I really think the credibility of the show is going downhill when the admittedly bad contestants are staying on and the better ones are going. For me, it started when Sabrina was voted off a few weeks ago. Sanjaya and Haley, IMHO, are so far below the caliber of talent that most of the rest of them are and they are still there. I had been a pretty big fan of Chris Sligh, but his performances the last few weeks were an omen of last night. Not up to the level they started out at - isn't it funny how some people have improved so much but others seem to get worse over time?

The judges slammed Chris Sligh, because he sang "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" by The Police, out-of-time with the house band. Things like that tend to get people voted off. Singing on key is a must, singing in time is essential. However, if Lakeisha or Melinda get voted off before Sanjaya does, I will know for a fact that the show has turned into a joke, and not for what it was meant for in the first place. Talent. And if Sanjaya walks off with top honors on the final night, I feel sorry for the record producers that are going to be faced with having to work with him.

I don't know, Lemmy; even Lakeisha has dwindled the past couple weeks IMHO. She hasn't "wowed" me the way she used to. Melinda, however, continues to blow me away; she is on a completely different plane than the other contestants.

I think Melinda deserves to win based on singing talent alone. If Melinda, Gina, or Blake get voted off before Sanjaya, well, I'll just have to echo Lemmy's thoughts.

I agree about Lakeisha, Diamondlance. I think she's more at home with R&B classics, instead of subjecting herself to Donna Summer. Melinda seems to be able to tackle just about anything with style and finesse. I had forgotten to mention Gina. That girl can rock! I don't have anything against Blake other than the fact that I'm not a fan of "beat-boxing". The guy has a great singing voice. When they had the British 60s night, Lulu advised him to leave all of that out of his rendition of "Time Of The Season" by The Zombies. Advice well taken.

I must say I was impressed all around with tonight's performances. Lakisha's back ! And Sanjaya actually did a decent job (not that one good performance erases his past poor performances)!

Melinda and Blake continue, though, to be the leaders of their respective genders IMO.

"Welcome to the universe of Sanjaya". The one time all of the judges give him high honors and he has to wax arrogant. Right now it looks like Phil or Haley will be the next one to go. I didn't think that Phil's version of "Night And Day" was that bad, actually.

Total agreement from me, Lemmy (especially about Phil NOT being as bad as they gave him credit for). Not connecting with the audience? Is the inference there that, next time, he ought to wear hotpants and a 'beehive wig' ? Luckily, with Phil, Mr. Bennett commented on the quality of his voice - so maybe what the judges said will be evened out by the words of a real singer? So...let's hope Haley goes. I thought that whole show of hers last night was reminiscent of Kathie Lee Gifford and, save us all, one Kathie Lee running around loose is quite enough. In my opinion only, that is. I enjoyed the rest of them a lot (but I really liked the genre last night...so a total botch of it was required to rattle me too much). Melinda was just splendid (imagine that ?), the 'Beat Box Dude' picked a perfect song for himself, I was so happy that Chris remembered the words (and got the perfect "vibe" - I find that word odd, but it works sometimes - last night), Jordin is just gorgeous and did fine while she was at it, Gina looked amazing [at least I thought so] and sang that song very well, which I don't think was the easiest thing for her to pull off. I have a hunch she's going to have a very nice career out of this. I doubt she'll make it to the Top Four in the contest...but who cares? She and Daughtry can tour together or something. The "I Lost On Idol Tour" perhaps? Make millions. Win many awards. Invite Simon Cowell to "kiss *this*" every chance they get . Also, I agree with Diamondlance and "the dwindling of Lakisha". She was actually exceptional last night (I thought) but I feel less and less blown away (I hate that phrase, too ) by her with each week. I'm not sure why that is...she is certainly a mega-talent. To me, though, if there is a problem with any of them "emotionally connecting" to the audience, it comes with her. She can truly deliver a song but she seems to get farther away from delivering "herself". Or something like that. Again, though, I'm not exactly a know-anything in the music biz.
As for what's-his-name? The suit looked OK. Loved the shoes. Paula got to dance with him. Alert the media? Tony Bennett managed, diplomatically, to come up with something nice to say (such a gentleman, that one). At the end of it, though, I just wanted to puke . And kick myself for actually liking his initial audition, AND having the little runaway Tonka Truck pegged wrong the way I did. Do I see him in the Bottom Three tonight? Maybe, but probably not. He keeps taking himself seriously, though (as he seemed to do somewhat last night) his days will be numbered, is my guess. Sanjaya and "skill"? I don't think that voting bloc of his will connect to that in the least. And "oxymoron" probably has two too many syllables for them to fully embrace as a concept.
I'll shut up now .

Well, it certainly didn't go like I thought that it would. My rocker chick Gina is gone, and you know who still stands.

I feel that...I can't believe that Gina was voted off instead of Haley or Phil. To think she won't be on the show next week is getting me all worked up. Heh, I guess I'm not above the reality show craze after all.

Boo. Hiss . Wrong order again (if ANY order has a thing to do with it, at this point). I gotta comment, though, and say that was easily one of the classiest exits made on "Idol" that I've ever seen. Gina rules. That's my simplistic conclusion to the whole unsettling matter...

I'm getting so fed up with Idol this season. Sanjaya is awful. He knows that people are conspiring to keep him in even though he's terrible and he's getting smug about it. Haley is so boring. Phil was good last week, but I think his performance of "Night and Day" this week was just plain bad.

Gina did NOT deserve to go home, and it really stinks that she got booted. I thought her performance of "Smile" was really good. Restrained and well-done. *sigh* She went out with class, though, so good for her.

I hope people stop being jerks and vote for talent next week (fat chance).

I'm starting to have a sneaking suspicion that Sanjaya might just win this thing, unfortunately.
Does anyone else wonder if he might already have one heck of a good publicist?

Oh, where's the cyanide ?! I just heard that this is 'Jennifer Lopez' week on "Idol". I have a building belly ache already (seeing as how she's not even close to a digestably tolerable singer, in my opinion, to start with). Can't you just hear it? "Used to have a little, now I have a lot....I'm still, I'm still 'Sanjy' from the block..." .
For this next show I may just have to sit back and laugh . What's left to do at this point? Ye Gods....

Well,...they haven't had a Britney Spears night yet.

That might put a whole new spin on Sanjaya's hair style !

I'd almost pay to see Sanjaya shave his head!

My analysis of what I saw of tonight's performances:

I agree with Simon that Melinda's song was a bit on the safe side, but I didn't think that Lakisha's song was safe. Lakisha did a pretty good job in my opinion.

Chris was fair. Seeing Haley and Phil perform reminded me why Gina should not have been the one to go last week.

Jordin and Blake were the highlights of the night for me. I agree with Simon in that Blake's performance was the best of the night.

And in the spirit of Simon, I must say that Sanjaya's performance wasn't horrible. It was actually decent. A bit too quiet in spots, but he was actually decent.

My prediction is that Phil is next to go. Personally I'd get rid of Haley instead, but I think her looks will keep (have already kept?) her alive longer than she deserves. Now watch my prediction be wrong .

I pretty much agree with everything you said, Diamondlance. I really didn't think Lakisha's song was safe at all. And I think you're right on with the prediction of who will go - I think Haley should go, but won't. I couldn't believe Simon came right out and said last night what all of America has been thinking about her!

Yep. I agree with Diamondlance again this week (except maybe about Lakisha - but even the judges differed with my opinion so I must be wrong). I'm starting to think, for some reason, that Miss Jones just scares me, and I can't explain it very well...it's not her physicality, either ~ it's more about that look in her eye or something, like she could bite the head clean off a chicken and dare you to say something bad about witnessing such a thing . Totally unfair, that, and I know it. Just like it's entirely unfair, at this point, that Melinda could sing a few pages out of the phone book, do it out of key, and I'd still think she was superlative. In trying to be fair, though, I'd soundly agree with Simon that Blake was the best of the night. To me, however, it was a pretty lackluster show. Nobody seemed very much "into" it to me (this would include Jennifer Lopez, who served little, if any, purpose in the art of singing, motivation or even questionable attire, in my humble opinion). But, ultimately, things look pretty bleak for the two Diamondlance mentioned. Whichever doesn't go this week will probably go next. I, for one, hope that Phil gets to at least stay 7 days longer than Haley. While she does have rather exceptional (not to mention amazingly long) legs, Phil wears cooler hats. And, let's not forget, skipped his wife's labor to audition. I think he deserves a few bonus points for both getting this far AND for not ending up divorced as a result of prenatal abandonment, I reckon .

I'm stumped about Sanjaya. He really wasn't too annoyingly silly last night. He just sat there, sang it nicely, and didn't look like some acid-tripped Pee Wee Herman running around. Other than that, though, what to say in regards to him? I am curious about one thing, however ---> that mustache just HAD to be applied and not actually grown on his lip, right? Whatever it was doing there, I found it just slightly bothersme. Which means it was an improvement over his demeanor so far which was more distracting than it was anything else .

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!

If Simon Cowell is starting to warm up to Sanjaya, I personally find that to be pretty painful. I can't stand watching that kid follow the camera around with his eyes, maintaining that overly confidential "I am the one" look on his face. As far as where Haley is concerned, she would probably be better off with a modeling career instead of music. She had to go. Bye-bye.

Phil and Jordin made two excellent opening acts tonight. Phil surprised me; he really looked and sounded good out there tonight. Jordin has been growing on me for the past few weeks, and I'll be surprised if she goes anytime soon.

Nobody who saw tonight's show needs me to say anything about Sanjaya. But just in case, his choice of wardrobe (particularly the scarf) was atrocious, his singing was off beat more than it was on, and as Simon said, it was as bad as some of the initial auditions.

I must also partially agree with the judges regarding Lakisha. They said, in essence, that Lakisha's voice was too big for the song. She put her heart and soul into singing tonight I thought, and did pretty well, but she needs to go with the bigger songs.

Chris...well, his performance did not stand out to me very much at all. So little so that I really don't have anything to say about him here except that he'd better step it up if he's to stay on the show.

Melinda can still sing anything they throw at her. What can I say about her? Her voice speaks for itself. Best act of the night for me.

I thought Blake closed things off with a good performance. In the spirit of Simon I wasn't jumping out of my chair, though. He's got a good voice (as do 6 of the 7 that remain) and it showed tonight, but this wasn't my absolute favorite Blake performance.

Prediction: I think that Chris will be next to go, but you know who I think should go .

I was glad when Sanjaya was through with his ruining of the Bonnie Raitt song. My ears were starting to bleed. If he doesn't hit the bottom three this time, something is dreadfully wrong. I couldn't focus that well on the performance of Chris. The fiddle player's fiddle was out of pitch with the rest of the instruments. Fortunately Melinda was able to sing over that.

You know about the website "Vote for the Worst", right? They are championing Sanjaya this season. They claim to have helped Taylor win last time.

I've heard of the site and I really hope that they can't do the same for Sanjaya. My wife was extremely mad when Chris Daughtry was voted off last year. She hates Taylor Hicks with a purple passion.