week was ghastly.

Who is she again: While none of the cuts this week would really be missed, they did catch some people by surprise. Alaina had done very well the week before, along with Alexandrea; but both were gone this week. Why? For the guys, Robbie Carrico would not exactly be missed, but how in the world did someone butcher Queen and get away with it? (On second thought, that may not be all that unusual: only one person, BuckyCovington, has ever been eliminated after doing a song by Queen – and that was during a Queen theme week.

The explanation comes down to two things which go hand-in-hand: vote-splitting and genre voting.

For Alaina and Alexandrea, the trouble was you had other girls who weren’t all that different from them style-wise. For Alaina, you had Kristy and Kady; for Alexandrea there was Syesha and (to some degree) Asia’h. With none of those really standing out, the fanbases probably split more or less evenly and it was basically down to luck who would go. The fact that both of them chose songs that were so much older (stylistically, not chronologically) than them didn’t help them, either. A slightly older singer – mid-20s, say – would have gotten away with their songs, but they’re 16 and 17. It did them no favors. (This is the same rap we put on Jordin Sparks last year, and while it didn’t hurt her on the show, post-Idol that is sort of what happened.)

Robbie suffered from the same thing. He split votes primarily with David Cook, who to make matters worse was very, very good. There are only so many rock-only voters on Idol, and with a much better option for those Robbie had no chance. By contrast, while Luke wasn’t any good either he wasn’t splitting votes with anyone else either. With a relatively large field you don’t need that many votes to stay in things, and Luke was just good enough to survive.

So what does this mean for the upcoming weeks? Because the guys aren’t as clearly divisible into genres the way the girls are, not much. However, the more unique contestants – Jason Castro, David Cook, for example – should be relatively safe. For the girls, however, the implications are clearer. With Kristy and Kady both splitting votes, it’s very unlikely that both could go on to the top 12. Whoever is the weaker of the two will be in trouble. The same can be said forSyesha and Asia’h . Amanda could also be in trouble, but it depends on what Carly does. If Carly again goes for the rock route, then Amanda is a likely bootee. However, the more unique sounds – Brooke, Ramiele, Carly – are, barring major vocal disasters, safe into the top 12.

Useless trivia of the week: There have only been two contestants in Idol history to make it to the public voting stages with the first name of Alaina – Alaina Whitaker and Alaina Alexander. They were both cut in the exact same week: top 20.

The more things change: When you’ve been a card-carrying member of the pundit caste as long as we have, you notice a few things. Politicians running against an incumbent will always promise change, even if the only likely change is in the office furniture. The hype never lives up to the actual product. If something is “coming soon” that is “interesting”, it will become vaporware. On American Idol, perfectly good performances will be called “safe”.

This brings us to the most talked about performance of the week… David Archuleta. Say what you will about his performance, safe it was not. It has attained iconic status, and despite all the covers over the years the definitive version is still the John Lennon original. David would inevitably be compared to John Lennon, and that’s a comparison that’s hard to come out of on top. It could have turned out so badly, but remarkably it didn’t. By far, the reaction to David has been absolutely positive.

In contrast, for the girls we had plenty of cases where the song was clearly too big for them. Asia’h was the foremost example, but she wasn’t exactly alone. What can we learn from such an obvious contrast?

The lesson is that contestants must have a clear idea of where they are musically. They need to recognize just how good their talents are, what kind of music they’re best at, and what exactly they can do well that others can’t.

Unfortunately, this is something that only experience can really teach someone. Real amateurs are likely to have heard mostly friends and relatives comment on their singing – neither of which are exactly objective observers. On the other hand, professionals tend to get this kind of feedback quite frequently – when money is involved, harsh commentary is the rule, not the exception.

The upshot is this is one area where the semi-pros in our field have a big advantage. David Archuleta may be 16, but he’s not exactly inexperienced. Carly Smithson not only loved Heart, she knew she could pull off their songs. In contrast, most of the girls didn’t realize their own limits or specialty and faltered. Very badly.

That’s the lesson for all future contestants. You need to know what kind of singer you are, what are your vocal limits, etcetera, etcetera. In short you need go figure out yourself as a singer when you pick the songs. If you can do that, you know exactly where to stop (and not get comments like “the song was too big for you), and you know not to sell yourself short and get comments that your song was “safe”.

In short: don’t do Celine Dion if you don’t have a voice with that kind of power, but if you happen to have that kind of voice, use it!

We’ve seen our a fair amount of changes this season. One we haven’t talked about was the early introduction of themes – and this week, we got a special one. For what is arguably the most commercial, the most contemporary, the most “in” top 24 in Idol history, we got… the 60s. We sense just a bit of a disconnect here. What we ended up with was an… interesting week, although the eliminations were fairly predictable.

What were they thinking: One thing has to be said about the theme. We like Nigel Lythgoe – he’s certainly far more forthright and open when it comes to interviews than any of the judges – but he, and the rest of the AI crew, made a mistake when it came to the theme. His offered excuse – that they wanted to give the top 24 a genre with more “musical” songs (whatever the heck that means) and minimize song clearance issues – is lame, at best.

What the definition of more “musical” is, we have no idea, and clearing a grand total of 50 songs for 24 people? Is the Idol production staff on something? That is nowhere near enough, particularly since there is always a lot of diversity in the top 24. You can’t come up with 50 songs that all 24 contestants can pick from and be happy with. As we said last year: given the resources that the Idol machine commands, “the song wasn’t cleared” is something that should be a rare, rare thing.

The upshot of this is that a lot of the top 24 were forced to sing songs that were not really in their styles, in our opinion. This was particularly true for the guys – for example, with the exception, maybe, of Michael Johns, this bunch had no business touching Elvis. The top 24 did not do all that well, but the artificially narrow song selection had a great deal to do with it.

Boredom, thy name is top 24: The hype machine has been in full steam this season, but hype and reality collided on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The results were not all that pretty.

What made guys’ night so bad wasn’t so much bad singing or song choices. It was because we didn’t hear anything that was particularly distinctive. It wasn’t good or bad, it was just mind-numbingly dull. There was very little that could make one say out loud “He sang that one well,” or “he was terrible beyond reason.” The reaction could be more accurately described as “who are these people?”

If the last paragraph sounds just a little familiar, it’s because it’s what we said this exact same time last year! Apparently, our AI contestants – or most of them – haven’t learned anything in the past year. They really should take a page from Bo Bice, who wrote the manual on how to succeed right out of the top 24. Little, if any, pre-show publicity, but he came out of the gate with superb performances that put him safely into the top 12.

Let’s get down to the details. Of the guys, we found three outstanding performances. Michael Johns did extremely well, but that was expected. The question for Michael is: where does he go from here? We know he can do the songs like Bohemian Rhapsody and Light My Fire, but is that all he can do, or does he something else up his sleeve? The talent and experience is there, though, and he’s a sure thing for the top 12.

Someone else who met the expectations was David Archuleta. It’s hard to believe someone could be so young and sing that well, but he does. You can’t say anything bad about his performance at all. He’s the closest to a sure thing in this season. It’s hard for us not to imagine him in the final four. (And yes, that is a long way off. We know that.)

The biggest surprise was Jason Castro. Pre-top 24, he was probably best known for his hair. After it, he’s definitely on the radar for his singing. Now, he had help with the guitar. It’s going to be very interesting what to see he does without any instruments, but he is definitely someone to keep an eye for.

In the next category down would be David Hernandez, David Cook, and Robbie Carrico. (Why oh why did there have to be so many Davids?) They were all good performances, but there were all tiny little things that made them not quite as good. For David Hernandez, Simon was right that he needed to “loosen up”. One of the hallmarks of a truly good performance is that it seems effortless, but he failed on that mark.

Everyone else was downright terrible. Chikezie (who lost his surname somewhere along the way) not only sang poorly, but tried to duel with Simon Cowell. Neither is a recipe for Idol success. Elvis is somewhere in heaven with the Idol gods, cringing that two of his songs were butchered beyond recognition. Jason Yeager thought he was Anwar Robinson, and failed miserably. It’s not a good sign for the guys when fully half of their performances were woeful. It’s no surprise at all that the bootees came from this group.

In contrast, the girls turned in a much better night. Alaina Whitaker and Ramiele Malubay were the definite topnotchers of the night. Alaina picked the perfect song for her, and turned in a performance that was just right for it. Ramiele, meanwhile, was simply amazing: you rarely get such a potent mix of power and control in one person. Add in the fact that she looks effortless when singing, and you’ve got a newly established favorite in this show. Both of them are sure to make the top 12.

Just behind those two were four good performances. Carly Smithson was up against something that she had no control over – and no, we don’t mean the flu. The hype behind her was so big it was impossible to meet it. Considered objectively, it was pretty good: her control was spot on, the delivery was convincing, and the power was there (although Carly likes to go for it a little too much, we think). We’d like to see what she does next week,when she has, hopefully, recovered from the flu.

The judges may not have liked it, but we were quite impressed with Kady Malloy. A slow ballad may not have been the best way to introduce yourself to America, but Kady sung it as well as you could expect. Randy may have complained that she didn’t cut loose with her power, but to us that was actually a good thing. It’s very easy to go for the power and turn into a shouter instead of a singer. The criticism from Simon and Paula was just utter nonsense, and coming from Simon in particular it was quite disappointing.

Asia’h Epperson and Alexandrea both turned in numbers that depended not just on their vocals, but their performing abilities as well. Alexandrea’s, though, leaned on those more than Asia’h did. Alexandrea may well be the best pure performer in this whole group, and while that was enough to get her a good performance right now, if the vocals don’t match up she’ll be in trouble. Asia’h's was more balanced, and her vocals are as good as anyone else right now. For both of them, we’d like to see how they do with songs that rely more on pure vocals.

As for the six other girls, there were two utter disasters – Joanne Borgella and Amy Davis. America called it right – both of them were all over during their songs and were easily the worst of the girls. Not much more needs to be said.

The other four performances were, to borrow one of Randy’s favorite words, were a’right. We were just a bit disappointed in Brooke White – she is probably the most unique artistically of the entire top 24, but we saw none of that this week. It was a very average performance, and there was no trace of charisma or uniqueness that we think she has. With this many strong performances, you have to be really good to advance to the top 12 this season if you’re a girl. Right now, she is not. Kristy Lee Cook is in the same boat. They both need to step it up.

Amanda Overmeyer and Syesha Mercado also have something in common: they both need to prove their vocal abilities. As performers, they are pretty good, and Syesha is as good as they get. But, and it’s a huge but, where are their vocals? Amanda can’t keep growling forever, and Syesha needs to lay off the power and show us some control. As a complete package, both of them lack some key components. They need to show something different next week, otherwise they are in serious trouble.

Making even less sense than usual: What was up with all the strange comments from the judges this week? Paula spouted even more rubbish than usual about colors, and Simon spent time picking apart Carly’s microphone technique. Was everyone on Paula’s medication this week?

Year after year, it amazes us that these people are paid millions for what many other people would do for less. Paula’s is worth around $5-8 million per year. Simon’s said to be around $10 million (plus his share of the post-Idol profits). Would it be too much to ask for sensible comments from the judges, not standard, off-the-shelf components that an android version of our judges could repeat?

Pre-top 24 pimpage matters… or does it?: Something that’s being talked about right now, and will be talked about in the next two weeks, is how limited pre-show airtime for certain contestants can hurt people’s chances and get them booted off. They’ll offer, for this week, Garrett Haley, who (as far as we can remember) wasn’t show before this week.

Here’s our take on this topic, which inevitably comes up year in and year out. It doesn’t matter much, if at all.

One mantra we keep repeating, as far as AI and the online community around it, is simple: what we think doesn’t always matter. Yes, there are plenty of people who like to pick favorites based on the tiny snippets of footage we see from the auditions and Hollywood. They’re the kind who like to post on Internet message boards all over, FORT included. The fact is, though, that most people don’t do that. They may watch the show religiously, they may spend tons of money texting in votes, but they’re not picking favorites yet. People are usually more sensible than pundits will give them credit.

The upshot is, we think most people don’t really decide whether someone is good until they hear them sing. They may have seen them before, in auditions or Hollywood, but that won’t matter, as far as voting is concerned.

The only time it might matter is if you’re right on the edge between being voted off and not being voted off… but that can only buy you so much time. If you’re already in danger of elimination this early, there’s a reason: you’re just not cut out to be the next American Idol. You’re either a lousy singer, or you’re boring, or, worst of all, both. There’s no conspiracy, and it’s not the editor’s fault. A lot of this reasoning comes from fanboys (or fangirls) of an eliminated contestant, and that’s all it is: the howls of disappointment from an energetic (if small) fanbase.