16 up

The American Idol results show, to see who makes it to the sweet 16. The other networks must be kicking themselves, this hour could easily be replaced by a couple of lines of text on a website; instead, it's beating up on their key Thursday night lineup. I was 3 for 4 last week; wonder if bookies are taking bets on this.

They complain about their old song choice, then have the group do Joy to the World. Chris Richardson displays a weak voice; Jordin knocks it out; they funnily have AJ singing 'you know I love the ladies'; Gina screeches, as does Antonella; I like the staging though, it's actually kindof fun even if the stage is ridiculously crowded.

Up first with the guys, it's funny watching Ryan do the good cop/bad cop routine all by himself. Phil's safe for tonight; Chris Sligh too, of course; Sundance as well with our without votefortheworst; Blake's safe, Jared gets yanked down to join Ryan but then sent back up as safe. And then--Nick gets sent home, with no preliminaries. Ouch. Poor guy, just never developed a fan club, too old and, as Simon says, no charisma. He does a classy, adult thing I haven't seen before, goes over to the other guys and slaps hands with them, all in tune; at the end thanks everyone.

Over to a grim looking group of girls. Stephanie first, is safe; Gina next, she's safe too; Sabrina should be safe, and is; Melinda next, safe of course; Alaina next, awww, and goes home. I liked her, thought she was a nice person. She says bye to the audience, her family, tears up as she addresses the other contestants, starts off so rough; stops singing, gets the other women to come down and hug her, just stops singing, lets the background people do it. Then recovers; man, Sundance is totally crying, as is she. These little moments are so interesting. I really didn't think she sang that badly. Hmm, as Paula's talking to her there's a boom, probably a light blowing, then they have two bad cuts, very odd since this is supposed to be live; maybe they used the 7-second delay. If it were a classier era or news programming they'd at least allude to it after break.

But of course, don't. Kellie Pickler comes out, does a little shtick with Ryan about spider sushi, and shoes. Very interesting blue dress, emphasizes some of her assets; heavily made up. Not sure I like her hairdo, makes her look a lot older; song isn't bad, all kindof goes on for too long though.

Back to the guys, Chris Richardson should stay, and of course he does; Brandon next, safe--barely, I'm sure; Sanjaya and AJ, we know Sanjaya has a huge fan club so he's safe, but they drag both of them to the center. Poor Sanjaya looks so unhappy, AJ kindof oblivious, Sanjaya is stunned, says he's shocked, AJ says he thought Sanjaya is great; they hug, he's a nice guy. Paula says it's a singing competition, but I don't think tonight reflects that; Randy agrees, maybe not the trade for you though. I'm very curious what effect this will have on Sanjaya; some people could feel like they don't deserve to be around and subconsciously or not, sabotage themselves. Others could say you know what, I'm gonna prove my fans right and knock it out of the park. AJ really isn't bad--I guess after two weeks though Sanjaya's the only Asian American left. Man, Sundance is crying again; what the hell?

Final go-around with the women; Lakisha of course safe, Ryan tells her to stand and then says exactly that; Haley is safe as well (ugh); Antonella, Leslie and Jordin all have to join Ryan in the center. Duh, wonder who it'll be.... Ryan jerks Antonella around before telling her that she's safe; then after a bit tells Leslie see-ya.

Oh well; I figured Leslie would be gone soon, but not this week--I went 1-3, not great, but I'm pretty sure next week Leslie and Haley, along with Brandon and probably Phil will be outof there. They show clips of the four who are leaving, then Leslie sings us out. Really, she wasn't that bad.