Song spoilers according to TMZ: ---> * Jason Castro - “Forever in Blue Jeans” and “September Morn” - * David Archuleta - “Sweet Caroline” and “America” * Brooke White - “I Am … I Said” at the piano and “I’m a Believer” * Syesha Mercado - “Hello Again” & “Thank the Lord for the Night Time” * David Cook - “I’m Alive”, “All I Ever Really Need is You” <---

Thanks for the link to the LJ community. It's now taking over my friends page, but it's cool! :) I'm really looking forward to tonight's show. I bet Neil Diamond will be a great mentor.

No problem e_c. I love that place, it's fun :) Brooke? Really?

Wow-Paula's in great form. I hope she drove herself to the show.

LMAO Paula just hit her all time air-head high. High being the operative word.

What the hell was that? Poor Paula. At least Simon was nice to her, but they should shut her up before she started rambling about second songs. Simon hates tonight.

As usual, my vote goes to David Cook. I actually liked Brooke's second song. I thought David A was not very good and that his song choice was manipulative. He's got 90 seconds and managed to make it a patriotic mix. Very calculated!

Archie completely butchered the hell out of Sweet Caroline. It was almost as bad as Brooke's butchering of 'I'm a Believer'. I'm still not recovered from Paula's booboo. Now that's great television. Loved Cookie's reaction on the whole thing. Poor Jason though, can you imagine having to perform after hearing that the 'nice one' didn't like it, before even hearing it?

Yeah, that sucked for him. About Dial Idol: Can you believe Dial Idol has Syesha in the top spot at the moment?

What's more shocking for me is how much lower Archie is on DI. He never been lower than second. Syesha never gets a lot of text votes though. I have no idea who's voting for her because it was obvious the last weeks that she didn't have much of a fanbase. <---

I partly blame Randy for Paula's fuckup. I hate to break it to him, but that's not what Ryan wanted when he asked for a quick comment about the first round. He wanted the usual "it was a good start" or a name of who was the best. He wanted the nonsense he's always asking for when he asks that question, he didn't want you to judge each one...especially after he'd already wasted time pointing out that they would *not* be judging each one. I think Paula nutted up while Randy was babbling and felt like she had to assess each performer and just flashed back on the dress rehearsals. She should have just admitted as much since it's no secret that she watches them, but it seems like she was even more jacked up than usual and...the whole thing was a mess. They should have done an hour and a half. As annoying as filler is, so is pointless rushing. Ryan's head looks like it's going to explode when they go two minutes over, but it doesn't look much better when they're all rushing around like they're on speed. Based on Cook's first song and Brooke's second, they were my favorites. Jason did fine on "Forever in Blue Jeans" and the judges can suck it because that song is lame even when Neil sings it. Likewise, Syesha might have sounded good in the theater, but her last song didn't sound good on television and they need to watch the tape back to see that. Archuletta sucked the life out of both songs and just like "I Will Always Love You" should have been banned from Dolly week, "Sweet Caroline" should have been banned from Neil week, especially if your intent is to take everyone's favorite singalong and make it impossible to sing along to. And, good Lord...I pictured KLC at home watching that second song and just shaking her head in pity. There's pandering and then there's just bullshit. She did the one of the lamest songs ever written and she did it like someone singing it at a high school assembly. He did an equally lame song that actually has the potential to be fun in the right setting when (and only when) Neil Diamond himself sings it and he made it sound like the absolute worst laser show on the Fourth of July spectacle ever. He needs to be whacked on the nose hard with a rolled up newspaper and be made to sit in a corner and think about what it is that he's done. It was almost as bad as Brooke's butchering of 'I'm a Believer'. It was worse. "I'm a Believer" is karaoke to begin with and even though she wasn't good, she didn't murder the song. I'd rather hear the Monkees sing it any day of the week (I'd even settle for Smashmouth), but she didn't make me want to punch her. David A. did. He took the song's charm and made it smarmy.

I just want Will Ferrell to show up tomorrow night and sing with Neil. Oh forgot, Neil was looking good. He seems to be aging really gracefully and seemed like a nice guy.

So, Paula's on the radio right now (q100 out of atlanta, she calls in every week) and, wow. She seems a little bit pissed. Per her, Nigel didn't tell any of the three of them about the change in judging practices. Not that he didn't tell them in enough time for them to come up with a plan, but that he didn't tell them at all. Part of the problem with the song confusion also arose from the fact that all three judges basically missed part of Jason's song (that didn't stop them from bitching about it, though) because they were talking during it and trying to figure out what was going on. Again per her, Simon and Nigel got into a little tiff during a commercial break because the first they heard about the change was when Ryan announced it and the first Ryan heard about it was shortly before the show started. Weirdly, she's more coherent at 6am than she is at 5pm. Go figure. I'd be interested to hear what Ryan says about it because I can't imagine it isn't being addressed on his show this morning. Her basic rundown is that she got confused, confused herself (she had written down an outline and was filling it in as she went) and she's now angry and embarassed. Simon wasn't happy and he was confused too. Randy was confused. Randy had some of Paula's notes that she was writing during the show while she was trying to give her assessment because he had used them to do his own and, over all, she's angry with the producers and Nigel right now. I'm going to assume that TMZ will give some sort of scoop from their mole. At least I hope they do because I want to hear about what happened after the show because reading between the lines it seems that none of the talent was pleased with Nigel. And hopefully Whitney from EW was at the taping because I'd like to hear about what happened during that first commercial break from someone who was witnessing it from the sidelines. The only bad part is that she's lying/contradicting herself because she's saying that she doesn't watch the dress when she's said multiple times in the past that she does watch dress. Obviously she doesn't watch it from start to finish every week, but she's gone on the record and even stated during the show that she watches dress or earlier rehearsals. Ryan's made it no secret that he does the same. But, again, this is all Paula-speak so it probably needs to be broken down a bit and put into the context of what's happening right at this moment and this week and not anything that happened befor this because...it's Paula. Plus she's getting a little frustrated with the DJs and that's not helping matters because they're confusing the issue a bit by not understanding her in return. It's weird radio, but not as weird as the show last night.

Yeah, keep digging Paula From the EW 'on the scene' blog: "Oh gosh—we've never had to write these things down, uh, fast enough," she said. "Jason, the first song, I loved hearing your lower register, which we never really hear." So far so good. "Um, the second song, I felt like your usual charm, it was missing for me. It kind of left me a little empty." Huh? The audience began tittering with confusion, and Nigel and Debbie both began quietly freaking out. Paula continued, unaware. "The two songs made me feel like you're not fighting hard enough to get into the top four." By this point, several audience members were openly cracking up, Debbie had to stop herself from stepping on camera to end the madness, and Nigel was frantically gesturing a single finger to anyone who could see him: ONE SONG! THEY'VE ONLY SUNG ONE SONG! "So, David Cook," Paula continued, until Randy saved the day: "Oh, they've just done the first song though, just the first one." The tension was finally broken with this apology (of sorts) from Paula: "I thought you—Oh my god, I thought you sang twice!…You know what, this is hard! You know what, I'm looking at, it's your notes, David . You were fantastic." As Simon swooped in for his chance to scold the Idols, Nigel stepped off stage to, I'm assuming, get the on-site EMTs to give him some oxygen. At the ad break, the judges were all whisked out of the studio, Syesha Mercado, David Cook, David Archuleta and Brooke White left waving to the audience, and Jason Castro was left on a stool, stage center, contemplating what, exactly, had just happened. I also read that next week's theme is 'Songs that shaped/inspired Rock & Roll'. I'm starting to think they want Archie out. I don't see Little David sing any of those songs.

Live TV folks! No script or anything like that. Oh no, certainly no fix on in this group. I mean, they're judges-judges don't play favorites! Leave Jason alone! I know he's a mediocre singer (at best.) I know he looks perpetually stoned and confused. Finally, an Idol I can relate to! He's a welcome change from the Syeshas (where the hell did her fanbase come from all of a sudden?) and Archelatas (where did they go--and can they stay there?) we usually get. ETA: "Songs that shaped or inspired rock'n'roll"? Seriously? So, like "Hellhound on my Trail," Wynonie Harris songs and maybe a Hank Williams song or two? Somehow I doubt I'm going to agree with the song choices. ETA2-The Return: Am I missing something? Paula said that Jason wasn't trying hard enough to be in Top 4. Then she backtracked and said that she was reading her notes on Cook. Who she then said was fantastic. Was she actually supposed to sabotage Cookie?