Waiting on Jennifer

Blogging hour-long American Idol results show live; a bunch of things spread out, Ryan promises. Randy says Latin songs are hard to sing, despite what some might think; Paula gets messed with by Simon; Ryan asks Simon about what he says to Sanjaya, Simon says straightforwardly it was a compliment.

Group song starts with everyone with their backs turned; they pair Sanjaya and Haley; wow, Jordin has a cool brown dress on. Man, Blake really is smarmy; overall it's not bad.

Btw, the New York Post, in its usual blaring way, had an interesting piece about Sanjaya today: 'IDOL' MUSIC DIRECTOR: 'SANJAYA CAN WIN!':

By MICHAEL STARR, MANY people think "American Idol" lightning-rod Sanjaya Malakar should've been gone weeks ago.

But don't tell that to the show's musical director, Ricky Minor.

"You know what? I think that he could win the show," Minor told The Post yesterday.

"He's gotten this far because he really is what he is - he's got this huge smile, he's a handsome guy and is really likable.

"People are pulling for him - and people really care about him."

Malakar, the 17-year-old from Washington, has polarized "Idol" viewers with his affect, his strange hairdos (including his much-talked-about "fauxhawk") and his questionable singing talent.

"I can tell you he can sing," says Minor, now in his third season as "Idol" musical director. "I think there are people who are naysayers, but I've run into a lot of credible people who really enjoy his voice.

"He has a connection to the lyrics and people are pleasantly surprised.

"This isn't a singing competition alone. It's for a star to emerge," he says. "Sanjaya has a huge likability factor. I think it's possible for him to win based on the way he's moving through the competition. "

Minor hires and conducts the "Idol" band, decides musical arrangements and interacts one-on-one with the finalists "if someone wants to talk about something personal," he says.

Eight finalists remain going into tonight's elimination show (9 p.m./Ch. 5).

"In the beginning they were all having a hard time because they started reading the blogs and the junk people were saying about them," Minor says.

"I told them, 'Don't read [the blogs]. Believe in what you're doing and work hard on your craft.' "

Yeah, don't read the blogs!

Gosh, it's gonna be a long nights; AI's become so bloated--trivia contest, songwriting competition, now Ryan doing a man on street segment. They ask a bunchof people able Sanjaya, including this cute little girl who didn't like anyone but Sanjaya and LaKisha. It's funny, most of the people don't even know anybody's names.

Hmm, so Akon comes out--AI's apparently so big they can just bring him on without any hype. I've never heard him, only seen his photos; seems different, Wikipedia says he's Senegalese-American. His song's definitely got an international flair to it; little by little, first with soccer and now with music, America's youth are joining the rest of the world.

Ford commercial is great, the Idols morph into each other as various Ford cars do the same (not sure why Ford wants to draw attention to the fact that many of the cars are essentially the same, being built on the same chassis).

Blah, blah, FOX gives Idol Gives Back $5 million; they rerun scenes of Simon and Ryan's trip to Africa, featuring a 'school in a box'. Lots of crayons, chalk, paper, rulers--but no books. Some kid draws Simon with breasts, it's pretty funny; Simon blushes as Ryan does some man touching with him.

They're setting it up so Simon will sing if they raise X amounts of dollars. There's a funny mash-up of Tony Bennett 'auditioning' and the judges ripping on him. The audience is like awwww....

Halfway through, still all padding. Back from break and they show the finalists in their seats; finally get to the recap. Of course they finish with Sanjaya/Simon. Ryan talks to the contestants, Haley admits it hurt when Simon made his comment about his clothing as Ryan goes down the front row talking to them--skipping over Chris.

Phil stands, and he's in the bottom three; LaKisha stands, and she's safe; Jordin (after Ryan says 'Haley' by mistake, drawing a puzzled look from the skimply-dressed one) is safe; Sanjaya is told to sit down for the moment, they're gonna do him and Chris one-on-one having realized he's the only one people care about; Melinda is safe, Haley--as we already knew--is not; Ryan asks Sanjaya to stand up again, then tells him to sit down (he's not going home tonight, they wouldn't jerk around someone who was); Blake is safe; Chris stands up with Sanjaya--and Sanjaya is safe, it's Chris (to some boos).

Wow, if I had to pick a bottom three, this is exactly the three I'd have picked. Nice that as the season goes on America is seeing the light!

They mess with who they send back, and it's Chris. Phil repeats he's just blessed to be here; they show more puffery about J.Lo, with the Idols praising her. Wonder if this was part of the contract; St. J.Lo. I do like her, though; she's tough--and there's a hilarious bit at the end where Sanjaya talks about gettting her number (but not telling Marc Antony about it). He's really quite funny.

Then, Jen from the block comes out, sings a song in Spanish--wonder if Simon will complain about not understanding a word of it. Wow, anyone who still doubts this country is changing just has to watch this--the biggest show in the country, and the centerpiece is a pop idol singing entirely in Spanish. I wonder if the Peter Kings and Tom Tancredos of the country are watching; it must be pretty grim to be on the wrong side of history.

It's quite a performance, I mean, really, between this and Prince there's nobody this show can't get; I'll bet record companies will start timing their new releases to the AI season to get maximum exposure for their stars.

Ryan asks her about the judges' feedback, she laughs and says she probably comes from the Paula school of criticism. Ryan's trying out his Spanish in kicking to commercial; really, in the future j-schools should study this as a watershed moment.

35 million votes cast, but not enough for Haley, who at long last gets kicked off. She should never have made it out of the semis; it's ridiculous. They show her 'highlights'; here's my initial impression of her out of San Antonio:

Then, someone good I think. Earnest chick; reminds me a bit of McPhee by her behavior. Odd v-shaped back black outfit. Haley Scarnato; and she has a good voice, pretty powerful, but also controlled, not just loud--maybe a bit generic. Sings convincingly, not just performing. Paula likes her, Randy says it was okay, Simon says a bit cabaret; nothing so unique. They give her a shot, why not.

I gotta tell you, I was remarkably prescient about the Katharine McPhee thing--both had a fakeness to them that I didn't like, and while Haley turned out to be a vocal mess, she shared McPhee's cold-bloodedness I think.

Anyway, see ya; now let's work on getting rid of Phil and Chris.