Yeah, Chris dropped a few notches with me because Creed has to be one of my least favorite bands ever...I can take Nsync or New Kids to those suck asses.

I've loved Chris' song choices. But Simon seems to be contradicting himself a bit, praising Chris for not compromising last week, and criticizing him for not showing more diversity this week. I personally see nothing wrong with finding your niche and being great at it.

It's because, in hindsight, he looked like an idiot for what he said last week (the whole "making it your own" when it was a Live song). He probably felt pressured by the producers to knock him on it, as between that mistake, and the fact that they purposely had Chris tell us it was a Live song last night, they took a lot of heat in the media for how they portrayed that performance.

Let me add, in case anyone wants to jump on me, that I think Simon is the only worthwhile judge, and that Chris never actually tried to portray Live's version as his own, but the editing made it seem that way.

Lisa - Poor song choice. Her performances keep getting worse as the show goes on. I wonder if it is due to her confidence being low since she has been in the bottom three everytime.

Kellie - Worst song choice of the night. I thought I had accidently tuned into Hee-Haw. Could the girl please buy some stage presence?

Ace - Did anyone else cringe at the beginning where he looks like his balls were being cut off while singing? The doe-eyed "vote for me because I am sexy" stare is way old.

Chris - Screaming, screaming & more screaming. What does it say about you as a performer is you can't sing a Creed song as good or better than the original version?

Mandisa - Awful song choice and terrible vocals. One of the worst performances of the night (not really saying much). And...Mandisa in jeans...

Katherine - I just don't get her appeal. Average voice but nothing special. She warbles her tune and the judges (even Simon) like it???

Bucky - Why is he still there?

Taylor - Not a great song choice but the best performance of the evening...which again isn't saying much.

Paris - She is awful. I know they love her because her Grandma sang 30 years ago but she needs to go...now, please.

Elliot - His worst performance yet. He, the band, the lighting rig, the teleprompter...everything was off about his performance.

And is there any way they could possibly get rid of Randy and Paula after this year? Randy is Mr. Obnoxious...dog this, dog that, hot one tonight, yo, yo, yo dog pound...does the man ever say anything of substance?

And don't get me started on Paula...either she is so doped up that she makes no sense whatsoever or she is Miss "everyone is wonderful." She is completely and utterly worthless to the show.

Other changes to make next year (though I know it won't happen)...make it so you can vote the worst person out. Too many shitty people stick around way too long because they have a fan base.

This suggestion crops up from time to time, and it's one I disagree with for a couple of reasons:

1. The goal of the show is to find a performer who can sell records. People don't go into the CD shop and purchase music from the artists they hate the least...they buy for the artists the love the most. The show, in it's current scheme, reflects that.

2. If we voted off contestants, voters would go after the performer they'd see as the biggest threat to "their" favorite. Which means the best contestants would go first, not the worst.

This isn't to say that the voting method can't be improved, but voting people out isn't the way to go (see Big Brother 1).

Also, all of Ann Nesby's chart-toppers were in the late 90's early 2000's.

I just wished there was a consistent performer who had a clue and knows how to not only sing, but pick songs and a decent wardrobe. It's just weird how badly most of the contestants are doing in terms of making a grab for the brass ring, given this opportunity to make their case in front of a pretty large TV-viewing audience.

My rankings

Very Good

-

Pretty Good

-

Average

-

Poor

-

Awful

-Everyone!


Ughh, Worst night of AI I have ever seen. What more is there really to say?

I agree with that the vote off method may not be the best, but also, nobody is buying 500 cds of the winner too, it should be 1 vote each.

I think they need to find a way to tie it to internet voting where you can monitor by IP.

But then again why would FOX fix what ain't broke? We certainly don't see Paula going anywhere soon, and she needed to leave two seasons ago.

How about those double entendre comments from Simon after Paula said tell me all about that scar later Ace ...
"PAULAAAAA..."

is the old Ricky Ricardo "Luuuccccyyyyy.."

Good point Groucho. I just hate seeing talentless people like "Chicken Little" (Kevin was his name I think) stick around as long as they do just because their home city/state or region votes for him just because he is from there (or in Kevin's case...more out of pity) and other people go home.

I guess there is good & bad to each way.

I'm going to give this DialIdol thing a shot next week. Anything I can do to keep Pickler in there until the end. Can you just let it run all night?

You can't leave it on all night, but you can have it run through the whole 4-hour voting block (8pm-12am Central time).

They should have it so votes from your home state don't count.

What do you have against my home state? Sheesh, talk about getting personal.

For the second year in a row, the "21st Century Night" proves:

TODAY'S MUSIC SUCKS!!!

You know why today's CD sales are down? It's not because of downloading. It's because the quality just isn't there. People don't want to spend good money on it. They'd rather spend money on DVD's.

This opinion brought to you by the letters S, U, C, and K.

Damm, just finished watching last night show and as already stated the performances were awful all around.

At least I'm excited to see Shakira tonight on the results show.

The hometown vote means nothing, It's just something people bring up whenever someone they want to see get booted sticks around too long. I'm sure every contestent (good & bad) has their hometown fans voting for them.

I don't understand the Creed hate -- regardless of his personality and issues, I think Scott Stapp was a fine singer with them. Of course, I'd be fine not hearing "With Arms Wide Open" for at least 10 years -- I think media oversaturation really hurt them.

yeah, that and them sucking.

Chris should for sure have done Drops of Jupiter, ace was the suck at singing that song.

The exception being Hawaii due to the time zone difference, as demonstrated by Jasmine Trias.

Entertainment Weekly's review of Tuesday's show:

American All-Dull


Though the songs in this week's ''American Idol'' were new, most of the contestants turned in boring, cheesy, or just plain bad performances by Michael Slezak

After last week's superlative American Idol, I know it was greedy of me to hope for an equally entertaining follow-up, but even without the burden of comparisons, tonight's ''Songs of the 21st Century'' episode was a colossal disappointment. In fact, I'd say it was pretty much everything I'd hoped it wouldn't be. Potential rock-god Chris Daughtry slumming it with a Creed cover? Check. Fashions ripped straight from a Kajagoogoo video? Check. The rampant use of contestants' fingers to remind viewers of their toll-free phone numbers? Well, sadly, you can count on that every damn week. But still, with arguably the deepest talent pool in Idol history, how come a tight 60-minute episode felt interminable?

Well, you can start by blaming Ace Young, Bucky Covington, and Lisa Tucker, who might want to consider forming some kind of atonal New Age act known as the Bottom Three. Now admittedly, I've never been an Ace fan, but is there anyone left in America who still sees this guy as a potential Idol after his rendition of Train's ''Drops of Jupiter''? Why didn't he just microwave a giant vat of Velveeta and hurl it into the cameras, because boyfriend definitely brought the cheese! Forget the middling vocal performance — what really pained me was the way Ace opened his shirt mid-performance to show his ''sexy'' scar, the way he gently stroked his overstyled locks while mewling the words ''in her hair,'' the pathetic way he used two hands to encourage fans to dial ''IDOLS-03.'' (Dude, even my four-year-old niece can do it one-handed.) Still, I think Ace deserves safe passage into next week, if only because he inspires such flagrant fawning from judge Paula Abdul. Despite her increased lucidity levels tonight (granted, anything had to be an improvement on last week), she still couldn't resist purring to Ace, in reference to his old wound, ''One day, you'll have to explain to me how you got that one.''

Bucky and Lisa, on the other hand, will most likely and most deservedly be this week's two lowest vote getters on account of their being utterly forgettable. In fact, when I sat down to write tonight's column (some 15 minutes after Idol ended), I had to check my notes to remember what song Bucky decimated this week. (For the record, it was Tim McGraw's ''Real Good Man.'') But can you really criticize me, what with the way this season's poster boy for karaoke swallowed every note in his lower register?

Would that the same could be said about Lisa, whose every off-key note came through my TV set with painful clarity. Granted, it takes a certain level of audacity (or cluelessness, maybe) to attempt a number by the original American Idol winner, but with her soulless, pageant-level abuse of Kelly Clarkson's ''Because of You,'' Lisa, possibly weighed down by seven pounds of turquoise eye shadow, staggered into the territory of former Idol scourges such as Janay Castine, Camille Velasco, and Jim Verraros.

The fact that there are three clearly outclassed singers remaining in the competition is great news for Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler, and Katharine McPhee, all of whom gave the kind of subpar performances that have been known to put front-runners in temporary jeopardy. (Lest we forget, eventual Idol winners Fantasia and Ruben both did time in the bottom three.)

I know a lot of Chris's detractors have complained that he's a one-note wonder, and while I'd vehemently disagree, tonight's performance certainly added, um, Fuel to their Creed-o. (Sorry.) I say this from a place of loving fandom, but Chris, preserving your musical integrity doesn't have to involve selecting painfully obvious tracks like ''What If.'' I mean, what if, instead, you had turned Britney Spears' ''Toxic'' into a pungent rock track? Or what if you'd decided to surprise everyone and get a little funky? Or at least tried to crack the occasional smile? It's American Idol, after all, not Frontline.

Not that Chris needs to worry about elimination for the next six or seven weeks. But Kellie is another story altogether. Is it just me or does it seem like the air is slowly streaming out of the tires on her Idol wagon? Say what you want about her choice of Sara Evans' ''Suds in the Bucket,'' but it should've been a slam dunk for this season's polarizingly flaky contestant. Instead, though, Kellie looked uncomfortable and detached, as if she weren't really sure how she'd ended up on a massive stage performing for a national audience.

I've had that very same complaint about Katharine in recent weeks, but tonight, it was her vocals and not her commitment level that failed her. I don't know why all three judges were so full of praise for her rendition of Christina Aguilera's ''The Voice Within''; to me, it was Katharine's worst performance ever, both shrill and slightly off the beat throughout. If you're gonna go near Xtina, you better sung what you brung! And what? Nobody bothered to mention that Katharine was wearing quite possibly the most regurgitastic outfit in Idol history? I know I'm going to have a nightmare about that bizarre beige contraption, with a center panel that looked like it belonged on a bargain-basement bathing suit. Mommy?

Paris Bennett and Taylor Hicks had wardrobe issues tonight, too, but at least I can say theirs were two of the four performances that I'd actually play back on my TiVo tomorrow. Simon was right that Paris looked like ''a precocious little girl pretending to be Beyoncé'' — and let's be real, her hair was definitely styled by someone who would like to see her go home immediately — but the kid nailed the tricky rhythms and intricate riffing of the funk workout that is ''Work It Out.'' As with last week's ''Fever,'' though, there's something incongruous about seeing someone who's clearly so young delivering decidedly adult lyrics like ''Can't wait for the bedroom, we just hit the floor.'' And Paula, um, maybe not so much with the suggestion that a 17-year-old girl aspire to a position as a Pussycat Dolls dancer, okay?

Taylor Hicks (also a victim of this week's Stylistgate) was a lot more convincing singing Ray LaMontagne's ''Trouble,'' but really, of all the tunes written since 2000, this is the best he could do? The guy definitely has a pleasing voice, but I'm worried song selection is going to be his eventual downfall.

The judges were split on my two favorite performances of the night. Mandisa! almost earned a second exclamation point from me for her joyous rendition of Mary Mary's ''Shackles (Praise You).'' She not only caused some danceration in Casa Slezak but also elicited a sharp, funny comment from Paula about 40 million folks joining the church of Mandisa! Still, I knew Simon wasn't going to say anything nice about the performance because I think he looks at Mandisa! and wonders if her full figure and gospel-tinged vocal stylings are a marketable combination. To which I say, ''Heck, yes, they are!'' I know I'm not the only one who can't wait to buy a Mandisa! record. Can I get an amen?

Likewise, I'd pay good money to download Elliott Yamin's ''I Don't Want to Be,'' an R&B-flavored take on Gavin DeGraw's addictive piece of ear candy that may have transformed this season's lovable long shot into a contender for first prize. Think about it: Is there anyone else in the competition whose voice is as clear, controlled, and evocative as Elliott's? And as the guy with the goofy grin grows in confidence each week, he's looking more and more like a pop star, too, providing the kind of come-from-behind story that keeps me glued to my set when Idol is on — even during a lackluster night like tonight.

What do you think? Were you a little underwhelmed by ''the songs of the 21st century''? Are you predicting any surprises in the bottom three? And based on tonight's performances only, who do you think deserves to be the next Idol?

Everyone pretty much sucked but I have no idea how Randy and Paula praised Paris or Elliot. They might have been the worst of the bunch.

everyone can rest easy now.. Paula has signed on for 3 more years

http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/200...=home&SEC=news

I absolutely agree with the vote limit thing. These votes are so skewed it is hard to get a good grasp on who really has the bigger fan base or who just doesnt have a life and can hit a redial button for 2 hours. Have they ever explained why they dont limit votes? Or do they get off on the whole voting frenzy bit?

This is why votes are so skewered and should be limited.