Since Jesse will be part of it, I'm watching. Daughtry is a draw for me too.

Jason's version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow was awful! I'm with Simon: I thought it was fantastic. And I thought it was fantastic all three thousand times I heard it before that whether it was on my CD, on "Scrubs", on advertisements, on "er", etc. I love that version second only to Judy's and right ahead of, of all people, Sam Harris' over the top "Star Search" performance. I thought Jason nailed it.

If that's the version they played on Scrubs, I loved it then. But I still think Jason made a mess of it.

Yep, that was the same version that Sam Lloyd and Co. sang on "My Way Home". I didn't really see Jason doing anything different other than the unnecessary "swelling up" at the end, but beyond that I thought he was dead on. The song's much better at full length with the full arrangement, but I'm hoping they did that for the studio version. Dial Idol predicts absolute safety for Jason, Archie and, surprisingly, KLC. I knew KLC would get a lot of votes for that song, but I didn't think she'd make it to the green zone. On one hand, good for her because she was very good, but on the other hand, I need her off my television. I don't care for that song at all, but I love the way Martina McBride sings it and I didn't think KLC did it ultimate justice. But, God and country music and sparkly makeup go a long way. It still doesn't make up for all of the weeks of crap before that and she'll never be forgiven for "God Bless the USA". But, I digress... The bottom three (though it looks way too close to call, more than the usual), per DI, is Carly, Syesha and Cook. I figure it'll be Syesha, but who knows. I hate, in spite of an awful (awful, awful) performance of an awful song, that Cook could be in the bottom three. I think this was the first week he felt pressure and he choked and that's unfortunate. It can't be easy to hear the judges predict all week that you are going to be final 2. Archie's had pressure the entire time, so I imagine it didn't affect him as much, but Cook's had the almost fortunate distraction of dealing with whiny critics and whinier bands and it's probably easier to fight through than to live up to the expectations of the judges. I feel bad for him, but I guess he does deserve to be there over pretty much everyone else. And gripe of the season: if possible, Randy's idiotic hissing noise has gotten even *more* contrived this year. For all the griping about Simon/Paula and Simon/Ryan and Nigel's PR and the various conspiracy theories, the absolute fakest thing on that show is Randy's "air suck". I wish he'd cut that shit out once and for all. eta, peggy: the artist is Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. I totally had to look that up to get the spelling and it's still probably not right. I have his recording around here somewhere (and I'm sure it'll be passed around quite a bit today, like most of the Idol songs are each week), so if you want to hear it I can send it to you.

I never heard that version before tonight, but I liked it a lot. Perfect version for him. Loved the ukelele They play that version of the song A LOT in Hawaii. Go figure eh? Seriously, i got sick of hearing it. I think either the first guy or Carly is going to go home. I think people are looking for a reason to get rid of Carly and tonight gave them the reason. I also realized David Cook looks like what my nephew Zachary will look like when he is an adult.

I think Michael Johns is safe for a couple more weeks as long as he doesn't do anything completely offensive. He seems very "middle" to me. I thought he was very good last night, though I agreed with some of what Simon said. Most of my opinions were somewhere between Simon and Paula because there were pros and cons to everything everyone did except for poor David Cook, who was just a mess. Carly will surely be bottom three, though I don't think she'll leave. But, who knows. I didn't hate her performance (and I like that song a lot) but I think it stuck out poorly in the middle of all those other songs. Last night just didn't seem to be the place for the big drama of Queen, unfortunately.

Woo doggies! I just tried to watch Archie's rendition of "Angels." I lasted about 5 bars before I had to click away. If I could travel back in time and vote against him I would. Hell, I suspect if I'd been subjected to the whole thing I might use that time machine to travel back in time and keep his parents from ever meeting so that he was never born. David Cook wasn't that bad. Weird song. But whatevs-I still love him. Michael Johns & Jason Castro continue to charm me-they may not be the best, but they entertain.

Cookie needs to stick with songs that the general public will recognize. Almost everyone has heard "Hello" and "Billie Jean" at some point just because they're so woven into the fabric of pop culture. That's why doing something awesome with those songs worked. Picking a song that few know from a band that few know won't do much to impress.

I noticed when I rewatched it that Cookie got completely drowned by Bandzilla and the back-up singers. My Archie hate is at an all time high right now. Poor poor song.

I only just realized how much Brooke White looks like Jerri Blank.

I would like to be able to tell you you're crazy, but...yeah. It also occurred to me, during Annie Lennox's performance, that Brooke emotes in very much the same way and I realized that the judges would probably tear Annie apart if she were a contestant. Overall tonight...meh. Nothing offensive, just kind of anticlimactic. Boring in spots, not enough laughs where there should have been and, btw, there's absolutely no Billy Crystal left. He's all Jack Benny now. Beyond one moment of his that I've already forgotten, Sarah Silverman's the only one that made me laugh out loud. Robin Williams, while doing the thing we love him for, made me totally miss Jack Black in that same role last year. BFTV were fine, just the normal karoeke and Carrie Underwood's version of "Praying for Time" was beautiful and even more depressing than the original. God, I love that song. She didn't harm it and I appreciate that. The Idols themselves sounded pretty great for the most part, Fergie and Heart were pretty kickass and...I kind of fast forwarded through about thirty minutes because I got caught up in something else and just didn't feel like going through it all. Mainly, their big mistake in my book is that they dressed it up and made it bigger and glitzier, but didn't bring it when it came to the actual show. Last year was more bare bones and not as polished and so much better and more down to earth. Ryan and Simon in Africa and Simon at the food bank were warmer and more touching than Bono's PSA's. We're so removed from Bono, but Ryan and Simon are in our living rooms and we love them and hate them and make fun of them. We're more reverential with someone like Bono. Ryan's like our friend from school telling us about something. Bono's like the teacher. He's lovely and I adore him, but I didn't feel connected to any of that. And that actually kind of made me feel bad.

You got it.

There is NO WAY that Michael was the lowest vote getter last night. Also mighty cruel much Ryan! I'm secretly a bit happy because I think he and Cookie were splitting votes. Anywho, I'm calling BS on this elimination. He was the 4th lowest on Dial Idol.