Oh that sounds bad. Jason can't go home! I need my weekly dose of laid back stoner light pop sung by a pretty, pretty boy.

Yeah, I fear for Jason, but Cookie makes up for it. His vocal(especially if you only hear it(I know, I know, it's hard not to look at him) is one of the best of the season. He hits a note in the middle of the song that is so freaking gorgeous *sigh* Yes, I'm a total fangirl, shut up ;)

Who should I skip? And (other than Jason and Cookie, natch) who should I definitely check out? You know, the weird thing is that I didn't feel nearly as "mad" at Jason as apparently the judges and some viewers did. I didn't think it was terrible and I think they overanalyzed it. It wasn't the best and it was a very poor song choice and he pretty much had no business even attemtping it, but I don't think he murdered the song. Ryan tried to bail him out after the judges bashed him, but he botched the question and left it wide open for Simon to be an ass. Because, really, no matter how bad a contestant is, I think it's poor form to flat out say that the audience shouldn't vote for them. And poor Brooke. Again, not the trainwreck it sounds like on paper, but even when she recovered and wound up doing well I was still so tense from the fear that she was going to screw it up again that I couldn't really listen. I thought Paula was basically right that Brooke will probably go home for the mistake, but I thought she was full of absolute horseshit for thinking that she should have just mumbled through. If it had been the middle of the song, yes, but not the beginning. Simon was right...she should have done what she did even though it was a nightmare. She had no choice and it was brave. You lose the lyrics and you just try to mumble and find them on the other side then you run the risk of never finding them. And if she'd done that they would have criticised her even more harshly for it because losing the lyrics and forgetting the lyrics are viewed much differently. Honestly, I think she probably got some votes she doesn't normally get, but definitely not enough to save her. If she doesn't go this week it'll be really, really close. Loved Carly, loved David C., loved Syesha. Don't care at all about David A. The bottom three will be Brooke, Jason and either Carly or Syesha, neither of which deserve to go based on this week's performance.

Jason telling ALW "I didn't know a cat was singing this!" = Priceless. ALW's face after Archie was done singing = equally priceless. Carly was reportedly singing the wrong chorus, which apparently is fine, unless the back-ups are singing the right one. I'm also quite sure Archie was mumbling some bits of his song. So it wasn't just Brooke. I do think they should have been harder on Brooke because this is the second time she flubbed the beginning of the song. Jason wasn't terrible, he wasn't very good, bad song choice, and being sick didn't help him either. Lots of breathing to be heard between lines, even more than Archie. I think 'Any dream will do' would have been a much better choice for him.

I'm also quite sure Archie was mumbling some bits of his song. I wasn't sure if he was mumbling or just losing his voice in the low notes during one point. I didn't care enough to rewind and watch again. I do think they should have been harder on Brooke because this is the second time she flubbed the beginning of the song. I think they were hard on Brooke because it's the final six and it was a much bigger mistake than the first time because this one involved stopping an entire orchestra and admitting that you lost your way instead of just losing your timing before you even got started. I'm sure it doesn't help that she's done it in the past, but I don't think the previous mistake was why they were all gripping the sides of their seats. I didn't mind anything they said (note that I immediately block Randy out, so I don't care what he says in the first place) save for Paula's advice, which was stupid.

In my mind, David Cook is the Idol. He has an excellent voice and even though the style of music wasn't his type, I thought he pulled it off, which he seems to do week after week. I know I am in the minority here but I like David A. and am amazed that a 17 year old can sound so composed. I know the dad plays a huge role, but his dad didn't give that kid his voice. Last night, I thought he missed a great opportunity to really showcase his voice. I could have seen DA sing the song that DC sang. You're right, Galaxygirl, the look on ALW's face was priceless after DA sang his song, but I have to give DA credit, he kept his eyes open.

I know I am in the minority here but I like David A. and am amazed that a 17 year old can sound so composed. I know the dad plays a huge role, but his dad didn't give that kid his voice. Oh, I don't *dislike* the kid. I even probably *like* him for the most part, I'm just completely over him. He's talented, but I can't watch the desperation anymore and "aw shucks" behaviour wore out it's welcome just a couple of weeks in. The difference between him and Brooke is that she lets the basket case out and David A. seems to keep it locked up tightly. When he explodes, it's gonna be worse than Brooke at her lowest moment. That's difficult to watch, so I block him out. I think if he were a couple of years older and his father didn't have such a presence and cast such a shadow, it would be different, but there's too much that seems to be happening just off screen and it's unnerving.

Well, that went pretty much as I predicted about everywhere but here lol. I wish I could be happy she's gone, since I really disliked her, but I'm not. She wasn't the worse by a long shot and I fear that she fell victim to casual fans not voting for her because they thought another of their faves was in danger(Brooke/Jason).

I really suspected Carly would go and it had less to do with her performance than the song she sang. "Jesus Christ Superstar." The title alone is going to be a big turn off to a lot of religious/spiritual people. Whether it is or not, it sounds blasphemous so she probably turned off a lot of people just with the song choice.

I really suspected Carly would go and it had less to do with her performance than the song she sang. "Jesus Christ Superstar." The title alone is going to be a big turn off to a lot of religious/spiritual people. Whether it is or not, it sounds blasphemous so she probably turned off a lot of people just with the song choice. Well said. I have said viewers were looking for a reason to send Carly home and I think her connecting with all the judges did it this week. She had a strong performance IMHO. If song choice didn't already turn off the viewers you mentioned then teh song plus the shot of her husband probably did it. Even my husband who is not lacking in ink commented on Carly's husbands art.

I have a hard time believing that there was a massive uprising from a super angry corner of the religious community who are, for whatever reason, watching and voting for Idol. I can't imagine that super religious people were voting for Carly in the first place or that a significant number would be so outraged that they'd start dialing for other contestants. My experience with people who lose their shit over things like that is that they tend to spend more time complaining about it as loudly as possible and less time doing anything about it. My opinion is more in line with galaxygirl's: people overthought it and voted to keep Brooke and Jason, thinking that Carly would be okay and poor Syesha's time had come. Then there are a smaller group who stuck around after KLC was voted out (some of whom most definitely fall into the relgious category) who, if I had to guess, have thrown their votes behind Archuletta. I haven't read "the other place" at all this year, but my past experience with reading those and other boards makes me believe that there's no way that the ousted pretty blonde with the countryish voice is going to have her voters tune in for the remaining blonde with similar traits. I think their votes, ultimately, made no difference beyong padding Archie's already enormous vote count. He's safe. As much as it pains me to go with Randy (especially when he's being pointlessly petty), it's a popularity contest at this point. The Davids have their strong block that is voting for them no matter what. The others have their own smaller blocks of fans and a rotating group of fans who put too much thought into the voting process every year. The fortunate part is that they all bring something to the table.

You may have a hard time believing it, but I know a lot of people who watch AI and all were a little shocked that she picked that song and none of them were "super angry" just "put off." It doesn't take outrage or even something controversial to make someone not vote. There are those voters who will vote for their favorites every week, no matter what. Then there are people who will vote for a good performance if someone does a bang-up job that week, but might vote for someone else the next week. I think Carly fell victim to the random voters and, yes, I do believe there are enough religioius/spiritual people--who don't have to be "super angry" but who would find it a little off-putting to hear some of those lyrics--and, thus, not vote. AI appeals to bazillions of people. Rest assured, that includes people in religious communities.

My point is, were that many of those people voting for her in the first place? I don't really think a significant enough number were to make that huge of a difference if they suddenly *didn't*. People tend to be more proactive when they *like* something, not when they hate something. People vote for KLC when she waves the flag and they save her. People tend to leave when complacency sets in. I don't really think too many people would have been shocked before her performance if she went home and I don't think her going home comes as a huge shock either. Unless it's one of the Davids, few are going to be surprised by any eliminations in the next three weeks either. Carly, Brooke, Syesha, Jason...any one of them could have gone and after the initial sadness of their fans, I don't think anyone would be thinking much of it. Rest assured, that includes people in religious communities. Rest assured, I never said or implied otherwise.

My point is, were that many of those people voting for her in the first place? I'm not sure many people were voting for her previously period. The reaction I've seen elsewhere is that posters were shocked that she's gone because they respected the voice & thought it wasn't the worst performance, but when nudged many admitted they hadn't voted for her. People weren't that engaged with her & her song choice was one of the factors that didn't give them a reason to become more proactive & vote for her - it probably did turn off some people too, but how can you measure that? Its not like they are voting to express their displeasure, they simply ignore her. There's also an element of the "oh, she's safe, enough other people will vote for her" - except I just don't think people were that into her to make the effort.

I think that's really the one saving grace of the voting process for this show: you can't vote people off, you can only vote to keep them on. Imo, I think you're pretty much correct in that people weren't there for her. Some people don't like her, some don't care, some don't care enough to vote, and so on down the line. I'm not surprised she made it this far, wouldn't have been surprised if she left five weeks ago and wouldn't be that shocked if she survived last night. Top five was up for grabs for any of them. We'll never have that data made available to us, but it would a shock me to see that there's any significant distance between her, Syesha, Brooke and Jason. Jason probably jumps for certain reasons, but for the most part I'd think they're all firmly at the bottom and the huge voting blocks are in the corners for the Davids. The only thing that'll be interesting is final three when the people who *were* big fans of Michael or Carly or KLC could throw some votes behind Jason (who I'm just assuming is going to be in the final three) with David A. being this year's Daughtry or Tamyra/insert your favorite loser here.