I think Joanna has a good voice, but she was terrible with remembering lyrics, so I was surprised she didn't cut earlier. I'm surprised they didn't bring back the blonde that Simon liked and the other three picked Kristen over.

Okay, I normally don't watch AI but I'm home, tv is on and I'm too lazy to change it. I must ask y'all what the hell is going on with that emaciated girl squalling "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" on my screen? That was absolutely dreadful. ETA: I see the judges agree with me.

I watched about 15 minutes before I realized that I didn't care about any of these people and didn't want to spend my evening hearing 16 yr olds squawk their way thru pop hits of the mid-80s. No, I don't know what's come over me. It's weird.

I thought Ann Marie was pretty good, better than most of the girls have been. I didn't expect the judges to criticize her so much. Alexis is probably the best so far.

Is that the little girl with the pink hair? She probably was the best. I'm really awful with the names of some of these people this year, partly because I don't care and partly because it felt like we were meeting some of them for the first time tonight. Not a good night. I'm totally into Anoop and I would say Danny's second. That Braddy kid is all right, but boring. Pretty disappointed in the rest of them. Ladies, when crazy ass Tatiana is one of the best of the night you're all in a bit of trouble. The girl who sang "Every Little Thing She Does" was so bad, but not the worst ever or even the worst of the night. She was bad, though. She was also the one I really felt sorry for because she didn't know how bad she was and she seems like she really did have a good time. She can sing, she just can't sing well enough for this show I'm afraid. Or, probably, anything beyond open mic night or a theme park. Her segment with the judges also highlighted why it's best to keep Ryan on the stage and not upstairs at the old folks mixer. During these rounds, he's the advocate for the contestants. He's a distraction for Simon to say nasty things to instead of twisting the knife in the contestants and he's the shoulder to cry on. Having him upstairs for most of the show (as opposed to mixing it up like they have in the past) was awkward. But, most of the show was awkward. Speaking of awkward, if I were Simon I'd watch my back because the band can't be too happy with the jabs he took at them.

The new judge is officially worthless for me. I still don't see any reason why she's there. Paula seemed off her rocker, but that's normal, at least she's not looking into the future yet. I'm not getting the Danny hype. Sorry.

At one point I flipped past AI and Paula was talking and I stopped because she seemed particularly incoherent and I enjoy watching meltdowns as it makes me feel less insane. I swear to y'all that woman talked forEVER! Children were born and left home and came back to visit with children of their own in the time it took Paula to say that the singer (who I never saw because the camera was focused on Paula's crazy) had pretty much been on key and hadn't effed the song up too bad. Also, I think there was something about auras. Please tell me I didn't make that up.

I can't confirm or deny that you made it up, but it's not like she hasn't talked about auras before. Paula likes auras. Though, in Paula's defense, she was the least annoying judge last night. Which isn't saying much when talking about the other two dumbasses, but that Simon managed to come in at #1 on my list of irritants...well, that's saying something. He's totally working my nerves. The only person I didn't walk away from that show wanting to slap for various reasons was Ryan and I think he might have gotten a pass, partly because I'm sick of Simon and partly because he had to deal with some really bullshit technical difficulties that a show like this shouldn't be having, period, especially in season eight.

Speaking of awkward, if I were Simon I'd watch my back because the band can't be too happy with the jabs he took at them. I just read that there is no band this year during the semi's(budget cuts?), which might also explain the lack of contestants playing instruments so far in the semi's.

Then who was Simon referring to? Once or twice he only said "arrangement" and "keyboard", which could be wanked away, but he said "band" at least once. The first time, I think. Then again, Simon's said plenty of things that weren't accurate, so I guess it doesn't make a difference what he says wrt what is actually true. I can buy that cuts account for no band, but I don't know what that would have to do with the contestants. I wonder if it's more "even playing field" until they get to who are actually going to be there. That doesn't make a tremendous amount of sense, but it's seemed odd that nobody was allowed to play an instrument.

Maybe he was just being pissy(in his way) about the lack of band? Some of last year's contestants had one of their best performances during the semi's using their instruments(Brooke, Jason, David C.), so yeah, I don't know what that's about.

So is it certain that no one is allowed to play an instrument? Or was it just choice so far? I'm worried that Scott won't do as well if he's not allowed to play.

I don't know, I haven't seen anything official about it but I think it's a bit fishy that no one has played an instrument so far.

I'm disappointed that Jasmine was kind of bad tonight. Everyone has been bad tonight so far. :(

Yeah, it was rough tonight. It picked up a little bit. If the audience votes right then the results won't be painful, but still...there were some decent people who just flat out sucked it tonight. One thing I find interesting is how much they love Wicked Guy. He *is* very good at what he does. He has a nice voice and good stage presence. And he has a nice, commercial look about him. Plus, he seems like a decent guy. He's fine to go through. My only issue is that he hammed the hell out of that performance. It was so musical theater that he might as well have been singing "Grease Lightning" instead of "Satisfaction". The only significant thing that separates him from Norman is that he shops at Hot Topic instead of Gadzooks. Norman's joking (sort of) and this dude is serious. The judges are puzzled by Norman (and apparently so is the 16 year old's mom), but they fall all over Wicked Guy. It's not really surprising to me, but I always find those sorts of things odd on this show.