The Other Door

'Idol' math: Addition by subtraction

Above: Alaina Whitaker heard the news Thursday, oh boy, and it wasn't good.

Thursday night was elimination night; four contestants walked the plank. None of the dearly departed was going to win this competition, but the results were still surprising.

The biggest surprise: Amanda Overmeyer survived her atrocious performance on Wednesday night. She stayed on at the expense of a better (and younger and more personable) singer, Alexandrea Lushington, a teenager who couldn't quite translate 30- and 40-year-old songs into something contemporary.

'Idol': When bad choices happen to good singers

Biker/nurse Amanda Overmeyer visited Kansas on Tuesday. She may not carry on beyond tonight.

Tuesday's show ended on such a high note it's no surprise that ladies' night was a disappointment. The 10 contestants made '70s night a steady drizzle of average to bad songs given good to perfunctory to bad treatments. All night the judges talked about choices. Few made good ones. The roll call:

Carly Smithson: The former bartender at an Irish pub pours some Canadian whiskey: Heart's "Crazy On You." She has the pipes for it and pretty much passes muster, singing it like a lot like the original. She's batting lead-off, so without anyone to compare her to, the judges are typically middle-of-the-road positive. Simon: You're the best of the ladies, but you need to pick better songs. Didn't do much for me except confirm she has a generic big rock voice.

Syesha Mercado: Picks a soul nugget "Me and Mrs. Jones," but makes the lyrics gender appropriate (Mr. Jones). Her ending had some wobble in it; overall it's fine, but not really memorable. Safe enough to get her through this round. Simon: It wasn't a clever choice.

'Idol': A child-star is born

Our man David Cook strapped on a Les Paul and roared through Free's "All Right Now." Then he sparred with Simon.

The 10 males -- nine men, one boy -- left in this year's competition stepped back up to the plate on Tuesday and had their ways with song from the 1970s. (And two of them, coincidentally, have the surnames of former dictators: Castro and Norina.)

Each contestant had either a bad or weak first impression to correct or a high threshold to sustain. Ninety minutes later, a few had separated themselves from the rest of a pack that will get thinned on Thursday without pain or injustice.

Simon Cowell has been extraordinarily brutal in delivering insult with truths so far this year; on Tuesday, a few of the contestants counter-punched and hit him with insults of their own. As thin-skinned as he is, he didn't take it well. However, I'm with him: No man looks good getting into a verbal catfight with a petulant Brit.  The roll call:

'Idol': Then there were a pair of 10s

Above: Colton Berry gets the news: Viewers thought he was one of the four who most needed to go home.

Thursday night the guillotine fell on four of the Final 24. None of the cuts was outrageous; all four weren't going to stay very long anyway. Garrett Hayley was the first to go, and he went suddenly, abruptly, without a moment of foreplay.

'Idol" in Hollywood: The Other Dozen

Above: Asia'H Epperson, the lady from Joplin, impressed the judges with some Janis Joplin.

Wednesday night the 12 remaining ladies took their first step toward whatever fame and fortune someone will scrape out of winning "American Idol: Season 7." 

A few of this year's contestants have been "exposed" as singers with professional backgrounds and former label deals (Carly Smithson, Michael Johns).

We could use a few more of them. Tuesday night the men proved that this is, above all, an amateur talent show. Wednesday night, the women seconded that emotion.

We also learned on Wednesday that Simon Cowell is spectacularly ignorant about certain kinds of music. However, he's still usually spot-on about recognizing mediocre talent when he hears it.

The roll call:

Kristy Lee Cook, the gal who sold her horse to finance her audition: Picks "Rescue Me," a song Aretha made famous. It's pretty room-temperature pleasant, forgettable. The judges aren't impressed; Simon calls it robotic. Randy: Hits the "it wasn't my favorite" alt-key; Paula sympathetically brings up the "flu" that's going around. She may be a horseless robot with a chest cold, but  Kristy Lee ought to live at least another week.

'Idol' in Hollywood: This time could be the last time

Above: Tuesday's theme was music from the 1960s, so David Cook of Blue Springs sang "Happy Together," a song made famous by the Turtles. He's probably safe for at least another week.

Tuesday night, the 12 men still standing sang for their futures, which will be decided by the viewers. The theme: the 1960s, which meant all 12 had access to some of the best music of the past 48 years. Instead, they chose lots of whipped cream and Velveeta cheese. The roll call:

David Hernandez: He leads off with Wilson Pickett's "The Midnight Hour." Gives it a brief gospel treatment, then goes for the safer, white soul flavor, with just enough vibrato to be slightly annoying. Sounds a little too Michael Bolton to me. Judges are noncommittal but mostly positive. It didn't suck but there's nothing else to compare it to. Simon: It was better than I thought it would be. He's safe.

'Idol' in Hollywood: '24' 'Survivors'

Above: David Cook is from Blue Springs. As of Wednesday, he's got a 4.16 percent chance of being the sole "American Idol" winner from Missouri. The scarf had nothing to do with his selection; he's a good singer.

For now, it doesn't really matter who got in and who didn't. What matters for this flagging franchise is that Season 7 has finally reached the point where the rubber hits the asphalt. From here on in, the viewers get involved, and personalities (such as they are)  emerge.

Wednesday night, the judges put the 50 remaining contestants through judgment day. All 50 gathered in a waiting room. Then one-by-one, each took an elevator ride to the courtroom and walked a long walk down to a chair in front of the jury, which cut the field to 24: 12 men, 12 women.

'Idol' in Hollywood: The drama gets dramatic

The producers changed the rules for Round 2, or "Hollywood: The Bloodletting." They have apparently calculated that one way to thicken the plot of a dying narrative is to prolong the agony for some people who need to go home.

In round one at the Orpheum Theater, the field was cut from 164 to 50 -- nearly 80 percent -- but only after a mercy clause. First-round rejects get a mulligan: a 10-second cattle call with other rejects.

Another change: In the first round, they allowed contestants to play instruments -- or to hoist themselves on their out-of-tune petards (like the nut who accompanied himself on the drums).

 

'Idol': The beginning is (mercifully) over

Above: The Lane Twins share more than identical looks. As MCs, they suck identically, too.

Wednesday was the final night of preliminaries. Instead of a showcase from one locale, the producers pulled an hour's worth of winners and losers from all seven previous auditions. The bad news: They weren't saving the best for last. The best news: These hapless cattle-calls are over.

Tonight's first contestant: Amy, 25, who sings "Blue Bayou." She has an average pretty voice, but way above-average looks (and a centerfold's shape). Her skimpy top helps, too. In this private caucus, she gets 100 percent of the vote among superficial men over the age of 40. (Simon and Randy say they hear "possibilities." Right.) Paula gives her a "whatever" OK.

'Idol' in Atlanta: As we go lurching through Georgia

Tonight's episode is the last of the cattle calls -- one final chance for somebody to cash in on their idiocy or their lack of pride and shame. (Wednesday appears to be some useless roundup/summary show.)

Tuesday night, we got to meet the couple that spawned Ryan Seacrest (and is willing to publicly admit it). Then it's on to the mass-elimination process, which has become numbingly predictable.  The contestants: