Assorted Idol news tidbits

I'm going to be starting my Idol Chatter blogging a bit later than usual today, because we're planning to spend a long night covering the CMA Awards (in which Carrie is up for female vocalist, single, Horizon (breakthrough artist), and video, and her song Jesus Take the Wheel, which she didn't write, is nominated in the songwriter's category, song of the year). Meanwhile, I thought I'd leave you with a few stray bits of news:

> Speaking of the CMA Awards, Kellie will be greeting arrivals on the red carpet before the awards as part of the CMT team.

> In another loose segue, Sugarland, the concluding song on the new album by Sugarland, which is competing with Carrie in the Horizon category, was co-written by none other than Season 2 finalist Vanessa Olivarez.

> Finally (no segue here), Fantasia's new album has been pushed back to Dec. 12.

Idol Season 6: Audition, Hollywood air dates scheduled

It's almost that time again. USA TODAY's never-idle Idol reporter, Bill Keveney, has the scheduling scoop for Idol's Season 6: air dates for the audition rounds (which start with a pair of two-hour episodes Jan. 16 and 17) and the "Hollywood" (or wherever in L.A. they actually winnow the auditiion winners) episodes (Feb. 6, 7, 13, 14).

Bill also chatted with Idol nabobs Nigel Lythgoe -- who promises some of the worst singers ever but swears the producers can tell the difference between sincerely deluded bad singers and performance artists trying to contrive their way onto the show by being deliberately awful -- and Simon Cowell, who hated the auditioners in Seattle and says so in no uncertain terms, no doubt hoping to foment at least a regional controversy.

On the other hand, Simon says he loves Randy, Paula and Ryan (although Lythgoe counters, "They always get on each other's nerves. They never behave well."), modestly calls Idol's judge team "the best judging panel of (any) show in the world," and wryly observes about the auditions, "There was a lot of sucking up going on –- which we encourage." Simon is clearly in mid-season form already.

The wrap-up for the week

I'm trying to channel myself into full country-music mode -- the CMA Awards are Monday, we have a lot of stuff running in the paper that day and then I'm writing up the telecast ( I'll try to sneak in a post about the categories Carrie's nominated for, which are female vocalist and Horizon, meaning breakthrough artist, plus Jesus Take the Wheel is up for a songwriter's award, although she didn't write it).

Which leads into a comment from Jack I wanted to respond to. He asked if USA TODAY country critic Brian Mansfield was going to handicap the CMA Awards and predict winners. Actually, I'm going to try to do that, and it'll be in the paper Monday. Wish me luck. A couple more comments on another comment follow.

>

A few quick answers (or stall tactics)

First thing I do when I come in to the office is read through the comments and publish the unpublished ones for Idol Chatter (and the more generalized Listen Up blog, which is presently consumed with debates over who deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- mostly, if you read the comments there, Rush).

So here are a few quick responses to recent comments:

> First, to those who asked for more sales info on various people (Mario, Chris, etc.) -- duly noted. I'm going to punt those till next week; I have burdened my patient SoundScan source sufficiently for the week already. Apologies to anyone who wanted data I didn't supply -- I try to cover the Idol waterfront, but I always forget something (I can't believe I forgot Ruben's album sales until Mitli reminded me).

> Christina asked if downloads are counted for Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart. They are now, which makes for a much more effective chart than when it was just an eldritch combination of radio airplay and single sales (where the No. 1 seller, as I've often noted, can sell as low as 1,500 copies). At least the top download sellers amass substantial numbers. There's still a voodoo element to the Hot 100, though, that makes me gravitate to other, "purer" airplay-only or sales-only lists -- the exact formula for how much they weight sales and downloads vs. airplay remains a mystery. Is one sale equivalent to 1,000 airplay impressions? 10,000? 500?  (I'm pulling numbers out of my head; I don't have any answers.) We could drive ourselves crazy pondering these matters.

> Sister of Don Francisco brought up a crushing point, countering my claim that the first two songs on Kellie's album may be the strongest opening 1-2 punch of any Idol album. She, quite logically, suggested Breakaway and Since U Been Gone from Kelly Clarkson's second album, and if I'm considering impact, vocal skills and record-making artistry, it would be close to impossible to top that 1-2 combo. But if I'm considering purely what I like (and taking into account that I'm kind of burned out on Kelly's much-exposed material), I still might go for Kellie's two songs as of now. (Maybe not six months from now.) In any case, great job of nailing me!

> Finally, pertaining to Jack's point about how much Kellie-oriented material has appeared here lately, well -- first of all, her album's just out, so this is a natural time for Kellie to take the spotlight. When Chris, Katharine and Taylor release theirs, the spotlight will certainly shift toward them (although because they're clustered so closely, they'll have to share it).

And remember, Kellie and her record label offered to give Idol Chatter the exclusive Pickler Reports, which I thought (and continue to think) offer something unique. As I've said before, I would've done that for any of the prominent Idols, but I'm happy to present Kellie's reactions to her new, post-Idol whirlwind.

I hope I don't have to say this often, but there's no agenda here -- we're talking Idols past and present here, whatever swims into my consciousness (and I'm going to miss a lot of stuff from sheer fallibility) and yours (and I count on you to clue me into what I'm missing and whether I'm on target or not).

A few random/rambling commentaries

Casting an eye over the comments ...

> Some more really good observations on radio and its relevance. One alarming stat I just read (alarming for radio folks, anyway): Radio listening among teens is down 22% since 1993, and the fear is that a whole generation may grow up with radio decidedly not among its media/amusement priorities. Of course that's a prime Idol demographic as well. Radio has consciously ignored teens for years, programming either to 18-34 or 25-44 listeners as a prime target, and it may come back to bite the medium hard.

> A bunch of the anti-Kellie comments cited voice processing on the album as a major turn-off factor. Hey, if it was good enough for Paula Abdul ... But, getting more serious, it is both annoying and somehow democratic that anyone can be made to sound passable in the studio. Live performances do expose the Ashlee Simpsons of the world regularly, though, and if Kellie's being overly bolstered by technology, people will find out. Although I haven't noticed a lot of complaints about her singing in concert so far. (She did have her wobbly moments on the show, that's for sure.)

Meanwhile, her record, as a contemporary country record, sounds just fine to me overall (although I did cite an instance where the vocal tone bothered me a little).

> Good idea from jdanton2 about occasionally publishing total sales for all Idols. It's not something I can ask for every week (I don't have automatic access to SoundScan info; that would cost thousands of dollars, a price USA TODAY would not consider paying even for as invaluable an asset as Idol Chatter), but once in a while it should be feasible.

Back with more later on.

A quick apology

Just wanted to let you know I'm still here, and apologize for the lateness in posting comments. The blogging software was down, which is a depressing excuse to have to repeat. Drives me nuts.

Anyway, I think we're up to date for now. Interesting to see the anti-Kellie comments (I was wondering where they were, since we're deluged in rapturous pro-Kellie sentiments every time a Pickler Report is published).

More stuff later today, if the software holds up, but thanks for your patience and keep the comments coming.

Comments on comments, Part 18

When I get a chance, commenting on your comments is one of my favorite blog-oriented pastimes. So here are more random and not-so-random responses:

> Christina had an interesting inquiry as part of our continuing dialogue about whether radio matters (both in and outside of Idol concerns). "I would be interested in seeing current data that correlates airplay with album sales -- I have a feeling that figure/ratio/whatever has probably decreased (meaning some albums are continuing to sell consistently well, despite tepid radio play, and vice versa) more exponentially than basic listening patterns (though I could be completely off)."

We could probably do that -- I should be getting a look at next week's top 200 on Wednesday and could compare it with radio airplay data and see what we come up with. I have noticed -- and been surprised by -- the strong correlation between radio airplay and download stats, both official paid downloads and gray-area file-sharing numbers. I had naively thought that in the brave new cyberworld of downloading and file-sharing, people would be expressing their individuality by downloading songs that were different from what radio was force-feeding them. And, sure, that happens, but by and large the biggest download songs are the big radio hits (and when they're not, the download activity is usually driven by a TV ad or a video or some other mass-marketed phenomenon). Interesting.

> Elliottfan's cynical commentary on Whitney Houston's "surprise appearance" at the charity ball where Katharine was performing gave me a good laugh. I like the way you think -- it certainly does smack of a manufactured stunt.

> Finally, that comment from "Ken's wife" actually was from my beloved -- otherwise, I'd be in even more trouble.

A weekend's worth of grist

Well, you guys sure were busy after I signed off for the week Thursday evening. Got back in Sunday to find scads of comments on all manner of issues. Based on all this, I have some thanks, comments and observations, so here goes:

> First, thanks to USA TODAY's Alison Maxwell, who provides expert guidance for me and other entertainment staffers at the paper who venture into the treacherous waters of online publishing -- Alison spotted the Clay on Days of Our Lives item and published it. It might help DOOL (which, if some of your comments are anything to go by, will be renamed "DROOL" when Clay appears) more than it helps Clay; soap operas are really suffering in ratings compared to their glory days.

> Also thanks to Christina, whose comment on Edna Gundersen's Idol sales story expertly sums up my editorial intentions with the story.

> And also thanks to the St. Louis Cardinals, for taking my advice (as if) and having Nikko Smith sing the National Anthem before Game 4 of the World Series. Definitely an Idol Series this year.

> Pamela had some interesting comments on whether anybody listens to the radio any more and wondered if there were any figures exploring that contention. Last ones I saw, if I recall correctly, showed some erosion but were still holding reasonably steady. This info is light on actual figures of how many people listen to the radio, but it does indicate that radio is still a key media player.

> Finally, I enjoyed reading Lori's several rants, but a line in one of her comments sent a chill through my marrow: "Find me a person who loves a critic."  Sure hope my wife doesn't read that one.

Who's out of touch -- radio or Idol?

Ran out of time Thursday but wanted to acknowledge, and at least briefly discuss, some very thoughtful comments on the massive disconnect between top 40 radio and Idol artists. As Jack pointed out, top 40's targeted listeners fall in the 18-34 age range. The Idol show's demographics run up a lot higher, but all TV shows tend to skew high (it's rare to find a network show with a median age of under 40, and a lot are in the 50s). But a major chunk of the show's viewership coincides with top 40's target, so you'd think there'd be some commonality there.

Babe suggests the "Idol stigma" may be at work here, and that's probably true. I think radio programmers are suspicious of any artist with a really fierce and vocal fan base, feeling that what consumes some people with passion turns off other people with almost as strong a passion, and radio's all about not turning anybody off. (It's a core commandment.)

But that Idol stigma may be justified in a way. The Idol braintrust continues to foist the cheese-laden souvenir singles on the public as the official recorded introduction of the top two finalists. I could certainly understand radio programmers taking a listen to those songs and making the snap judgment that these artists are not worth considering.

The follow-up singles, the ones that coincide or slightly precede the actual albums by Idols, are usually more suited toward radio, but it becomes a tough fight, especially in top 40, where Bo and Clay have gotten close but not quite hit the airplay top 10, and the R&B and country-oriented finalists, for the most part, haven't really tried. It may take a distancing from Idol, a la Kelly's second album, to really establish an artist as a consistent radio staple.

Anyway, there's far more to debate on this point (and others), and I don't want to write a novel here, so thanks for an exceptional week of comments. Next week, among other things, we'll have both Brian Mansfield's official USA TODAY review of Kellie Pickler (should be posted around 10 p.m. ET Monday) and later my own track-by-track look at the same record. Plus the relevant numbers, of course, and more.

Comments on comments, part 1

The last couple days have had an overflow of well-stated, thought-provoking comments unusual even for this eloquent, thoughtful cybergroup. With some of the questions and comments, I'm going to wait till next week to address (mainly the SoundScan-oriented sales numbers questions; don't want to overload the folks there). Others I'm going to try to tackle later today.

For now, let me address these:

> Jack wanted a definition of sorts for the phrase "Idol cheese." Since I did not invent this phrase, but instead eagerly co-opted it, anybody who wants to chime in on this one, please do so. To me, Idol cheese represents the kind of song, almost always a ballad, that is chosen or commissioned by the Idol and BMG power consortium to be sung by A) the two Idol finalists in the last round, with the song then released as the "souvenir" single immediately after the show ends, to maximize sales, or B) (the less-common instance) the Idols as a group vocal, sometimes released as a single or on an album. Their common musical characteristics are cliche-ridden lyrics about love or aspiration, standard-issue slush-drenched musical arrangements and predictable, built-in "dramatic" moments (glory notes, modulations and so forth). Good examples: virtually any Idol souvenir song since the show began. They're one reason the "outside world" (media and Idol non-fans alike) tend not to take Idol music seriously.

Wow, that turned into a rant. I may regret it tomorrow, but let it stand. I also wanted to say a word (or probably several) on behalf of Edna Gundersen, who has been taking a little heat in recent comments. Edna loves music more than virtually anyone I know, but as a critic she has standards, and that often includes negative appraisals of Idol music. However, she is a dedicated follower of the show, watches every week, and does like certain contestants and some of their songs. (She's looking forward to hearing what Taylor, Elliott and Chris come up with, for example.)

And as a reporter (as with the story in the paper today), she's looking at trends and presenting the opinions of others and her own, based on the numbers. There are plenty of critics and reporters out there who love taking the hatchet to Idol. Edna's not one of them.

Ayla addenda

Mom7801 has a couple of very good points about Ayla (why do I get Derek & The Dominos in my head every time I type her name?) Brown that I thought I'd respond to.

> First, the interesting observation that Idol voters respond to the back stories of contestants (the "sympathy vote" theory). I'm sure that's right, and I agree that Ayla's tale of privilege and accomplishment did not have the same emotional resonance as Kellie's plight (although Katharine's story is one of equal entitlement, as mom7801 did mention).

I guess that's one of the things I dislike most about American Idol. Not that the stories aren't interesting, but I distrust Idol's potential to manipulate viewers with selective coloring of contestants' stories. (I seem to remember some Elliott fans mentioning that some of the more compelling aspects of Elliott's life were underplayed or ignored on the show, possibly putting him at a disadvantage.) The reality-show aspects of Idol are what bother me the most about it; the singing contest aspects are what I avidly tune in for.

And I make my judgments solely on musical skill, which is probably why I didn't even consider the idea that others use different criteria. Thanks for the heads-up.

> The other point was that Kevin did not deprive Ayla of a spot in the final 12, because there was the even-gender-split rule in effect, so only another female singer could ace out Ayla. All I can say to that excellent point is ... duh. My bad. Thanks again for providing me with a clue.

Vazquez reaches odd airplay milestone

Here's an odd fact: Mario Vazquez's Gallery recently became just the second song by an American Idol contestant to reach the top 10 on the Nielsen BDS top 40 format airplay charts used by top trade publications Billboard and Radio & Records. (Kelly Clarkson was the first and has done it seven times, R&R reports.)

Weird, isn't it? That means nothing by Ruben, Clay, Fantasia, Carrie, Bo and, so far, Taylor and Katharine, has hit the airplay top 10. (Sales, of course, is another matter, as are charts that combine sales and airplay.) Of course, marketing has something to do with it (Carrie's records being promoted to country; Ruben's and Fantasia's to R&B, Clay's primarily to adult contemporary), but still, for an unparallelled mass-appeal musical/TV phenomenon such as Idol to fail so often with what's supposed to be radio's most mass-appeal format indicates (not for the first time) that the Idol record-making machinery lags behind the genius of the TV operation.

More 'Billboard' Idol tidings

Accompanying the Billboard story on Taylor that I just posted highlights from is a sidebar with updates on other Idols. Not much new, but a few tidbits.

> The running order for album releases from past and present Idols this year is: Kellie, Oct. 31; Chris (or "Daughtry"), Nov. 21, Katharine, Nov. 28; Taylor and Fantasia, Dec. 5.

> Fantasia has enlisted Big Boi (from Outkast), Cee-Lo Green (from Gnarls Barkley), producer Swizz Beatz and the inescapable songwriter Diane Warren for contributions to her new album.

> Kimberley Locke's second album, Based on a True Story, is set for a March '07 release.

> Kelly Clarkson is recording her third album, but no date set yet.

Random synapse firings

Just a few ramblings triggered by recent comments.

> After Jennifer Hudson and Josh Gracin sang at the first two World Series games in Detroit, wouldn't it be a natural for a St. Louis game to have Nikko Smith sing, what with him being the son of one of the Cardinals' greatest players, Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith? To miss this opportunity would be a Cardinal sin.

> Lindy was wondering about Ayla Brown's sales figures. I'll see if there are any when I talk to the SoundScan folks later in the week; it's possible the album isn't registered with SoundScan and wouldn't get tracked. But I imagine it's selling at least in her hometown Boston area.

> I just got a copy of Ayla's album, by the way, so I will endeavor to review it shortly (taking more accurate notes than I apparently did with Ruben's -- sorry for any mistakes; I was having some trouble deciphering my own scribbled notations. The album still seems really ballad-heavy to me, though, which as I said is not a bad thing for Ruben; that's where his strength lies. It's just not my favored style).

The week's final post

Just wanted to thank you for a stimulating week of comments. Next week we'll have Ruben's first sales week to discuss, plus whatever else comes up, and maybe even another Kellie Pickler diary entry. It's the uncertainty of it all that makes it so fascinating (and nerve-wracking).

See you next week.

Coming later today ...

Kind of a quiet day yesterday (once in a while it happens, where you have the kind of day that puts the "dull" in Idol), so thanks as always for virtually conversing amongst yourselves. I should have a few things going later today, though, including:

> The latest sales figures for Clay (Ruben's come next week), plus a few others to answer a reader question.

> The latest single total for Taylor, just so everybody's happy (well, most everybody).

> And, I hope, my own review of Ruben's album (I wanted to give you a chance to react to Steve Jones' review from the paper first -- it doesn't seem to have raised too many hackles so far).

Plus anything else that might come up. Back at you soon.

Variety-pak of comments on comments

> More really interesting comments on the audition shows. I was particularly struck by this except from Cathy Hancock's comment: "Psychologically most people like seeing others in embarrassing situations as it gives them a feeling of superiority. A dark side of Human nature at its most blatant."

Well, that would explain the long-term existence of Fear Factor, wouldn't it? I've been looking for a way to account for that.

I still think a sprinkling of bad auditions adds spice and amusement value, but the overkill of seeing the humiliation of the hopelessly deluded and the obviously psycho (especially when the latter mouth off about the judges ad nauseam) is too much.

> Jess contends that "Sorry 2004 was Ruben's second pop crossover hit. His first was Flying Without Wings, his debut single that sold over 700,000 copies and charted #2 on Billboard's pop chart."

This has come up before, but you're confusing sales and airplay. Flying Without Wings was in no way a pop crossover hit -- if you look at any pop airplay chart from that period, it's not on it. The Billboard Hot 100 is compiled from sales and airplay, and Ruben's sales, for a single, were so overwhelming (this week's No. 1 single sold all of 2,500 copies) that they propelled him to No. 2 all by themselves, with virtually no radio airplay (some adult R&B stations played it, I believe).

It's the same thing as calling Taylor's Do I Make You Proud a pop hit because it was the No. 1-selling single. It did virtually nothing on radio, and did not come close to reaching the 100-million-plus total weekly audience numbers that a No. 1 airplay single collects. It was just another Idol souvenir single that sold to the fans and was not exposed significantly to the masses.

> So far (I've only seen a few comments as I write this), a theme of this week's explanations for Clay's plunging album sales seems to be no single on the radio. Certainly, that would probably help. (Although it's no guarantee -- as Katie and Mitli point out, Mario Vazquez (a quasi-Idol but not somebody I feel compelled to cover, since he wasn't officially a finalist) had a fairly big hit single and has sold poorly.)

So we have some people contending that Clay's sales would be a lot higher if he had a single on the radio and others saying that Mario had a hit but didn't sell, so having a single on the radio doesn't matter. Can't have it both ways, but every artist's case is different, and I think in Clay's case it would help him out. That said, whatever you might believe about the buyability of radio airplay, it's not as if BMG can wave a magic wand and create a hit. I certainly don't think Without You has hit potential on top 40 radio, and I'm not sure anything on the album does, taking into consideration top 40 radio's general suspicion of Idols (Kelly's still the only artist who has been consistently embraced).

> The above-mentioned Mitli, by the way, raises another interesting point (and I quote at length): "Ken, I think you put too much importance on pop crossover. Ruben's Sorry didn't get pop airplay. See for yourself whether Sorry made it onto the pop airplay charts -- it didn't. Sorry only made the top 10 on the all-genre Hot 100 because it got so much play on urban and urban adult contemporary stations. Soulful sold almost 1.8 million albums anyway. I'd rather hear Ru sing raw R&B than crossover R&B pop garbage anyway. Pop just another niche that doesn't deserve to get more attention than country, R&B, rock, and other formats. Pop airplay can get more sales for people who do well there (unless they're Mario Vazquez!), but it isn't necessary. Just look at another Idol, Carrie Underwood.  3.5 million albums sold with no impact on pop stations."

Actually, Sorry 2004 did get a decent amount of airplay on the breed of top 40 stations known as "rhythmic," which are fewer in number than the pop-oriented "mainstream" top 40s but at least equal in number of listeners, because they tend to be concentrated in giant cities such as New York and Los Angeles. Sorry reached the top 10 on our all-format national radio airplay chart, which to me qualifies as a general-market hit, but I may be splitting hairs here.

More important, there's a really good point here, and I should clear up my stance on pop crossover. Certainly you can sell tons of albums without pop airplay, generally by doing well on R&B and country formats. It's much rarer to be able to sell records based primarily on airplay in the adult contemporary formats (where Clay and Taylor have been largely confined so far), although Clay had a broader-spectrum hit with Invisible), or adult R&B (home, for the most part, for Fantasia and Ruben) -- there just aren't enough adult R&B stations to make much of an impact, and the audience for AC stations is generally too old and too passive to actually buy records. Rock radio (which rarely plays Idols anyway, although Chris may be the best test case) is less influential than it used to be but can still help certain artists.

It all depends on the artist. For Ruben and Fantasia, if they can score mainstream R&B and maybe even rhythmic top 40 hits, they'll do fine and won't need pop crossovers. If they release ballads that only get played on adult R&B stations, their sales will probably be hurt. Carrie (and maybe Kellie) can sell big numbers based solely on country airplay and the fanbase. Chris, as I said, is going to be a fascinating case study. Taylor and Katharine would need big pop crossover hits to reach beyond their fanbases. And Clay, I'm afraid, is in that same boat.

Wow, that was windy. More, I'm sure, later.

Assorted responses

Addressing a few random items:

> Interesting to read the comments about American Idol Rewind. My first reaction to the show was from the standpoint of somebody who's followed the whole series, pretty much from the beginning (I've missed some audition episodes here and there). My idea was that I wouldn't get much out of going over the same ground, although others may have more fun reliving the early years.

But it seems obvious now to me that a lot of you picked up on Idol somewhere along the way, and so the Rewind episodes would be a gold mine, a great chance to catch up. (I'm sure that's the thinking of the Idol empire in "repurposing" the show.)

So anyway, if such distinguished Idol scholars as Sister of Don Francisco and mom7801 want to lead discussions on Rewind, I'm more than happy to encourage it. I'm curious to see a few episodes myself (in between post-season baseball, my main TV obsession right now), and will jump in if I have anything useful to add.

> Note to Jen, who raised a question about Fergie's sales performance -- I discuss that in more detail on the Listen Up blog, which you should be able to find on this same site. But to summarize, Fergie's not doing so well either, and probably needs to stick with that Peas day job.

> Later today, look for some details on Ruben Studdard's new album, out Oct. 17, and other intriguing Ruben-esque tidbits.

Barely here today, but really here tomorrow

It's taking me a lot longer to get re-acclimated to the workplace than I thought it would, after a mere week and a day away. So I apologize for the lack of scintillating Idol-related commentary.

I can, however, thanks to the research I did before this year's Idol season, confirm for Sister of Don Francisco that in Idol's first season there were indeed only 10 finalists. They were (in alphabetical order, in case anyone's watching the Idol recaps and wants to preserve some sense of suspense) Christina Christian, Kelly Clarkson, E Jay Day, A.J. Gil Tamyra Gray, Justin Guarini, RJ Helton, Nikki McKibbin, Ryan Starr (not the same person, or even gender, as this year's Rock Star: Supernova contestant), Jim Verraros. (Common theme among finalists: "J" as middle initial, although each used a different presentation style for the letter.)

Speaking of recaps, I hope no one was pining for more exhaustive Celebrity Duets reportage. I must admit the only one of the last four episodes I caught was the final results show Friday, which -- once one accepts that Jai Rodriguez was mysteriously blown out the previous week -- went as logic would have dictated: Hal Sparks third, Lucy Lawless second, Alfonso Ribeiro the winner. All in all, a bad show, poorly executed, and very unlikely to return.

But I personally am highly likely to return, as tomorrow we'll definitely have some stuff to talk about, when the numbers for Clay's album's second week come out. See you then.

Back in business

Just a short note to say I'm back, and I'll be posting something or other as soon as I catch up with all your comments and other events that I've been oblivious to for more than a week. Thanks for keeping things going in the various discussions, and thanks to my colleagues who maintained the essential order of things (and posted the many Clay Aiken/Larry King comments), and expect a resumption of normal service (whatever that is) shortly.

Monday morning grab bag

Some brief (I hope) notes on various topics:

> First, look for the next Pickler report in about an hour. Preview: Shoes play a prominent role.

> Meanwhile, Bucky's made progress in his career by signing up with Sawyer Brown singer Mark Miller, who will produce his debut album, and with a Nashville management company, O-Seven, and booking agency, Creative Artists. No label yet, though.

> Oh yeah, almost forgot (tried to, anyway): The weekly Celebrity Duets recap/rant is also coming tomorrow. I'll miss the next couple (which I think are the last two shows), but I'll record them, and I should be back from an out-of-town excursion soon enough for a final recap in early October.

> Elliottfan posted a comment that I pulled out of the thread for more widespread, general distribution. Here's the comment and link:

"Over the weekend, I ran across an interesting story about Katharine, Lisa, Taylor and Ace that some of you Chatter bugs might be interested in.

Kat describes how on edge she was during the height of the AI5 season and expresses some angst about being expected to produce an album lickety split. There's also a puzzling reference, further down in the story, to Ace having gotten out of a contract with 19 Recordings a few weeks ago. Hmmm."

The story, from the Huntington, W.V., Herald-Dispatch, is worth a look. That "puzzling reference" about Ace, though -- I just interpreted it as his way of saying that 19 and Clive passed on signing him, and now enough time has elapsed that he can seek a contract elsewhere. Clive and co. will have their hands full with Taylor, Katharine, Chris and Kellie. And I tend to agree that Elliott will be better off long-term doing things his way rather than the forumlaic Idol way.

> Dedicated Rockstar: Supernova fans Mike and Margaret sent me a whole raft of new-name suggestions for the show's suddenly nameless band that were posted, interestingly, on the MSN home site for the show. My faves included Superover, Supergeezer, White Dwarf, Super No Mas and (in a nod to the ludicrous Lukas) Marble Mouth & The Sellouts. Plenty more, mostly on the negative side, on the site.

No more critics?? The horror!

I can't let a comment from Wednesday by Judy go by unresponded to. She said, and I quote in full, "I have never listened to anything a critic ever had to say. We all have minds of our own and should never be influenced by people who think they know it all!!! Had I ever listened to a critic it would have been my loss, because I would have passed on movies, songs, performers, foods and so much more of life's pleasures. Don't let them dictate what you should and should not enjoy; make your own choices and maybe one day critics will not be needed!!!!!!!"

That's a powerful lot of exclamation points and a forceful viewpoint, but please reconsider, Judy. You're endangering not only my livelihood (or part of it, anyway) but that of countless colleagues who strive in their own way, sometimes admittedly not in the nicest or most well-considered way, to shed a little light and provide a little guidance in a bewilderingly vast sea of music, movies, TV, books, video games, DVDs and other cultural outpourings.

Seriously, if you don't need a critic to make your mind up, good on you. But critics can be of great use. I'm not only guided by movie and TV critics I trust to weed out the good stuff from the sludge, I read other music critics constantly. With tens of thousands of records issued each year, there's no way I'm going to get a chance to hear them all, but I don't want to miss something extraordinary, and I also want to know what not to waste my time or money on. A good, solid critical consensus can be invaluable in guiding your entertainment decisions.

If your interests are focused -- for example, if you're strictly interested in music by Idols past or present -- you probably don't need outside assistance to determine what CDs to buy or whether to see the tour. In fact, you may be (as are many commenters here) actively annoyed by their sometimes ill-informed and hasty putdowns. But if you're curious about how, again, say, the Idols might stack up to the pop music elite in general, or if your musical interests are broad, then critics are near-indispensable. Or else you've got a heck of a lot of listening in store. (Plus, as has been mentioned in other comments, sometimes critics can be kind of funny, or illuminating, or help you see something you missed, or be generally entertaining to read. Don't banish us wholesale, Judy.)

EW Idol handicap online

I don't know if I should mention this after reading comments about the Entertainment Weekly Idol album handicap story such as Jack's ("My opinion of EW is so low as to not be printable. The editors of that rag should be fired and replaced by people who have minds.").

But you now can access that story online.

EW handicaps the Idol album crush

The new (Sept. 15) issue of Entertainment Weekly features brief rundowns of the seven Idol-affiliated album releases this fall (not counting Mario Vazquez) and guesses at their prospects. The article doesn't seem to be online at the moment, so you might have to check out the mag itself (how old-school is that?). But as a public service, here's the essence of what they said about each:

Clay: "It appears those Claymates follow their leader no matter where his hair takes them." (Translation: They think it'll be a smash.)

Ruben: "The disc is still pretty standard R&B ... we're not counting out Celebrity Fit Club just yet." (Translation: dubious prospects.)

Kellie: "Simple but sweet." (Translation: They haven't heard any of it yet and have no real idea how it will do in the country market.)

Fantasia: "Sounds promising, but plese, no more Lifetime flicks." (No translation needed.)

Taylor: They quote Taylor as saying, "There's gonna be horns. I like to say brass with ass." (Translation: Since it hasn't been recorded yet, they're a bit concerned.)

Katharine: They quote KIIS-FM/Los Angeles program director John Ivey: "Katharine is a complete wild card," then the magisterial EW editorial voice adds, "Cough) Diana DeGarmo (cough)." (No translation required.)

Chris: Quoting PD Ivey again: "You can't come of American Idol and be this rock god." (Translation: Chris may have a tough time attracting airplay from credibility-obsessed rock radio stations.)

Comments on the comments (reprise)

One of the best things about Idol Chatter is the interchange of ideas and attitudes, and I'm hoping I can grab more time to participate more actively. (Not that you all don't do a great job of keeping things humming when I'm off working or something.)

There are a lot of interesting comments today, so I'm going to wade in and respond a while:

> The issue of Idol tour newspaper reviews continues to resonate, sparked by my wider posting of a particularly San Francisco Chronicle review by Aidin Vaziri (who, by the way, Tiffany, is a guy).

BamBamBam commented: "Ken, I just don't know. In my reviewing career, I felt lucky that my experienced mentor told me the week I was first published, 'Always address the music' ...
Once you start giving out the vibe that you find it an imposition to get free tickets and be paid for saying your little piece about people who sold the tickets -- it's a little signal that maybe you are forgetting your place (or overestimating it) in this big old machine."

Considerable truth there. The last thing the reading public cares about is whether you had to wait an hour at the Will Call window until a management rep straightened out your ticket situation, or if your car broke down on the way to the show, or if you were seated directly behind a particularly demonstrative football team.

However, when your job consists of going out four or five nights a week to see shows after spending the day in a newsroom or otherwise employed (I know, tough job, but somebody's gotta do it, etc.), you do tend to appreciate displays of professional courtesy that help you do your job (tickets on hand, sometimes a setlist, backstage pass if you need to talk to the artists beforehand or afterward, even a parking pass now and then to make sure you don't miss any of the show. Not including chauffered ride to show, complimentary jeroboams of champagne, or other extravagant perks.). But definitely if that doesn't happen, you shouldn't let your disgruntlement show up in your review -- it's not the performers' fault.

> Wesley puts things in stronger terms: "BamBamBam notwithstanding, I've found rock concert reviewers to be some of the most uniformly snobbish, overly intellectual and under-educated journalists out there, who generally can't seperate their biases from the story. If they don't like something, then it's not worth listening to, and if you like something they don't, then neither are you.

"Plus, anyone who thinks Takin' It to the Streets is one of the worst songe ever automatically gets his opinion invalidated, because he's obviously a big poopy-head."

Ouch. Cut us a break, Wesley. Sure, probably everyone who's read anything about music has been ticked off by some arrogant/ignorant writer, but most of the music journalists I know really know and love music and have an educated musical perspective that makes their opinions worth considering. (Although they can be a bit snobbish, true.)

Of course, you may want to take the above with a grain of salt, since it's coming from an obvious big poopy-head. (Sorry, I never could stand Takin' It to the Streets.)

> Andre Evangelista, in points echoed by the Sister of Don Francisco in another comment, is also exasperated by this whole critic thing: "What I really wonder is why the press even bothers reviewing such a known quantity. What's the point?

"Everyone who goes already knows exactly what they're going to get. Everyone who stays away already knows exactly why they're staying away.

"Everyone already knows that the reviewer will be in agony for two hours and will write a negative or even toxic review. And everyone already knows that American Idol will try to give the press a bad time.

So really, why even bother with reviews? Who does it benefit?"

I think reviews of the Idol tour have clear benefits. What reviewers can do, ideally, is evaluate the Idols' performances -- singing ability, showmanship, staging, etc. -- in the larger context of popular music as a whole. A lot of people, including the vast majority of music fans who are interested in music but don't go out to concerts often, are curious about how the Idols stack up. Sure, some Idol fans are not about to be swayed, but others (including most of the people who comment on this blog, who have always conducted a lively debate on the strengths and weaknesses of various Idols) should find points of interest -- unless the reviewer is clearly just venting his or her spleen. (I've never quite figured out what that means, but the mental picture is pretty unpleasant.)

And why should the Idols be immune from being critiqued in the media? It's part of what they signed up for.

Had a couple of other topics to talk about, but I think I'll hold them for another post; I've rambled on enough.

Carrie collects country acclaim

In case you didn't see the comment from Elliottfan, I thought I'd post the news today about Carrie Underwood collecting four Country Music Association award nominations. Categories: Single, video, female vocalist of the year and Horizon Award (the CMA's emerging-artist award). Not to mention one more for Jesus, Take the Wheel -- song of the year, although that's a songwriter's award and Carrie didn't write it.

That's instant love from the Nashville establishment. Quite an achievement.

Ruben, Fantasia albums pushed back

Just a quick bulletin to fans of Ruben and Fantasia to confirm that their new albums have been postponed.

Ruben's The Return moves from Oct. 3 to Oct. 17, while Fantasia's as-yet-untitled second album moves off Oct. 17 to Nov. 14 (also the date for Taylor and Katharine's albums). And the date-juggling continues ...

Quiet day

Sorry for the relative silence from my end here today.  Not a lot going on (I heard from a couple of people who absolutely hated the Idol tour, but I couldn't talk them into posting their impressions, and who could blame them?), and there was a big, newspaper-exclusive interview on Bob Dylan to help get ready for the paper. (That excites me, maybe not many of you.)

Anyway, cross your fingers for Sarah as she continues to climb the Idol audition ladder (and kindly keep us up on her progress). Hope to hear about the next installment from Kellie shortly, will get ready to watch Celebrity Duets Tuesday night (and post some reactions Wednesday), and I'll come up with some Idol-related news tomorrow.

Sign-off for the week

Well, that was a pretty busy week in the Idol realm: Birmingham auditions, Kellie Pickler's first guided missive, bizarre Celebrity Duets judges, Katharine recovering from bulimia, Taylor suing an old producer, Constantine on Broadway, Mikalah getting robbed.

There still seems to be plenty of activity worth writing about and topics worth commenting about, even if we are five months away from the next season. Should be an interesting week next week, too, with another dispatch from Kellie and the premiere episodes of Celeb Duets. to rag on critique. See you Monday.

Mikalah robbed

Rough experience for Season 4 Idol alumna Mikalah Gordon.

Ex-Idols on Broadway

The Broadway stage is becoming a destination for Idol finalists as they piece together their careers after the media and fan focus shifts away from them in favor of newer Idols. We already knew Diana DeGarmo had been in Hairspray for three months -- and in fact, she's returning to that role Sept. 8. I guess I'd forgotten, however, that almost-finalist Frenchie Davis was in Rent (she still is).

And the latest Broadway-bound Idol is none other than Constantine Maroulis, who will join the cast of The Wedding Singer in early September, in the role of the title character's best friend, Sammy. It's not exactly a drastic switch for him; he has a fairly extensive theater background, including a prominent role in the North American and Asian touring companies of Rent.

Constantine's stint lasts until Nov. 5, while Diana will stay with Hairspray until Feb. 11.

Weekly singles sales update

Not much to add this week in the rapidly-becoming-less-exciting world of Idol souvenir singles sales. Taylor's still the No. 1 single in the nation, but sold 6,300 copies, down from 8,500 last week. Total: 423,000. Katharine's No. 2 with 4,700, down from 6,300, total 122,000.

Digitally, Taylor added 2,000 more for Do I Make You Proud and 600 more for Takin' It to the Streets, bringing them up to 116,000 and 70,000 respectively, or a combined total of 186,000 downloads. Adding that figure to his single sales gives him 609,000 sales of all sorts to date.

Katharine notched up 1,800 more downloads for Rainbow and 1,000 for Destiny; they're now respectively at 69,000 and 48,000 for a digital total of 117,000. All-sales total: 239,000, which should put her ahead of Diana DeGarmo and allow her to escape the Idol cellar, unless Diana had a sudden sales spurt we don't know about last week. Which I tend to doubt.

The Samuel L. Jackson/Justin Guarini connection

Sometimes it feels as if you can make an Idol connection to just about anything. Like Snakes on a Plane, for instance.

Intrepid USA TODAY movie reporter (and intermittent Idol fan) Susan Wlosczcyna was interviewing Samuel L. Jackson about his much-buzzed-about airborne snakes flick, and contributes the following report:

I asked Samuel L. Jackson on Monday whether it is true that his actress-wife LaTanya Richardson is related to Justin Guarini and he said yes. She's his father's first cousin. Justin has been over to their house on several occasions.

I then asked him whether they watch American Idol. "I watch only in the beginning when people are really bad. I don't watch it when they really start having the contest."

He also gave this career advice to Justin: "He should be a lounge singer."

Comments on the comments

Sometimes it gets a little abstract around here, as when I'm posting all those audition reports or compiling concert box-office stats, so a little interaction is a good change of pace. So in response to some comments:

> Regarding the celebrities vying in Fox's Celebrity Duets, bambambam astutely inquires: "Didn't Alfonso Ribeiro make some Michael Jackson-type dance tunes in the Eighties? And Hal Sparks did have a band at some point, after getting steady work on QAF."

Right on both counts. I don't know much about the Hal Sparks Band, except that they played a gig at something called the Bovine Sex Club in Toronto in 2004 (and even that may come under the TMI heading), but I do dimly recall those Ribeiro singles, and they were kind of juvenile Jacksonesque. Others have pointed out stage experience for Lea Thompson, Jai Rodriguez and Lucy Lawless. All this may put the wrestler and the gymnast at a big disadvantage, unless they sang in their high school choirs or something.

Oh yeah, David Foster (whom we remember well for his general harshness toward the Idols as a co-coach (with Andrea Bocelli) in Season 5) has been announced as a judge.

> After I compared the New Jersey audition mass sing-along (Barry Manilow's Can't Smile Without You) unfavorably to the L.A. tune (Daydream Believer), a few people posted comments in defense of Barry. And I'm glad they did -- a free exchange of opinions is a big part of what Idol Chatter should be about. But still, Can't Smile Without You? ... (And where were all the Monkees fans defending their song?)

> Finally, Babe checked out the New Jersey audition coverage and was "particularly charmed by the singer who thinks Cher is The Messiah and he is her disciple.  He also plans to have interplanetary concerts.  I defy anyone to come up with a better kook!"

Yeah, I have a feeling we're going to be seeing him once the audition telecasts start in January. He sounds like a natural.

Reviews, auditions & stuff

Just wanted to thank everyone who posted Idol concert reviews -- definitely got a feel for what they were like, and some interesting recurrent themes are emerging.

Also, thanks to Sandie for that kind comment earlier today assuring me I wasn't alone out there posting all those audition bits. I figure a good percentage of you at least are reading them, and I'm still interested in your comments on the coverage, positive, negative, indifferent or irrelevant (well, maybe not so much that last kind). Next week we're looking at setting up a visit to the Birmingham auditions, because that should be a little different, being the cradle of Idols and all.

Talk to you, cybernetically, of course, tomorrow.

Idol sales report: Debut singles + downloads

As a follow-up to the update on the Season 5 finalists' download totals, I also wanted to find out how many downloads each Idol debut single had accumulated, so I could factor that in to the all-time standings and see how Taylor and Katharine were stacking up against their predecessors. I got 'em, thanks again to Nielsen SoundScan, so I've incorporated them into a chart that simply lists for each single total CD sales (possibly slightly out of date for the older ones), download sales and a total. Here goes:

Rank Artist/Titles                                                  Sales + Downloads  Sales      Downloads 

1.        Clay/This Is the Night/Bridge Over T. Water   1.01 million            960,000    52,000

2.        Kelly/A Moment Like This/Before Your Love     814,000                626,000   188,000       

3.        Ruben/Superstar/Flying Withoug Wings            769,000                737,000    32,000

4.        Carrie/Inside Your Heaven/Independence Day   741,000                455,000   286,000

5.        Taylor/Do I Make You Proud/Takin'...Streets    600,000                417,000   183,000

6.      * Fantasia/I Believe/Summertime/Chain...Fools 501,000                405,000     96,000

7.        Bo/Inside Your Heaven/Vehicle                           426,000                346,000      80,000

8.      * Diana/Dreams/Don't Cry Out Loud/I Believe     237,000                 201,000     36,000 

9.        Katharine/My Destiny/Over the Rainbow          231,000                 117,000    114,000

* Had three songs on CD single

So we see Clay is still the champ, although for some reason he benefited less from the download revolution than did Kelly, even though Kelly's single came out even earlier in the pre-modern era. Taylor is going to have to sell a lot of singles to pass Carrie, and my take is that he won't make it. But Katharine should pass Diana next week to escape the Idol souvenir single cellar.

       

      

Idol Season 5 downloads: The standings

I thought it would be interesting to see the total download statistics on the 12 finalists, and determine how they stack up. Each finalist had a downloadable track on the Idol anthology, Season 5 Encores; then there's two more downloadable tracks from Katharine, My Destiny and Somewhere Over the Rainbow, plus one more from Taylor, Do I Make You Proud -- those three, it should be mentioned, along with Taylor's B-side, Takin' It to the Streets, which was also on the album, got a lot more publicity and promotion than the others.

So here, thanks to the friendly folks at Nielsen SoundScan, are the numbers (rounded off; through Aug. 6):

Download rank Show rank Idol/song title                                      Downloads

1                     1             Taylor/Do I Make You Proud                  114,000

2                     4             Chris/Wanted Dead or Alive                    94,000

3                     1              Taylor/Takin' It to the Streets                69,000

4                     2              Katharine/Somewhere Over the Rainbow 67,000

5                     2              Katharine/My Destiny                             47,000

6                     3              Elliott/Moody's Mood for Love                23,000

7                     2              Katharine/Think                                      21,000

8                     7              Ace/Father Figure                                   11,000

9                     5              Paris/Midnight Train to Georgia               9,100

10                    6              Kellie/Walkin' After Midnight                   8,400

11                    9              Mandisa/I'm Every Woman                        7,400

12                   12             Melissa/What About Love                         6,400

13                    8              Bucky/Superstition                                   4,000

14                   10             Lisa/Signed Sealed Delivered                   3,700

15                   11              Kevin/When I Fall in Love                        2,600

A few comments follow:

The singles sales report, part 1

I call it "part 1" because I've asked for some supplemental download figures to give us all a broader picture of how various Idols are performing in the sales arena.

Meanwhile, Taylor's single sales continue to erode: 8,500 sold this week, compared to 11,000 last week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This of course is still easily enough to retain his No. 1 ranking on the sales list. Katharine's No. 2, dropping 22% from 8,100 to 6,300.

In the download realm, Taylor sold 2,600 Do I Make You Proud downloads and 800 Takin' It to the Streets. Totals on those: 114,000 and 69,000, respectively. Katharine notched up 2,300 downloads of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and 1,300 of My Destiny; totals are 67,000 and 47,000, respectively.

All told, Taylor's sitting at 417,000 singles sold plus 183,000 downloads combined, for 600,000 sales of all sorts. Katharine's got 117,000 singles sold and 114,000 downloads, for 231,000.

More later, I hope.

Clay fires back: The sequel

Thanks for pointing out the missing part of Clay' statement on the lawsuit. I've now included that in the earlier "Clay fires back" post.

Clay fires back

In the interest of fairness, here's Clay Aiken's statement regarding that lawsuit:

Aiken, in a statement issued by RCA Records, said Monday that he had "instructed my attorneys to not only vigorously dispute the claims that have been made but to also pursue all possible remedies against those involved in the perpetration of these untruths."

In his statement, Aiken, 27, also said: "As a so-called 'celebrity' I have become used to scurrilous allegations and untruths being made about me and my work. I have always taken the path of not reacting to these matters and have accepted them as, somehow, coming with the 'job.' However, I cannot, and will not, stand by when these attacks are made on my family."

Idol songwriting contest?

Some "quiet" day so far ... An interesting interview with Idol creator Simon Fuller contains the nugget that he's planning a songwriting contest in which the winner gets to write a song for the two Idol finalists next season.

Easy reaction: Well, it can't work any worse than the current system of having professional song doctors concoct readymade Idol cheese (a problem Fuller seems to be aware of).

Counter-reaction: Well, yes, it could be worse, if whoever judges the songwriting competition goes for the same kind of slushy ballad that make up the souvenir singles. But all in all, this could be kind of interesting. What do you think?

Idol news after all

Just when I wondered if things would be quiet in the Idol realm, a couple of things came up -- not earthshakers, but worthy of note:

> An unpleasant-sounding legal wrangle between Clay Aiken's camp and the author of an "unauthorized tribute" to the singer.

> A release relating word that Carrie Underwood will be on Good Morning America's summer concert series Friday (ABC), and on CBS' Early Show Aug. 16.

George: Great story

I want to echo a couple of comments and salute George for taking the time to give us that excellent Constantine story. Thanks!

Don't know if there will be a lot going on in Idol World today, but tomorrow, stay tuned for live reports from the L.A. auditions from USA TODAY's ace American Idol beat reporter, Bill Keveney. Should be fun.

The weekly sign-off

This is about it for me this week, although after I've gone home, colleagues will still be around to publish comments, disses and, of course, rhapsodies of delight about Clay. And if anything earthshaking happens Idolwise, they'll post it.

> A couple things before I go, including one more item that neatly ties in Clay with Rock Star. The one point we missed in all the copious Clay information so kindly dispatched to me by RCA was that Rock Star: INXS' No. 4 finisher, Suzie McNeil, will be dueting with Clay on I Want to Know What Love Is. Hmm ... does that mean Clive is interested in signing Suzie? Inquiring minds want to know and all that.

> Also, thanks to those who volunteered to blog their experiences at the upcoming Idol tryouts, but there are certain logistical and other problems that made us reconsider that perhaps overambitious idea.  However, if any of you do happen to try out and want to comment on Idol Chatter after it's over, subject to any restrictions the show might impose, that would be fantastic. Meanwhile, expect some pretty cool tryout coverage coming up, starting next Tuesday with the L.A. tryouts.

Alabama: Sweet home for Idols

In a move not unconnected to the Aug. 21 Idol tryouts in Birmingham, Alabama tourism officials are planning to display six billboards trumpeting the state as the cradle of Idol winners (Taylor, Bo and Ruben hail from the state). The slogan: "Where America finds its voice. Alabama." I didn't know America had lost its voice, but I'm probably behind the times.

Clay: The new album

OK, here's most of the scoop on the upcoming, and much-awaited, third album (if you're counting the 2004 Christmas album, which I guess you should). It's called A Thousand Different Ways, it's coming out Sept. 19 (beating the November Idol rush), and it consists of 14 songs, 10 of them covers of '70s, '80s and '90s.

Here's the track listing, in handy alphabetical order:

A Thousand Days (new song)

Because You Loved Me (Celine Dion)

Broken Wings (Mr. Mister, original artist)

Every Time You Go Away (originally Hall & Oates, hit by Paul Young)

Everything I Do (I Do It for You) (Bryan Adams)

Everything I Have (new song)

Here You Come Again (Dolly Parton)

I Want to Know What Love Is (Foreigner)

Lonely No More (new song, co-written by Clay)

Right Here Waiting (Richard Marx)

Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word (Elton John)

These Open Arms (new song, co-written by Jon Bon Jovi)

When I See You Smile (Bad English)

Without You (originally Badfinger, hit by Nilsson)

Quotes from Clay (from the press release) follow.

Ruben fulfills a dream

Idols and former Idols must be bombarded with requests to do things for a good cause, but this story about a gesture Ruben Studdard's making tomorrow in his hometown is one of the more heartwarming. From the press release:

It will be a moment -- a powerful and magic moment -- for a little girl in Birmingham when her hero and idol, American Idol Ruben Studdard, arrives to make her dreams come true.

A year ago, six-year-old Erica Garrett was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, and she is currently battling for her life. Ever since Birmingham's Ruben Studdard was named American Idol, she has dreamed of meeting him and thanks to Magic Moments, an Alabama-based organization that fulfills the wishes of children with life threatening or life-altering medical conditions, her dream is set to come true, Thursday, August 3, 2006.

On Thursday, a limousine will pick Erica up at her home and take her and her family to McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant in Birmingham, and at noon Studdard will arrive to meet Erica and sing I Need an Angel especially for her.

More background follows, from the press release:

Back soon

Time-consuming computer problems kept me cybernetically disabled this morning. I'll be back soon with singles sales and other stuff.

By the way, for the couple people that mentioned it, Boston is indeed where Chris is getting his only detected radio airplay.

A little Fantasia controversy; Idol speculation on Elliott

Seems there's a scene in the Lifetime Fantasia biopic that depicts Idol producers as tacitly encouraging the movie's star to quit the show, her being an unmarried mother and all. Idol producers deny any such thing happened. A brief summary of the flap here; a longer one here.

And a little something on Elliott that does not add greatly to our existing store of knowledge about his upcoming record but at least keeps the topic fresh.

Idol radio airplay: A light drizzle

Once a chart junkie ... I used to be involved with radio airplay charts and such in a previous phase of existence, so I still like to keep an eye on them. Here, of course, the relevant concern is how Taylor and Katharine are doing.

Quick answer: Not very well. As of today, Taylor's Do I Make You Proud ranks 18th in the adult contemporary format list, a little lower than it has been. It's being played on 58 stations of all formats, out of 1,300 monitored by Nielsen BDS. It's doing very well in L.A., Houston and Sacramento, should you be checking out radio stations there.

Katharine's Over the Rainbow is No. 74 on that list, thanks to airplay on all of nine stations nationally. (My Destiny is on one station.)

Just for the heck of it, I checked to see if anybody was playing Chris' Wanted Dead or Alive or Elliott's Moody's Mood for Love. These are not actively promoted singles or anything, so don't fret when I report that Chris is being played on three stations across the nation and Elliott on one (in hometown Richmond, Va.).

Ruben's return

I have detected the presence of a Ruben Studdard fan lurking here now and then (nowhere near as organized a presence as the Claymates, however), so here's a very short interview with the -- and I say this affectionately, as a tribute to the great '60s soul star who had the nickname originally, J.J. Jackson -- Round Mound of Sound.

More assorted observations

Kind of a quiet day in Idolville, so it was good that there were some spirited exchanges yesterday to sustain the momentum. I have nothing controversial to say (for once), but I will throw in a few comments on various matters:

> The spite level seems to have risen in regard to Katharine. I can understand why she provokes that reaction in some people (she seems to come off radically differently to different folks -- some see her as a sweet paragon of apple-cheeked American youth, others as a spoiled child of privilege and willful attitude -- the "ill Diva" perspective). I have no inside knowledge here, but I don't think she blew off the tour for selfish reasons, and it would seem to make sense that if your client's voice is her ticket to stardom, that your people would take the cautious route in sending her out there. (Hence the reduced number of songs for her tour slot.) I'd just say, benefit of the doubt here.

> No long Rock Star rants; justice was done and the odious Phil was eliminated, and if Zayra goes next, all will be semi-right in that world. I was also feeling derelict in my duty for not watching The One, but I guess I was far from the only "one" not watching -- embarrassingly fast cancellation.

> Keep those concert reviews and commentaries coming -- always enjoyable.

Putting the White House behind us

I'm kind of glad the Idols have moved on from the nation's capital -- mainly because that White House visit was a bit of a distraction. It certainly aroused comment from both sides of the political spectrum -- but it really wasn't much of a political event.

Presidents, no matter how embroiled in crises they may be, are always inviting (or having their minions invite, more accurately) World Series winners and Super Bowl champs and pop stars and whomever to the White House for meet-and-greets, and with Idol as big a phenomenon as it is, any president would have welcomed the publicity opportunity. It was a natural -- and probably an unforgettable experience for the finalists; no matter what your opinion of any particular incumbent, the mere experience of going to the White House and meeting the president makes a pretty strong impression.

And the Idols seemed to pull it off at least as well as the average World Series winners or Super Bowl champs. So good for them.

New Idol albums for fall

The J and Arista sectors of the Clive/BMG empire have sent out a list of their fall releases. This doesn't include RCA or RCA Nashville, so no news about Katharine or Kellie or Chris' albums, and dates obviously may change, but here's the news on Idol-related releases:

> Sept. 12: Mario Vazquez (well, I guess he counts as Idol-related, since he coulda been a finalist)/self-titled

> Sept. 26: Ruben Studdard/The Return (that long-awaited second secular album)

> Nov. 7: Fantasia/untitled (album No. 2 for her)

> Nov. 14: Taylor Hicks/untitled (the big debut).

Concert reviews

I'm signing off for the week, but when I come back Monday, I'll be eager to read the promised concert reviews, and I'm sure we'll get around to much other significant Idol chatter. Thanks for all the nice comments this week.

Assorted observations

A few brief follow-ups:

> Yes, Elliott's mom's name is Claudette. It was right in front of my face and somehow came out Charlotte when I typed it. Brilliant. Corrected yesterday in the original post.

> Several people reacted in horror to the idea of having Idol emulate Rockstar and have the public pick the bottom three, with Simon, Randy and Paula selecting the loser. I was just floating the idea to see what would happen, but yes, it is a really bad idea. As was pointed out, it makes sense for Supernova's members to have the final decision because it's their band; giving the Idol judges the power takes away a lot of the element of surprise and could lead to safe, Clive-and-19 Entertainment-friendly choices (e.g., not Taylor). So we'll forget that idea was even posted, OK?

> Thanks to Jim in Nashville for the kind words about how "well-managed" this blog is, but really, there's not much managing for me to do. From the beginning, all of you have maintained a civil and intelligent tone that makes Idol Chatter stand out from the general run of blogs. I like to think that's one of the big reasons why IC continues to be one of USA TODAY's most popular web destinations, even now when we're long out of the natural peak period (when the show's on the air). Give yourselves a big round of applause.

> Finally, I really enjoyed the concert reviews that were posted in response to the pitch for readers of a certain age (16-28) to tackle the Idol tryouts. I've been looking forward to reading your reviews of the concerts all along.

However, I don't want to lose sight of the original request to see if any of you want to try out for Idol and write about the experience. Let me know (kbarnes@usatoday.com).

Life after 'Idol': Former finalists sing for charity

Five former Idol finalists -- Lindsey Cardinale, Jon Peter Lewis "and Band," Kimberly Caldwell, Trenyce, and Matt Rogers -- will play a benefit in Omaha Saturday for children with AIDS, and will participate in a meet-and-greet the night before. Very nice gesture.

Idols on radio: The chart report

Otherwise known as the shortest post of the week. Kidding, sort of. Things are still sluggish for Idols on the radio, outside of Carrie in country, of course. Here's a rundown:

> As previously posted (thanks to Babe for those), Taylor's No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100, Katharine's No. 50. These positions are based just about entirely on sales. No sign of either of them in the top 40 airplay universe, though Taylor inched up from No. 15 to No. 14 on the adult contemporary chart. Other Idols joining him on that chart are Kelly (Because of You, 5-4, and Walk Away, 22-20), Bo (The Real Thing, 18-17) and Carrie (Jesus Take the Wheel, 27-27).

> Bo is hanging in on the adult top 40 chart, 12-12 with a shaky bullet. Kelly's Walk Away went 7-6 there. Bo's new one, U Make Me Better (clever, original use of phonetic equivalent of "You"), is now being played on 26 of the 119 mainstream top 40 stations Billboard tracks, so we'll see where that goes. The only other Idol presence in mainstream top 40 is Mario Vazquez, if you count him, whose Gallery went 38-38.

> In country, Carrie's Don't Forget to Remember Me moves 3-3 with a bullet, while Before He Cheats inches up 57-55. Josh Gracin's Favorite State of Mind goes 23-22.

> On the big top 100 national radio airplay chart USA TODAY gets from Nielsen BDS, which combines airplay from all music formats, Carrie's Don't Forget is the top tune at No. 31 (up from 35). Kelly's Walk Away goes 49-46, her Because of You drops 54-56 and ... um, that's it.

Pop-Tart prison? No thanks

Thanks to BoNews for the, er, Bo news about Regis & Kelly. And in answer to the question about posting the secret Pop-Tarts access code here -- all I can say is I love you guys but I'm not willing to take the rap for a code violation and face life in Pop-Tart prison. Too scary a thought -- prison guards dressed up like Jessica and Ashlee Simpson, the warden's probably Britney Spears, and as for the food ... well, never mind.

Back shortly with the weekly Taylor/Katharine singles sales report.

Idol release schedules

A lot of different notions floating around about the pecking order for Idol releases, so I thought I'd do a fast check of the past history of Idol releases. Which immediately brings to light a glaring exception to the "winner goes first" rule, if it is a rule. Over the past two years, it has been a winner-goes-first situation, but that wasn't always the way. The breakdown:

Idol (w= winner) First album release date

Kelly  (w)           April 15, 2003

Justin               June 10, 2003

Ruben (w)         Dec. 9, 2003

Clay                  Oct. 14, 2003

(Hmm.  Was Clay's album just completed faster or did Clive & Co. feel Clay would be the bigger star, as has turned out to be the case saleswise?)

(Major-label but non-Clive releases by Kimberley Locke and Josh Gracin came out well afterward, May 4, 2004, and June 15, 2004, respectively.)

Fantasia (w)      Nov. 23, 2004

Diana                Dec. 7, 2004 (closest interval between releases)

Carrie (w)         Nov. 15, 2005

Bo                    Dec. 13, 2005

So there's not all that much consistency, but in the last two years, Idol has observed a two-weeks to one-month gap between winner and runner-up. We'll see what happens this year with an unprecedented four BMG releases from Season 5 finalists.

The fall crush of Idol albums

In response to the questions about whose album was coming out first, I asked the RCA publicist who handles most of the Idols if there were any album release dates set in stone yet. He said no, only that albums by Taylor, Katharine, Chris and Kellie are all expected to come out before the end of the year.

And, he said, no decision has been made as to which might come out first, although I do think that will be Taylor unless the recording process takes too long. Idol release dates have been shuffled around in the past at the last minute, so it's still premature to speculate.

Sorry I don't have a definitive answer for you, but wanted to put it out there.

Lifetime After Idol: Fantasia talks about her film

Fantasia spoke to the TV press at the annual TV press tour in Pasadena, Calif., and thanks to the efforts of USA TODAY TV critic and bon vivant Robert Bianco, I have the transcript (but sadly, not the preview clip of her Lifetime film autobiography, Life Is Not a Fairy Tale, in which, in a rather defensible form of typecasting, she plays herself).

I'm not going to reprint it -- it's 12 pages long, lots of other people (producer, director, TV execs) blather at length, and you'd be comatose by the end of the fourth paragraph -- but I will attempt to uncover a few nuggets.

Here's what Fantasia had to say about various topics relevant to Idol Chatter concerns.

Who's the next 'Iraq Star'?

I understand that the USA is supposed to be introducing the best Western values to Iraq, but does that include American Idol?

Well, for better or worse, it's happening. It's already well into the second season now for Iraq Star, a show in which aspiring singers are evaluated by a three-judge panel in hopes of getting a contract with a record company.

There are a few local wrinkles: Performances are regularly interrupted by noise from passing military helicopters. Still, the claim of a co-founder that Iraq Star is a "100% Iraqi idea" lacks a certain credibility.

Kelly Clarkson gets HBO special

OK, we appear to be back on track, so I wanted to get this in. Sorry we weren't able to post this yesterday afternoon. More stuff to come.

Kelly Clarkson will have her own concert special on HBO Feb. 3, a not insignificant milestone. The show on display will take place at London's Wembley Arena.

Clip show alert

Live with Regis and Kelly give their July Fourth show an American Idol theme, looking back at Idolers' performances. Included: Taylor and Katharine, plus Elliott, Chris, Paris, Kellie, Mandisa and  Kevin. Could be some collectible moments in there.

Idol gossip at BET Awards

Will Keck, USA TODAY's indefatigable celebrity reporter, was kind enough to send along some Idol-related encounters he had on the red carpet at the BET Awards this week. So allow me to hand off to Will:

> Fantasia, wearing a Dolce & Gabbana leopard print, said she just wrapped filming her TV movie for Lifetime. My Life Is Not a Fairytale airs in August. She was looking forward to performing on stage with Jamie Foxx, who is starring with her former Idol rival Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls. Fantasia was up for the same role as Hudson in the film and talked about not getting tapped for the part.

“I feel everything happens for a reason," she said. “It wasn’t meant to be. If it couldn’t have been me, there’s nobody better for the role.” (Jennifer and Paris comments follow.)

A brief absence, but the blog rolls on

Having not been away from the desk since the launch of Idol Chatter, I'm finally taking a vacation starting today and will be back July 11. Don't worry -- Idol news will still be posted by my colleagues on the USA TODAY online team, and of course July 5 there will be the almost-live commentary by Whitney Matheson on the Idol tour's opening night performances, which should get you talking.

A final, semi-unrelated note: If anybody was confused by my reporting Taylor had zoomed ahead of Diana DeGarmo in single sales, yes, I was taking his two-week total and comparing it to the sales todate of all the other Idol singles. After all, that two-week total comprises his sales to date. By the time its run is done, Taylor's single will no doubt rank much higher on the all-time list.

See you a week from Tuesday.

Life after Idol: Jennifer Hudson album ready (sort of)

Should have some numbers tomorrow afternoon on Taylor's second week in the singles marketplace, but the eagle-eyed among you will probably note them before I can escape from my corporate duties.

But meanwhile, Jennifer Hudson fans can rejoice in the completion of her first album, although the story notes that no title, release date or single has been chosen yet (and I don't see any mention of a label either, although with Dreamgirls coming out, I don't think that will be a big problem for her).

Tour preview: Kellie & Bucky 'Grease' the wheels

Tantalizing tidbits from Idol tour rehearsals include the faintly disturbing news that Kellie and Bucky plan to sing a duet from Grease. Would that be Summer Nights or You're the One That I Want? I'm not sure which would be grislier.

This is a good opportunity for me to tell you that USA TODAY will be covering opening night of the Idols tour July 5 in Manchester, N.H., with the razor-sharp critical faculties of Whitney Matheson focused on the proceedings. She'll review it for the paper and provide act-by-act almost-live reactions on this very website. Can't wait to read it all!

A couple of other Idol briefs (not boxers) follow, then it's back into temporary hibernation for me.

Idol airplay update

Thought I would update you on the latest airplay progress of current and former Idols, ripped from the pages of Billboard Radio Monitor.

Country: Josh Gracin might be hitting a wall with his Favorite State of Mind single, which stays at No. 26 for a second week with a very tentative bullet after a slight gain in total radio audience. Carrie Underwood's Before He Cheats stays at No. 56 in its 16th week on the chart.

Adult top 40: Kelly Clarkson's Walk Away drops from No. 5 to No. 6 after 24 weeks on this no-rap-or-R&B politer, more sedate version of top 40 radio. Bo Bice's The Real Thing may gone from top 40 (it went from No. 31 to No. 39 there this week, which will be its last), but it's still got some life here, moving 13-11.

Adult contemporary: The Idol haven format, big in dentists' offices, still has six Idol records charted. Two are by Kelly (Because of You moves 3-3 after 36 weeks on this glacially paced list; Walk Away jumps 25-24); two are by Carrie (Some Hearts 16-16 but heading down, Jesus Take the Wheel 27-26 but also losing momentum). Bo goes 18-18 with The Real Thing, but it's still gaining momentum. And Taylor's Do I Make You Proud moves 17-15, with the top 15's second-biggest percentage gain in total spins -- which is how the AC chart, as opposed to the total-audience-based country chart, is calculated (don't ask). That gain means it got played 387 times last week by the 60-70-odd stations playing it, compared to 323 the previous week. (Just for comparison, the No. 1 song on the top 40 format (Shakira's Hips Don't Lie) got played 9,127 times.

Top 40: Besides Bo at No. 39 and Kelly's Walk Away dropping from No. 15 to No. 19), watch out for the first single from the Idol who never quite was. Mario Vazquez, who withdrew from Season 4 on the eve of the finals, could make the top 40 list next week with Gallery, his debut for Arista (a Clive Davis Empire subsidiary).

Poster boy goes missing

If posts seem a little scarce here this week, there's a reason. I've been drafted into a corporate brainstrom session that lasts pretty much all day from today to Wednesday. I'll post a few items in the evenings (sometimes timed to go up the next day), and other estimable USA TODAY onliners will let you know if anything big breaks in the world of Idol, but mostly you may have to carry on the discussion threads on your own.

Which should not prove a challenge. One of my favorite things to do Sunday, when I come back in after my "weekend" to work on the paper, is to catch up on the comments. Today, for instance, there's a ton of great stuff, from the detailed review of Taylor's pre-Idol album and the candid comments on recent Idol TV appearances to more lively debate on Katharine and her bulimia-gone-public to astute assessments of the Idol cheese wheel to some well-timed advice to me to chill a little on the radio vs. record sales issue when it comes to Idol singles.

So keep it going. I'll be reading and responding as often as I can.

Viewing opportunity on MSNBC

All 10 finalists are set to appear tomorrow evening on MSNBC's Rita Cosby Live and Direct (10 p.m. ET). Apparently Ms. Cosby is making quite a cottage industry out of Idol coverage (I was unaware, but that just shows how much I watch MSNBC).

More 'Freudian' slips

OK, now I'm worried. I can see where I might mistype "secret stiff" when I meant "secret stuff" in my recent Taylor post. But not one, but two title garblings on the Idol cheese list is a bit much.

To clarify (and they've already been corrected on the appropriate posts, so don't bother looking), I had Kelly's first single as A Moment in Time rather than A Moment Like This, and Clay's as This Is My Night rather than This Is the Night. Maybe it's my handwriting; I do have trouble deciphering my scribbled notes sometimes.

Or maybe it is, as some of you have amusingly suggested, Freudian. I have no idea what I could have been thinking on those two song titles above, but if there are any amateur skull pilots out there, suggestions are welcome. I think.

'Idol cheese'

As I read these comments (frequently the highlight of my day), certain recurring phrases hit me -- "thud" was a recent one, describing the fainting sensation brought on, however improbably, by Taylor Hicks. (Well, it's improbable to me, but I am handicapped in appreciating Taylor's sex appeal.)

Another striking phrase was "Idol cheese," used by a few of you to describe, in particular, the new songs tailored (sorry) for Taylor and Katharine by the Idol machine and, more generally, the songs crafted for past Idols.

I think it's the perfect phrase to describe the souvenir singles of Idol winners and runners-up, and so in honor of Taylor's first week in stores (we'll get the sales figures tomorrow, as well as those for his predecessors' souvenirs), the singles that preceded his follow:

Life after Idol: Ruben recoups

Season 2 Idol winner Ruben Studdard caught a break from the legal system late last week when a Jefferson County (Alabama) court awarded him $2 million in a victorious lawsuit against a former manager. Ronald Edwards and his company, Sez Inc., misappropriated money from Ruben's bank accounts, according to the suit. The court's judgment said the resultant damage to Ruben's credit line adversely affected his home-buying efforts.

Life after Idol: Season 5 activity

OK, we finally reach the end of this epic production. Again, your feedback and amplification (sounds like a guitar solo) has been indispensable ... and entertaining. (The comments in general have been fun, from the "thud" series of Taylor lust notes to the great line about Melissa the Mermaid -- "when you lose AI, you're all washed up." I'd read this blog even if I wasn't "supervising" it.)

So the only finalists we have left are this year's, and many of their activities have already been discussed here (and the top 10, as we know, will be touring shortly). But let's see what else we can turn up. And, since Idols and National Anthem performances seem to go together like Randy Jackson and Oreos, we'll report on Anthem status for each finalist.

Carrie makes the All-Star squad

I've been noting the disproportionate number of former Idol finalists who are chosen to sing the National Anthem at sporting events. (Most prominent recent example: Elliott at the NBA finals game.)

But leave it to Carrie Underwood to trump everybody. She's got the gig singing the Anthem at Major League Baseball's All-Star Game July 11 in Pittsburgh.

Tough song to sing, but I think she'll pull it off.

Life after Idol: Season 5 semifinalists

More great feedback and useful contributions to the entire scientific body of knowledge about past Idols; I appreciate it. Check out Derek's comment on the class of Season 4 in particular for helpful updates.

Before jumping to this season's finalists, I wanted to take a quick virtual look around to see if anything was popping for the 12 semifinalists. Of course, it is early yet, so there's not much in the way of official sites, or even fan sites, so it's likely this will not be a marathon post. And anything you know about these folks (if you remember them at all) will be helpful.

So hit the button for more:

Life after Idol: Season 4 activity

OK, we're up to last year, Season 4, in this voluminous retrospective, so most of these people will be fresher in most of our minds than, say, EJay Day.

1. Carrie Underwood: A huge success for the Idol franchise, with multiplatinum sales and still in the top 10, with new single Don't Forget to Remember Me, at No. 8 on the country airplay chart, sure to propel more sales. And she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in mass communications. She'll be taking over the world next (and who's to say it wouldn't be a better place?)

The rest of the list follows.

Life after Idol: More updates on past finalists

More good info coming in from the widespread reaches of the Blog Pound, adding to the total store of knowledge we're amassing about past contestants and their lives after Idol. I haven't further verified any of this stuff, but offer it for its educational benefits.

Just to summarize for those who may not have read them in the comments:

> Look for Josh Gracin on The Young and the Restless June 29.

More tidbits follow:

Life After Idol: Season 3 activity

Here we go wih the web-activity update on Season 3's finalists. As you would expect, with only two years having elapsed since the spotlight focused on them, most are persevering in their attempts to reclaim a portion of that Idol glare.

Thanks again for further updates on the Season 2 finalists that I didn't find in my web sweep. Good to know that Julia DeMato is married and has a kid.

Anyway, the third-season roundup follows.

Life after Idol: Season 2 web activity

Glad you mostly seemed to like the general idea and the first installment of the "whatever happened to" -- at least as far as we can determine on the Web -- series on past Idol finalists. Also, thanks for the updates you supplied (the A.J./EJay duet -- I hope the initial reviews were good; OK, bad joke -- and the Christina Christian settling-down info). Season 2 installment follows on this post.

Please don't regard this as the last word in Idol updates, but as more of an enlightening/amusing project. And regarding the comment about whether I expect to get this much mileage out of Rockstar, let me state right now that I have no intention of giving Rockstar the Idol Chatter treatment. (Might mention it now and then, though -- and whatever did happen to Mig?)

Life After Idol: Season 1 web activity

I think I'll try to do this exploration of which Idol finalists still seem to be pursuing active entertainment careers as a six-parter, starting with this post and continuing next week.

So first we'll look at, logically, Season 1, then get to the other seasons (plus the semi-finalists from this past season, since I have their names handy).

Interestingly, out of the 10 finalists that year (the number was bumped up to 12 in the second season), all but two seem to have something going on, if website activity is any gauge. I'll also include website links where appropriate, so if you're so minded, you can check up on what your favorite (or least favorite) past finalist is up to.

Life After Idol: Attrition

Feels like it's been a while since I posted, but I've been enjoying reading your comments. This one, however, is off on another tangent.

I'm always curious about the fate of Idol's also-rans, so it occurred to me that one way to get a quick status reading was to check if they had websites, official or fan sites. So I spent some quality time looking up all five years' worth of finalists, and found that, if having active websites is any indication, very few Idols are eager to give up that marvelous business we like to call "show." Leaving this past season aside for the moment, out of 46 finalists, only nine seemed to be inactive on the web by my count. Interesting.

Season-by-season findings coming tomorrow.

Life after Idol: a Huff puff

It's a rocky road, this show business thing, and a former Idol contestant has to stay alert for opportunities. So it turns out that George Huff, the genial 5th place finisher in Season 3, has taken on some sort of advisory position with Gospel Dream, the Gospel Music Channel's version of Idol. Huff, whose first video, Miracles, is being aired on GMC, will "work with amateur artists seeking to become America's next gospel superstar." He kicks off the show's talent search in New York June 17.

And sorry I missed this one (not really), but Diana DeGarmo (Season 4 runner-up) recently (May 19) appeared as a "Fairy Idol" on Nickelodeon's The Fairly Odd Parents.

Finally, whatever happened to Brenna Gethers anyway?

Kelly Clarkson throws back to Janis Joplin

"It's like a throwback to Janis Joplin, Sly, some of (the new songs) are a little Prince-ish. It's still got the whole rock-pop vibe, but it's kind of got certain songs, too, that have an extreme amount of soul in them as well."

That's Kelly Clarkson speaking in a new Associated Press story about her new album. I would normally be skeptical about such claims, but her last album was such a pleasant departure from the Idol norm that I wouldn't put it past her to accomplish anything she wants.

Speaking of Idol, she says, "It was obviously the best way for me to come into the business. It's like a Cinderella story every day."

Carrie's live tunes

For the Carrie Underwood fans among the group, there's a relatively recent AOL Sessions live performance available from last year's winner. Starting today, it's also available for download from iTunes if you're plugged into their system.

Manilow: From Idol coach to crime deterrent

You voted Barry Manilow the best celebrity coach on American Idol this past season, citing his genuine concern and sincerity and helpful suggestions. Now, Barry's music may be used to fight crime (or the potential of crime) in Australia.

I posted a short account of the story and a link to it in the Listen Up blog (subtle cross-plug); you might be amused. Or, if you're a big fan of Barry, not.

Season 6: Another perspective

Even though it might seem sufficient to confine the assessments of Idol to my opinions and yours (we certainly get a wide enough range that way), I know some of you check other blogs and commentaries, and -- now that the season's over and I'm not worrying about unconsciously lifting insights from other sources -- I can do some of that too.

So from time to time, I'll post links to interesting commentaries on Idol-related matters, such as this one, and let you praise or disparage them as you will.

Life after 'Idol': The Reality TV convention

USA TODAY's ace TV reporter Ann Oldenburg, on top of writing a story for the paper on the first (annual? maybe not) Reality TV convention in Nashville, was kind enough to send me a report that focuses specifically on the ex-Idols who showed up to entertain attendees (including lots of alumni from reality shows of all descriptions ... something about this whole concept is starting to remind me of one of the outer circles of Dante's afterlife resort).

If you recall, Season 4 also-rans Lindsey Cardinale, Scott Savol and headliner Jessica Sierra were slated to perform at a convention concert. They did, and also did some public speaking. Ann's report follows.

Your best and worst performances

Sorry this took so long, but the tabulations are complete (apologies to any late-arriving ballots I missed). You voted, America. (I hope you don't mind me calling you America; personally, I tend to resent it when advertisers tell me, "America, you asked for a more portable lawn ornament, and now it's here!") And now we have the official Idol Chatter Best and Worst Performances of Idol Season 5 preserved for posterity.

Surprises? There were a few, but there was a pretty good consensus on most choices. So without further ado (but with a few comments on the next post), the list follows:

Best/Worst: The commentary

Contestant by contestant, here's some background and a bit of commentary on the results of your best/worst performances of the season poll.

Melissa: With only one song to choose for best and worst, I just included her for laughs. OK, it wasn't that funny.

Kevin: Overwhelmingly, you preferred the earnest but grisly When I Fall in Love over the grisly but semi-amusing Part-Time Lover.

Lisa: Only three songs to choose from, but the verdict was clear: Stevie Wonder, good move; Kelly Clarkson, not so bright.

The rest follows.

Best and worst coaches

OK, I've finally totaled up the votes for memorable highlights and lowlights of the just-past Idol season. I'll save your best and worst songs for each contestant for a post first thing tomorrow, before I go into weekend hibernation, but here's the results for the celebrity coaches.

Worst coach: Clive Davis. This is hardly an upset; you (and I) have been fuming about some of his bad choices for some time now. (Open Arms may have cost Elliott his shot at the finals, and Katharine is lucky I Believe I Can Fly didn't scuttle hers.)

Also getting support here: David Foster for harshness, Kenny Rogers for general uselessness. The winner follows.

My best/worst performance list (finally)

I know I promised to post this yesterday, but with all the Idol sales news coming out, I made it a priority to get those fascinating figures to you as early as possible. Plus the additional tour dates news -- no shortage of ways to Idol the day away.

But I have gone through the cheat sheet now (I really needed it, and still found myself failing to remember certain performances -- how quickly the intensity of it all can fade). Many of my choices for best and worst for each finalist were pretty close calls, and I tried to note those situations in the comments below the list. So the list follows; check it out and continue to send in your nominations, and I'll total those up later today.

Idol tour expands by 20 dates

Demand seems to be high for this summer's Idol tour. (Poor Melissa and Kevin; it seems cruel for the show to select 12 finalists, then deny two of them a spot on the tour. On the other hand, it may well be a plus for the audience.) In four cities, a second show has been added, and 16 additional dates have been tacked on in September.

Sales winners and losers from Idol finale

More sales news, courtesy of the fine folks at Nielsen SoundScan. In the battle of former Idols who appeared on the Idol finale last Wednesday, Carrie (who was also on the ACM Awards during the same time slot) tromped Clay -- her album returned to the top 10, selling 65,000, almost double her 35,000 total the previous week. Clay, new coiffure (aka the k.d. lang look, as some of you have dubbed it) and all, managed to quintuple his sales for Measure of a Man, but that sounds a lot better than "rose from 400 to 2,000." The increase did bring the album back to the top 200 catalog albums chart, at No. 135.

And how well did the guest stars on the finale score? Read onward ...

Idol anthology: Best initial sales ever

The American Idol: Season 5 Encores album set a record for the franchise, selling the most albums in its first week for any finalists' anthology. OK, the 154,000 copies was dwarfed by the Dixie Chicks' new album, which sold 526,000, and was even beaten by the yet-to-wane High School Musical phenomenon (a new double-CD deluxe version of the soundtrack boosted sales to 175,000, more than double last week).

But this season's Idol anthology edged the first season's album (which sold 146,000) and nearly doubled last year's package. The numbers for all five anthologies follow.

Performance analysis: the preview

Glad some of you are getting some use out of the Idol performance cheat sheet. I pledge that tomorrow, barring major cataclysm, I will not only post my best and worst performance nominations but I will also tabulate yours so far.

The question came up as to why I limited this project to the 11 episodes of the finals rather than include earlier tryout/Hollywood/semifinal performances. No hidden agenda there -- it's merely that I didn't get the final USA TODAY nod to start Idol Chatter until the finals began, so my notes extend only that far back. For next season, we can certainly widen the eligibility period.

Also tomorrow, a look at first-week sales figures of the Idol anthology CDs.

Best/worst performances: a cheat sheet

My fault. When I asked you to nominate your best and worst performances by each Idol finalist this season (and thanks to the many who have responded so far), I didn't stop to think that normal people don't keep a written record of every song sung by the Idols during the finals. (That's a form of aberrant behavior reserved for true obsessives and blogheads such as myself.)

So I thought, since I have all this info scribbled down, I should provide you all with a cheat sheet. So following this message is a list, by contestant, of the songs each performed (and the original artist, unless it was a standard). Hope it helps. Or turn it into an attractive wall poster.

'Encores' Away: The Idol album

Welcome back, hope you had a good holiday weekend, and you asked for it. There was a question late last week asking why I hadn't reviewed the American Idol: Season 5 Encores album. Well, yeah, it's hard to think of a more natural topic for Idol Chatter, and since I was planning to review it for the paper (you can see that more, uh, concise review on the Listen Up blog or in the paper today), I have taken the liberty of musing at greater length upon the wonders within this CD.

Immediate impression: This is much better than it could have been. Second impression: Studio technology, the opportunity to do multiple takes, possible vocal pitch adjustments, etc., should make the album sound better than the live TV performances. Track-by-track comments (and a Kat TV alert) follow.

The best of Season 5

It occurred to me while looking at the American Idol CD that the producers might not be the best possible judges of what constituted the best performances by the Idols this season. So I thought it might be interesting if you suggested the best musical performance by each Idol. Finals only (which will make it really easy to pick Melissa McGhee's entry).

Bonus question: Who were the best and worst celebrity guest coaches (including Clive Davis as a celebrity, which I have a hunch would make him happy)?

I'll summarize the results and add my own choices next week.

Ratings update & commenters' suggestions

Final ratings for the finale just came in: The show drew 36.4 million, or a million more than the preliminary numbers, Gary Levin reports. Still No. 2 behind Season 2's 38.1 million audience.

Speaking of big numbers, I'm glad some of you picked up on that fairly ludicrous Ryan Seacrest comment about the 63.4 million votes being more than any presidential candidate ever got. Multiple voting is encouraged in Idol voting but generally frowned upon in political elections, so the comparison is purely meaningless.

A couple more good comments follow.

Overnight ratings sensation

Just a quick note on the overnight, preliminary ratings. USA TODAY TV authority Gary Levin reports:

"The fifth-season finale of American Idol (35.4 million viewers and a 13.8 rating/35 share in adults 18-49) is the second-biggest episode of the show ever, behind season 2’s finale, and is up by more than 5 million viewers from last year. In its final half-hour, Idol averaged 42.9 million and claimed a 38% share of adults 18-49 watching TV and 44% of women 12-49."

This is a good thing for Idol, but it probably means that the producers will feel they need to use more skits like Pickler Meets Puck next year. Nothing breeds excess like success.

The aftermath: A divided Idol Nation

Passions are still inflamed about the final verdict -- a lot of McPhans convinced of the superiority of their girl, plenty of believers in the eternal crusades (Elliott and Chris got robbed), even a Paris and Mandisa fan or two, plus a healthy chunk of the Soul Patrol. You can make a case for future success for Taylor, Katharine, Elliott and Chris; only time will tell, and we'll be talking about it.

I got a question about why I didn't do an overall summary of the show itself. I really don't know if, after all my posts and your comments, there's all that much more to say about it. If I had to sum it up in one word, I'd be torn between "surreal" and "bizarre." A few highs (Elliott, much of the Bacharach medley), a lot more lows (please lay off the comedy, folks -- and the Meat Loaf) and a whole lot, to borrow a phrase from Idol coach Don Waller, of s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g.

Hold the farewells

Though I appreciate the fond farewells in the comments, don't leave yet! Idol Chatter isn't over.

I'll be here recapping, speculating, reporting and commenting on Idol news and trivia as long as it lasts (maybe year-round). And I certainly hope you'll stick around or visit from time to time when the mood strikes you. (Not to mention visiting Listen Up, my new general music blog, which is gearing up.)

In any case, thanks to the hundreds of thousands of people who have read and lurked within the Idol Chatter walls, and to the thousands who have commented. Don't be strangers.

Reflecting on the results

So Taylor wins. So many people predicted it, it almost -- but not quite -- felt like a foregone conclusion. But back in February or even March, would you realistically have ever thought a 29-year-old harmonica-playing soul singer who didn't look a day over 39 would have stood a chance to win?  This is kind of a breaking-the-mode moment for Idol.

Kelly was a fresh-faced pop singer. Ruben was Luther Vandross lite (OK, not so lite, but you know what I mean). Fantasia fit the R&B diva model to a T. Carrie's country orientation was a bit of a departure, but countless female country stars have set the parameters for her.

Taylor's different. Further explorations on this theme follow.

Wasting 'Time'

1:55 into it, and we should have been nearing the results -- but not before Taylor and Katharine did their best Bill Medley/Jennifer Warnes Dirty Dancing duet. Fine, sweet moment. But I was thinking, 'Just get on with it.'

Someday a Prince did come

Wow -- they couldn't talk Prince into being a guest coach/performer, as was hopefully rumored, but they did convince him into singing him. Get the sharks lined up for the big Evel Knievel jump as far as Prince's career is concerned. But a neat coup for the show.

Bacharach burners in overdrive

Burt Bacharach -- a much-needed shot of class, as long as they don't bring Wolfgang Puck out to duet with him. Sure, it's pure middle-of-the-road entertainment, but those are good, sturdy songs that stand the test of time -- and a bit of vocal wobbling from some of the idols.

The medley illustrated one thing -- most of the early eliminations by the voters were right on the money. Mandisa was good on I Say a Little Prayer, but following Elliott's dignified A House Is Not a Home with Kevin capering about to What's New Pussycat was a sublime-to-ridiculous classic. Fortunately Paris was around to restore order with a nifty Close to You, and Bacharach's prime interpreter, Dionne Warwick, put the proper seal of quality on the lengthy medley with Walk On By, although That's What Friends Are For was an anticlimax.

Feat of Clay

I was going to try to avoid commenting on the truly horrific comic filler, but I do think they should have given the Golden Idol to the Cher imitator. He was fantastic!

But then of course without the Aiken imitator, they couldn't have pulled this stunt with Clay showing up, allowing him to return to the spotlight with his new McCartney look and Elton John song. Man, does he bludgeon a song to death or what?

The women sing 'Women'

Some points for Katharine -- she sang Shania Twain better than Mandisa. On the other hand, while Paris and Lisa bettered Elliott on Trouble, Katharine sure didn't.

At least the women's medley seemed to have a theme of sorts: Man! I Feel Like a Woman Tonight/Trouble/I'm a Woman/Natural Woman/I'm Every Woman -- which one doesn't quite belong? Although I guess the lyrics to Trouble might reflect part of a woman's nature, or something like that.

Taylor's duet is for-ghettoble

Taylor reprised In the Ghetto. And who did they get to duet with him, since Elvis presumably wasn't available? Well, the natural second choice was be ... Toni Braxton? Elliott/Mary J.'s crown for duet of the night is safe, I think.

Carrie on tonight

It was interesting to compare Carrie to Katharine. Singing Don't Forget to Remember Me from her album, she seemed to have gained confidence and assurance, and I do prefer her less-mannered vocal delivery compared to those elaborate and sometimes shaky flights Katharine's prone to launching. Not the most exciting song in the world, though.

'One' from Elliott's heart

After some corporate shilling and emotion-milking, Elliott comes up and sings One with Mary J. Blige. Definite highlight of the night so far (and probably for the rest of the proceedings). I actually preferred Elliott's restrained treatment to Blige's hyper-gospelizing, but it's a cool interlude.

If Elliott had been able to sing One in the semifinals, Katharine (or Taylor) might not be up for the title.

Medley Crue from the guys

Randy Bachman of BTO was one of the, to put it charitably, least gifted natural singers in rock. Ace and Kevin just made him sound like Sinatra. This is just a bad dream, right?

On the positive side, Taylor got to play the harmonica, and this is probably the first time in history that anyone has medleyed BTO's Takin' Care of Business, the Nashville Teens' Tobacco Road and Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop. If you can offer a possible thematic link, I am ready to be enlightened.

An Idol diversion: The Golden Idols

I was right, it is like an awards show. The Golden Idols turned out to be yet another way to milk the bad auditions the show loves to play up. They could fill up a half hour easy with this stuff. And after all, you never know where the next William Hung will come from.

Interestingly, Crazy Dave may just do a better Meat Loaf than Meat Loaf these days. Not that I'm encouraging him to pursue a showbiz career, mind you.

Loaf is in the air

Frighteningly, the Meat Loaf/Katharine duet report turned out to be true. There's a pairing made in purgatory. Lots of quavering jaws and tremulous unison singing on It's All Coming Back to Me Now. I'm tempted to say, "So is my dinner," but I've tried to maintain a more dignified tone all season. Well, I guess I'm entitled to a cheap joke or 12 tonight -- still more than an hour and a half to go.

Chris and Ed: Separated at birth

I'm planning to post a lot of items tonight for a couple of reasons. One, it gives me something to do while watching this stretch-o-rama. Two, it's the last broadcast of the season and deserves a little extra attention, even if it may not be entirely positive.

Anyway, Chris comes back to play with Live (nice touch) on Mystery, and he and Ed Kowalczyk could be twins. Perhaps they will form a duo; might I suggest the name Balderdash? I didn't think so.

Meanwhile, the less said about Kellie Pickler's umm, I guess you'd call it a skit, with Wolfgang Puck, the better. I hope you'll understand if, for once this season, words fail me.

Life after Idol: Tamyra Edition

And now the oh-so-welcome return of Becky O'Donohue. And how sad for Tamyra Gray, who could sing rings around Katharine, shilling for McPheever.

At least Paris, another singer superior to Katharine, gets to sing. We're in This Love Together, to be precise, with its original singer, Al Jarreau. Nice to see her again.

This just in -- stop the blogs -- I've just received a press release that Meat Loaf will be singing a ballad with Katharine! The fun never ... uh, stops.

The big show, filler to the extreme

Feels more like the Grammys or something already. Throngs of Idols singing, stars in the audience ... let the filler begin. And you can't get more filleresque than a judges retrospective! Unbelievable.

Final fearless forecast

A little less than an hour to go before the little less than two hours before we find out the winner, so it's about time to go out on a limb and make that prediction.

Bottom two: Taylor and Katharine. (Kidding.)

The overwhelming sentiment and poll results favoring Taylor almost arouse the contrarian in me and make me want to pick Katharine, but I shall resist.

Deserves to win: Taylor

Will win: Taylor

See you live shortly.

The final Blog Pound 2006 poll

Well, you might have thought it was boring, an anticlimax, a disappointment, a hideous spectacle, a waste of time, etc., but you (and by you in this case I mean the American TV-viewing public) sure watched the dang thing. The Idol performance finale drew 31.8 million eyes (wait, that would be about 64 million eyes, 31.8 million viewers) and scored the highest-ever rating and share (percentage of viewing audience watching) for any performance finale: 11.8 and 33. 

It obliterated the audience for CBS' ACM awards (which, as a Country Music Association member, I do wish to point out are not at all the same thing as the CMA awards, which carry much more prestige and career impact) by a factor of 2.5 to 1. Four times as many people watched as saw Stephen King's Desperation on ABC.

OK, so you know it was popular. Now what you really want to know is how did the season's last Blog Pound poll come out? Continue ...

The new songs -- Once more with feeling

Not to beat this dead horse into the cherry tree (sorry, mixed my metaphors), but clearly those new songs that closed last night's performance finale are receiving the chilliest welcome next to Barry Bonds at an away game. My favorite comment: "I could right better songs. And Im illitterat."

I thought the comment about the technical difficulty of Kat's song was on the money, too (in fact, my wife, who's sung for years, said, "Whoever wrote that song hates singers"). Not many people could sing it well -- but then, who would want to?

Want to know what really ticks me off about those songs, though? Read on ...

The songs are over

Well, it's almost over. Last night was the last time this season that I will try the virtual high-wire trick of critiquing Idol performances as they happen. I had no idea whether this endeavor would work, but it turned out to be a whole lot of fun, challenging and rewarding. Hope you got something out of it, too.

I'll be looking forward to your comments on tonight. It makes me kind of misty just to type it, but I'll be back this afternoon with the season's final expression of your collective input, the Blog Pound poll. Can't wait to see who comes out on top of this absolutely unreliable but provocative predictive device.

Some Taylor trivia follows.

The story behind the new songs

I'm not exactly getting a vibe that you loved those two new songs that made their debut Tuesday night. It's funny, I was talking to a colleague after the show, and I was saying that right as those songs began, I had that little flash of doubt that maybe it was just me, that most people would really like these songs. She said, in effect, it wasn't just you. And clearly, judging from your comments, it wasn't.

So I think it will amuse, infuriate, and otherwise intrigue you to check out Bill Keveney's story in today's print edition about the elaborate process the Idol machine goes through to find these songs. The mind truly boggles.

Rating the finals

I wanted something a little exceptional from tonight's show, not just reprises of past glories. With the surprise element missing, no one had the opportunity to steal the show, which ensures, I think, a very close race.

The only surprise possibilities were the new songs, but surprise was the last thing to be found in those drearily predictable mush-fests. When the judges, who are part and parcel of the Idol machinery, clearly disdain the songs, you know you've got some turkeys. Out of all the Idol souvenir singles, only Kelly's A Moment Like This made the top 100 on the national radio chart we run in USA TODAY, and I certainly hope Katharine's My Destiny and Do I Make You Proud are consigned to the same radio dustbin as Flying Without Wings and Inside Your Heaven.

Round-by-round analysis follows.

Early filler

Filling out the first five or so minutes, Randy and Paula were profound, as always, advising the finalists that they need to really bring it and pick the right songs. That should help.

And Ben Stiller certainly looked thrilled to be part of history in the audience.

OK, back right after the first performance.

'Idol' takes a Powter

So who will be the best performer tonight? Daniel Powter? Well, he'll get to sing Bad Day for real, which is fitting for someone who has certainly benefited from Idol exposure for his "kickoff" song.

And if that's not enough, tomorrow we get the return of Carrie, plus I'm hearing rumblings of Clay. (I've even heard Michael Bolton, but surely that couldn't be true? Not on Idol, that bastion of cool.)

Meanwhile, back to Taylor and Katharine, I'm skeptical about their souvenir songs, but I hope in their other performances they pull out all the stops and perform strongly enough to maybe even change some minds, even if most of our minds are made up. See you live at 8 ET.

Two new songs should be better than one

I'm under the seal of a strict embargo about revealing the titles of the two new songs the Idols will sing tonight, but there's one piece of encouraging news. At least this year the producers gave Taylor and Katharine their own songs to sing.

Last year, Bo and Carrie each had to sing Inside My Heaven, a really bad idea, considering the contrast in their styles, that was made a lot worse by Inside My Heaven being easily the most insipid and lyrically murky Idol souvenir song yet. (And that's saying something.) Both versions were released, sold to the Idol faithful, and managed to rack up between them almost no radio airplay.

So I'm hoping these songs will be more individually shaped to the singers' styles and abilities. We'll see tonight. And look for the story behind the song selection tonight at life.usatoday.com and in tomorrow's paper.

A Taylor runaway?

Just about everything I've seen -- polls, comments, pontifications -- predicts a Taylor victory Wednesday. Is it really that much in the bag?

Your comments at the time I write this run about 5-1 for Taylor, and oddsmakers, from the serious to the frivolous, seem convinced Hicks from the sticks will beat the big-city gal.

Personally, I've underestimated Katharine's appeal a few times. She has survived after performances that would have sent a lesser contestant home in a heartbeat. I wouldn't count her out just yet.

We'll see whether opinions change after tonight's performance -- although I have a hunch most everyone has made up his or her mind by now.

The continuing adventures of Idol Chatter

To paraphrase Randy Jackson, as I so often like to do, we’ve got a hot one tonight, Blog Pound! Actually, we’ve got two hot ones.

Remember when I asked you all for ideas about continuing this online meeting of the minds once Idol ends? Well, the suggestions were great, and the powers that be were so impressed that they greenlighted (greenlit?) not one, but two blogs.

One of them is this baby right here. Idol Chatter will continue as a forum to discuss Life After the Competition in all its multisplendored aspects: the records, when they come out; the endorsement deals; the rapid or not-so-rapid descent into showbiz oblivion of the also-rans; and of course, the Idol tour. If you attend an Idol concert in your town, I’ll be looking for your candid impressions. We might also talk about some of the other Idol-clone music reality contests, stuff like the new Rock Star series; Fox’s Duets, the pro-amateur vocal pairings that sounds like Singing with the Stars; and others that might make it to the tube.

There should be plenty to talk about, and your ideas are certainly welcome. So if you need an Idol fix, stick around. We’ll be here, same times, same virtual station.

And for those of you who liked the idea of a broader music blog, we’re launching Listen Up tonight.

Instrumental in their success: Idols who play

I knew I could count on you. I asked for a little help from the dedicated Idol scholars among you regarding contestants besides Taylor who actually play instruments, and you came through with plenty, notably:

> Bucky and Chris from this year, Carrie Underwood and Nadia Turner from last year, and Jon Peter Lewis from Season 3 all have been reported playing guitar.

> Last year's Anwar Robinson, a music teacher, knows his way around the keyboards.

> And Bo Bice, relative to most Idols anyway, is a veritable renaissance man, playing guitar, piano, saxophone and harmonica.

Also, in the interests of accuracy, I mentioned Ruben Studdard's gospel album in a recent post about Idol finalists and their albums but neglected to mention Clay Aiken's Christmas album. It was in my notes, but somehow got by me. Brain freeze, I guess.

Now there's only one issue really facing us: Are you a Kat person or a Soul Patroller? Is it the Year of the Kat or are we looking at a Taylor-made triumph? Does Kat have 11 lives or is Taylor the right fit? (Go ahead and groan -- I'm just trying to get all the obvious lines out of the way early.) It's the issue that divides a nation -- and keeps Idol Chatter rolling along.

Taylor and Katharine speak

I guess the 'Idol' gods think we haven't heard enough from the finalists (or maybe they are just milking the moment?) They made Taylor and Katharine available for their own phone conferences Friday morning. USA TODAY TV reporter Ann Oldenburg listened in. For the long version, go here. Among the quotables:

Taylor on his craziest fan experience: "I got a couple of pictures, I think they were sisters and they had Soul Patrol and my picture tattooed on their necks. Those might be my two biggest Soul Patrollers."

Kat on whether she has a lucky charm: "I don't have any gimmicks. I don't have any silly things that I say. I guess I'm going to have a really hot dress and a nice pair of shoes and go out there and look fabulous and try to sing my best."

 

Next week: Beauty & the Beast

OK, "Beast" is a little harsh on Taylor, who's actually a reasonably distinguished-looking Southern gentleman, but in a way it does describe the nature of the battle headed our way Tuesday.

In one corner, you've got a young lady who could have come off the assembly line at the secret American Idol construction factory (located in her hometown of Sherman Oaks, Calif., no doubt). Katharine is in many ways the quintessential Idol -- the good looks, the years of voice training, the puzzlingly blank personality that makes her the perfect raw material to be molded into a pop-star pawn for 19 Entertainment, Clive Davis and the Idol machine.

But Katharine is young, and we can't know how she'll develop. Kelly Clarkson appeared to be a model Idol, but -- perhaps with the connivance of the Idolmakers, perhaps without -- she made a radical image change and an attitude-laden second album that took her artistically to a place no Idol has ever gone. (Of course, no other Idol winner/runner-up has made two albums yet, unless you count Ruben's gospel side project.) Carrie Underwood seems to fit the mold pretty neatly and has concentrated her career thus far in a realm (Nashville) where not taking chances is generally applauded. Maybe Katharine won't play it safe -- but somehow I doubt that.

In the other corner is one of the oddest finalists yet. Taylor is prematurely gray, given to spontaneous outbursts that verge on compulsive and sings like a '60s soul man (or, more accurately, like a '70s rock-and-soul singer inspired by '60s soul men). Sure, Clay Aiken was an ugly duckling when he started his Idol progression, but he quickly smoothed out and became the blandest of the bland. Taylor started out strange and has only smoothed off a few edges (mostly in his appearance). Plus he can write songs and play an instrument, attributes shared by very few Idols. (I'd suspect Bo Bice can play guitar, probably Constantine Marulis, too. You all collectively know everything about the Idols -- please let me know if any other Idols have displayed instrumental prowess.)

He seems secure in his own identity, and I hope he can withstand the pressure that will be exerted on him (as it has been on Bo) to fit the contemporary pop mold. If he can do that, he might become the most musically worthwhile Idol yet.

Elliott's departure and other reflections

So after all the buildup and a new level of ratcheted-up tension with a big board of vote percentages depicting the closeness of the vote (three minor variations on a theme of 33+ %), with everything primed for an upset, there was no upset. As widely predicted, Elliott was the loser Wednesday night.

It's a credit to his progress during the show and to the dedication of his fan base (which we've certainly witnessed first-hand in the Idol Chatter comments) that he made it that close of a race.

It was also a cool gesture to make his swan song I Believe to My Soul, the Ray Charles song that he chose himself Tuesday night. That was the song presumably closest to his heart -- closer than Open Arms, that much I'm sure of. (He will probably be sticking pins in a Clive Davis voodoo doll to repay him for that song -- unless, of course, Clive signs him to a deal anyway.) And it was nice of the show to let him sing a decent-sized chunk of the song for once. (Most departees have gotten anywhere from 15 to 45 seconds to sing their farewells.)

So it's Katharine vs. Taylor next week. More on that tomorrow.

The results: Elliott out

Well, you can't get much closer than 33.68%, 33.26% and 33.06%. So I guess anything could happen.

But Elliott going is the expected result, no matter how close. Too bad -- given a choice, I would have loved to have seen a battle between the two oddball mavericks.

Plaque reduction

OK, I'm awake again, ready for the results. (Dozed off during Clive's dynamic recitation there. But I was looking at that plaque the Idols presented him with, and although runners-up Bo Bice and Clay Aiken seemed to be pictured with the four winners, poor Justin Guarini and Diana DeGarmo were conspicuous by their absence. How fleeting runner-up fame can be!)

Five minutes left for the results ...

Pre-show predictions (as if you couldn't guess)

A couple of brief notes before I venture into the realm of fearless forecasts. First, I'm reminded by a correspondent that, contrary to the show's claim Tuesday night, Dancing in the Dark was not the first Bruce Springsteen song performed on Idol. Remember a little ditty called Because the Night, performed in the prelims this year by the mercifully forgotten Becky O'Donohue? The hit was by Patti Smith, and she co-wrote it, but Bruce recorded a version for his 1986 live album.

Also, I was remiss in not mentioning that USA TODAY Idol coach Rich "Nostradamus" Martini suggested this week that Taylor should do You Are So Beautiful and follow it up with an Otis Redding song.

OK, I have not been afflicted with any contrarian prophetic visions tonight, so I'm going to predict that Elliott will go home. I think Taylor's safe (deservedly) and Katharine, fairly or not, will survive on the prevailing notion that she had a memorable moment Tuesday. See you at 9 ET for the beginning of the protracted verdict.

Mood of Idol Nation: Blog Pound semifinal poll

Because the show is at such a critical stage, I looked at a much larger sample of comments than I usually have time for this second-to-last straw poll. I always stress the unscientific nature of these tallies, but as a gauge of the passions that drive dedicated Idol viewers (that would be us), they're fascinating.

Passions were in fashion last night and today, and the numbers were much more divided than usual, which is natural with three popular finalists whose fans often despise the other singers.

"Read more" for the detailed results. Otherwise, I'll be back a bit before the show with my fearless and foolhardy predictions, then will go live when the show starts at 9 p.m. ET. (Reminder: It's an hour-long show, including a special award to Clive Davis for selling gazillions of Idol-related records, which just might be the time I switch over to the ballgame. Kidding -- of course I watch every minute.)

Champing at the bit: Past winners competing?

Just skimming a few of the responses to Tuesday's show, I'm seeing a lot of lukewarm-to-hostile comments about Katharine, a sentiment that Elliott may have been handicapped by poor song choices (made by others but also his own) and the usual wide range of attitudes toward Taylor. My favorite remark, though, came last night from one of my colleagues, Jayme Deerwester, who said Clive Davis gave Katharine the wrong R. Kelly song: "He should have given her Trapped in a Closet." The mind boggles.

One interesting idea suggested by a Blog Pounder was the concept of American Idol: The Championship Season. Modeled on the Survivor series of past winners and strong contenders, this would pit the top two finishers from all the seasons against each other.

Great idea, but a few problems suggest themselves. For one, what would they be competing for? Another recording contract? A cash prize? A Ford Fusion? Doesn't seem to be any incentive for the contestants.

Of course, that doesn't matter if the producers and the network like the idea, but I have a hunch they wouldn't -- or at least not until the show is desperately in need of a ratings-boosting gimmick. The one time they went out of the box with something vaguely similar, World Idol -- the winners of Idol series around the globe competing -- the ratings were unimpressive, and to add insult to injury, Kelly Clarkson lost to Norwegian Idol Kurt Nilsen. So much for World Idol. Still, a tantalizing idea.

Back later this afternoon with the Blog Pound poll.

Nine on the line: The semifinal summary

Well, I'm glad to say my worst fears weren't realized: The show wasn't drowned in a flood of gooey ballads. The goo only came up to waist level.

My overall winner for the evening? Despite Katharine scoring the best performance of the night, her other two weighed her down enough that I'd go with Taylor, with Elliott my early pick to go home. We'll add up how you feel tomorrow.

For my round-by-round assessment, just hit "Read more".

Idol semis: Ballad immersion

Get your flotation devices prepared. If the reports circulating around the Idol community are to be believed (and they were correct last week on Elvis night), we're ready to drown in ballads. I predicted that earlier, and I've never been so unhappy to see one of my predictions come true.

Six picks from BMG chief Clive Davis and the judges have surfaced, and five are ballads. And not just any ballads, either. Elliott and Katharine have a pair apiece, and the potential for grisly oversinging (on Katharine's part) and plodding dullness (on Elliott's) alarms me. And Taylor may have the grisliest ballad of them all. Hit the "Read more" below for the gory details.

Behind the scenes at an 'Idol' telecast

Short post just to say I loved the comments on the astrologist's prediction of a Katharine victory. Especially the one about the only way a "moon" could affect tonight's performance ...

It is amazing how many bizarre factions are attempting to cash in on 'Idol' fever. I'll try to feature more if they come in over the next week.

Meanwhile, one of our coaches, music journalist Rona Elliot, attended the Elvis show last Tuesday and provides an inside look at the pre-show preparations. Read about it here.

Katharine victory written in the stars?

Well, Taylor and Elliott have fought the good fight, but they might as well pack their bags. The stars have decreed that Katharine will be the Idol winner.

Let me clarify. By "stars," I don't mean a secret cabal of celebrities who have veto power over the popular vote. I mean the stars in astrological terms. AOL, in a thoughtful gesture, has offered us (USA TODAY) the Idol insights of its Horoscopes astrologer, Jeff Jawer, and since he pretty much spells them out in the press release, I thought I'd share some.

Jawer, who last year "correctly predicted that Capricorn Carrie Underwood would get a celestial boost from her lunar sign to capture the top honors," favors Katharine this year. (Actually, in what I'm going to charitably assume was a deliberate play on words, the press release says he feels "signs point" to Katharine winning.) The "alignment of the Taurus Moon, the feminine Venus and Pluto, the planet of rebirth" do sound like a tough combination for the others to overcome. And after the last couple of weeks, Katharine could certainly use a rebirth.

However, Jawer has kind words for the guys as well. At least I think these are kind words for Taylor: "But powerful Pluto conjunct his Sun reveals him to be an intense competitor."

And come to look at them, his assessment of Elliott doesn't seem entirely positive: "His self-admitted nervousness is shown in his chart both by mental Mercury conjunct doubting Saturn, and Venus in self-critical Virgo." If anyone said that about me, I'd be in touch with my attorney.

All in all, it's pretty convincing stuff, though. Maybe we should have made him one of our coaches.

'Idol' Tuesday: Drowning in a sea of ballads?

So, three songs each Tuesday night. That should separate the men from the ... woman. One way or another, anyway. With so much riding on the song selections and the Idols having so little direct control over the two songs they don't select themselves, anything could happen.

I'm hoping the finalists pick lively, uptempo showcases for themselves, because I'm fearing the judges and Clive Davis will do the opposite. The judges have in the past picked some interesting songs (Simon has a weakness for Ike & Tina Turner's 1960 classic A Fool in Love, for instance), but above anything else they seem to regard the big, bombastic ballad as the pinnacle of musical achievement. So I'm a bit scared of becoming a little drowsy. Let's hope for a bit of excitement somewhere.

My very early picks would be Taylor and Elliott to do best; Katharine has just been too erratic lately. But many of her fans don't seem to care, so I won't venture an early pick of who's going to go home. I've burned myself once too often on those.

Life after 'Idol' -- A scary proposition

First, thanks for all the ideas and compliments in response to the "Idol Chatter: What Comes After?" post. Much food for thought (though I might not be the ideal host for a Big Brother blog). Keep 'em coming (the ideas -- the compliments are optional).

An interesting press release hit my e-mail late last week. Apparently the first Reality TV Convention is taking place in Nashville June 3-4, with a concert that "doubles as the official after party for the event and is sure to be packed with contestants from hit reality shows including Survivor, Big Brother, The Apprentice, The Biggest Loser and more."

And who's headlining the concert before this glamorous audience of celebrity party people? None other than Idol Season 4's 10th-place finalist, Jessica Sierra. According to the release, "it's all part of what has been a whirlwind 18 months for the 20-year-old Sierra." She may gain a certain satisfaction in headlining over fellow Season 4 finalists Lindsey Cardinale (who was first out that year) and Scott Savol (who finished fifth and clearly needs to get a new agent). Opening the show are various finalists from Nashville Star who, sadly, don't even rate a namecheck in the release.

Sierra says she's "devastated" about Chris but offers this consolation: "Like many of us, I think he will have a great career after Idol."

So, anyway, I'll be back later today with some impressions of what the finalists might be facing with songs selected by the judges and by BMG chief and self-appointed starmaker Clive Davis. I'd like to see your thoughts as well.

Idol Chatter: What comes after?

So here's a novel concept: What comes next? Not for the Idols themselves, although I'll be getting into that in future posts. But what about this excellent online community that we've assembled here?

First, you should give yourselves a round of applause. Idol Chatter has been a center where people can discuss all things Idol in a smart fashion, with all the passion a subject like Idol naturally generates but also with insightful analysis and intelligent perspective. Not only are the overall numbers for participants and for reader/lurkers high, but I'm pleased to have received some very positive comments on the overall blog from people in journalism and the music business.

So, my question to you: Is there a way to keep something going after the show is over? I'm not sure continuing an Idol blog makes a lot of sense; without the drama the performances and results generate, there might not be a whole lot of substance there. Then again, there'll be the tour, tracking the contestants' careers, etc.

But I'm thinking there may be related subjects of interest to a lot of you that would prove productive -- my specialty is music, and I am a dyed-in-the-wool fanatic about it, but I don't necessarily want to limit your ideas to that topic. So I encourage you to suggest anything you think might make for an interesting way we can segue into in a post-Idol environment.  If you read the rest of the site or the paper, you know we have reporters covering most kinds of entertainment. Everything's fair game. Appreciate your thoughts (as usual). Thanks.

Chris is out, shaking up the semis

Chris had been a favorite to win, but Wednesday night was his time to go. The surprising result means Katharine, who was roundly panned for Tuesday's performances by both judges and commenters on this blog, survives to sing in the semifinals Tuesday with Elliott and Taylor. My immediate take would go something like this:

> Katharine has only a remote chance of winning. Her confidence seemed shaken Tuesday, and her performances have been increasingly erratic. She'd have to pull a 180 and deliver stunning performances next week.

> Elliott's in much better shape now. Definitely the favorite to be runner-up, which traditionally has come with a major-label (BMG Group) recording contract and maybe a ticket to some version of stardom. (Former runners-up were Clay Aiken, who's sold a lot of records; Justin Guarini and Diana DeGarmo, not so many; and Bo Bice, for whom the jury's still out.) And, with his momentum obviously on the rise, who's to say he couldn't pull off an upset and win? There are a lot of Taylor haters out there.

> But there are a lot of Taylor lovers, too, and I think you have to rate him the favorite now. I wasn't sure he could beat Chris, but I believe he can beat Elliott (or Katharine, in the unlikely event she makes it to the finals). Taylor Hicks, American Idol. Well, at the very least, that should be interesting.

The real bottom two

Well, I got that right, at least. I'm still kind of shocked, actually.

Two bottom twos

Thanks to Rebecca Romijn's "spontaneous" request for Taylor to reprise Jailhouse Rock, the results should happen very fast, minimizing the usual drawn-out torture. And does that mean Taylor's safe?

They roll out the old "one of these duos is your bottom two" trick. Amazingly, I could be right if the Taylor/Elliott group is declared safe. We'll see shortly.

Before the results, an omen from Elvis?

OK, we've endured the endless Elvis medley, seemingly selected by some scientific method akin to tossing song titles in a hat. But were those lines in I Just Can't Help Believing -- "This time the girl is gonna stay" -- prophetic? Will Katharine survive?

Still don't think so, but (everybody, now...) I've been wrong before.

Fearless pre-show predictions

This is supposed to get easier as the number of contestants declines. But I'm not so sure about any of these, which makes them a bit less than fearless. But anyway:

> Taylor will be safe.

> Elliott will also be safe. Punch my ticket on the E-train.

> Chris will be in the bottom two, if they have a bottom two tonight.

> Katharine will be eliminated. No one else deserves to go off Tuesday's performances.

Back around 9 for a jolt of reality.

The mood of Idol Nation: The Blog Pound Poll 5/10

Just finished sampling recent comments for the weekly poll, and those passions are indeed riding high! Based on Tuesday night's Elvis performances, you picked Elliott a clear No. 1, followed by Chris and Taylor in a tight race for No. 2 and Katharine (no surprise) bringing up the rear.

Hit the "Read more" link below for the detail. I'll be back later with fearless pre-show picks, although I bet you can guess who it will be.

Idol comments: Let's wage a 'civil' war

As we approach the end of our Idol wanderings, passions are running hot. Comments are flooded by messages from the Soul Patrol and the E-Train band, from the McPheever -- Catch It types and Onward Chris' Soldiers or whatever you'd call the Daughtry gang.

That's fine -- passion about the contestants has helped make American Idol a phenomenon and has swelled the numbers of Idol Chatter to levels that bring smiles to the faces my bosses. But let's also recognize that a lot of people follow Idol just as faithfully taking a more analytical tack -- they derive their enjoyment from evaluating the performances and ranking them.

There's room for both approaches, and there's plenty of room for strong opinions, declarations of undying love for your favorite finalist and loads of snarkiness. There's even room for insults -- but please direct those at me; that's what I'm here for. (The coaches are fair game, too -- and some of them relish the attacks.) But please respect the opinions of other posters and keep the discourse civil.

A little more conversation: Summing up the night

With just four contestants left, each with a devoted following, there are bound to be disagreements with my instant performance assessments. I hope we can agree that Katharine had, to adapt another Elvis song title, "one night" she'd like to forget. (I'd cite the earlier Elvis title I Forgot to Remember to Forget, but that's a little too metaphysical for our purposes.)

I thought she was going to pull off Hound Dog; the energy was there, but as soon as she shifted into All Shook Up, it seemed artificial, and then when she bungled the words, it was all over, and no amount of belting could save it. She knew she'd messed it up, and she seemed a bit desperate on Can't Help Falling in Love, which she could have sung beautifully but instead trampled all over its fragility.

Elliott didn't sound a whole lot better to me, but I think the judges' sudden conversion into his cheering section is going to get him through to next week. Part of my problem with his first song, If I Can Dream, is that it was by far the weakest piece of material in the show. Even though it came out in 1968, at the height of Elvis' artistic and visual comeback, it's spiritually more akin to the overblown ballads of the karate jumpsuit decline. And to sing it even passably, you have to bludgeon it half to death, and Elliott's vocal wasn't beefy enough. Nor did he have the necessary snarl to pull off Trouble -- he sounded about as evil as a bunny rabbit.

Chris gets second place by default, and he earned it with a solid Suspicious Minds that once again showed he doesn't have to sing as if he's stretched on a torture rack. It was tied with Taylor's In the Ghetto for the night's best performance, but Chris lost ground with his monotonal A Little Less Conversation. At least Elvis invested this inconsequential ditty with some vitality and personality.

So Taylor was the best of the night -- not unexpected, given his obvious affinity for Elvis. Sure, Jailhouse Rock was overcaffeinated almost to the point of caricature -- but that's Taylor. And that's the nature of the song, too. And after having shown his goofy persona, he showcased his soulful side on In the Ghetto.

Will Katharine actually be eliminated? It would have been hard to believe a few weeks ago, but it feels as though her support has eroded and Elliott's has increased. So I do think she's in the greatest danger.

Good rockin' tonight? I'll settle for good singin'

The Idols visit Graceland tonight, but I'm not sure all of them will make a graceful landing after an evening of Elvis songs.

Try as I might, I have trouble picturing Elliott pulling off Presley convincingly. Katharine needs to have her "A" game going, or she'll sound (and maybe look) ridiculous.

Chris and Taylor should fare better. Despite all the "one trick pony" cracks people make, Chris has shown some versatility -- and tonight would be an excellent time to amp down and display it. And Taylor should be in his zone -- as long as he lets his voice do the work and resists temptation to ham it up, he should be fine. He's my pre-show prediction for the best overall performances.

Back shortly for instant reactions to the show.

All shook up over Elvis episode

Most of you seem to be anticipating the tribute to The King show tonight with at least some degree of eagerness, but nobody knows what to expect. I like a lot of the suggestions I've seen -- concentrate on early Elvis, boycott the "Fat Elvis" era, stay away from Burning Love -- but I'm worried about the show itself.

My main fear is seeing too many bad Elvis impersonations -- I mean, there's an entire profession out there dedicated to that pursuit. (J.D. Fortune, the winner of Rock Star: INXS, used to be one of them.) It's not like there's a shortage. 

"Read more" to see who's most most susceptible to falling prey to the lure of trying to imitate Elvis and some thoughts (mine and yours) on what the others might do.

Fantasia: Life(time) after Idol

Winning American Idol could be the chance of a Lifetime -- movie, that is. In yet another weird Idol aftermath development, Fantasia is starring as herself in a Lifetime movie, directed by Debbie Allen and based on her autobiography, Life Is Not a Fairy Tale (just out in paperback), the riveting saga of a single mother who becomes queen of the Adult R&B charts. I may not instruct my TiVo to work overtime to record this. But that's just me.

This newest reinvention can now be added to the unlikely metamorphoses of Jennifer Hudson into potential movie star, Diana DeGarmo into Broadway actress, Kimberly Caldwell into host for the TV Guide Channel, Jim Verraros into gay activist singer, Scott Savol into ... who knows what?

I think there's a lesson here -- be careful with your votes, because there's a very good chance that any Idol finalist could try to extend his or her 15 minutes of celebrity and wind up poised to capture your attention again ... or at least the Lifetime Channel audience.

Who will buy (and play) the Idols' records?

Here's a scary thought: Since we're down to the final four, there's a good chance that at least three, possibly all four, will make an album that gets a reasonable amount of attention (as opposed to, say, the ephemeral Jasmine Trias album that came out a year or two ago). We can pretty easily predict the kind of record each finalist is likely to make, since their styles are fairly well established by now. But what sort of reaction will they get?

By reaction, I don't mean the instant sales generated by the fans who vote for them or that fraction that will actually shift from text-messaging to purchasing. I'm speculating about the greater public and the media.

Though there's a long way to go before we have to worry about these things, it's fun to consider. Hit "Read more" for my thoughts on each remaining finalist.

'Together' with Elvis

First, thanks to the expert operatives of the Blog Pound Musical Detective Agency who confirmed that the odious Together We Are One is indeed a song sung and co-written by Australia's Delta Goodrem. American Idol: scouring the world for schlocky ballads for hapless finalists to sing.

Speaking of finalists and singing, I'm relatively optimistic about Elvis week. At least the possibilities are tantalizing, even if we'll probably end up with someone singing late-period bathetic sludge like My Way or something. (Elvis' version is worse than Sinatra's.)

Taylor seems best-suited to handle Elvis' rockers, and I'd really like to hear him tackle something early, Sun-period, such as Mystery Train or Good Rockin' Tonight. Or even All Shook Up or Little Sister. Really don't need Burning Love or Viva Las Vegas or Suspicious Minds (well, that might be OK) or any of those impersonator staples. Or a ballad.

In fact, it would be great if everyone avoided ballads, even though the odds on that happening are lower than Kevin Covais' chance of getting a No. 1 alternative hit. There's so much good stuff in the Elvis catalog besides the innumerable big ballads. Chris could do a pretty intense Jailhouse Rock or Heartbreak Hotel (using some modern-rock arrangement), and Elliott could deliver a cool His Latest Flame or In the Ghetto. Katharine presents kind of a problem, but Always on My Mind might work for her, or maybe even Don't Be Cruel.

Should be interesting, especially with the "help" of the man the Idol website calls "legendary producer" Tommy Mottola. Now Mottola has been chief exec at Sony Records, he has managed acts such as Hall & Oates, he has been married to Mariah Carey, he has even been an artist (as T.D. Valentine in the late '60s). But as far as producing legendary records goes, well, not exactly. But, hey, it's Idol's world; we just wallow in it.

Together, we are one in slamming the group-sing

I was curious to see what kind of responses came in to my post Wednesday night about "the dreaded group-sing" that opened the show. The first one blasted me for my constant negativity, but looking over the other comments, all I can say is 1) you seem to agree with my disdain for these singalong exercises, and 2) you've got me beat when it comes to a bad attitude.

A sampling of your reviews of the song: "Abominable," "worst song of the year on AI," "totally bland," "simply awful," and one from a parent who thinks he can use it as a "form of torture/punishment for my kids when they get out of line."

Anyway, I'm going to solicit your help here, a little exercise for the readers. I'm curious about the song, Together We Are One. There's a song by the same name by Australian pop star Delta Goodrem; the lyrics look pretty similar, but I don't have a photographic memory (or should that be phonographic memory?) of the Idols' group performance -- in fact, I tried to blot it from my mental archives as quickly as possible. So if any of you can establish that it is or isn't the same song, and have any other information about it, I'd be interested -- and so would at least a few of our concerned community here.

The final four

If being the only woman left in the Idol contest is any kind of advantage, then Katharine is in great shape. The unsurprising elimination of Paris -- who was Tuesday's most consistent performer but still couldn't catch a break with voters who had clearly already made their minds up to vote for anybody else -- leaves Katharine representing her sex solo.

I'm not sure that will help her, though. She might not inspire outpourings of warmth from female voters, and she seems to polarize practically everyone. Comments about her here stretch from one extreme to the other -- sort of like her performances on Tuesday.

It's beginning to look more like a Chris vs. Taylor showdown, sinister rocker vs. genial soul boy. I'd have to guess Katharine and Elliott will comprise the bottom two next week, unless they find a golden Elvis Presley song to sing, but even there you'd think Taylor would stand to benefit most from the theme.

This was the first week I wasn't surprised by the outcome, which may mean that the guesses getting easier with just five finalists, or that things are finally settling down into a predictable pattern. We'll see. You can't discount the potential for surprise on Idol.

The bottom two, Part 2

As I said before the show, it was pretty much a toss-up between Elliott and Katharine, although I picked Elliott (rightly, as it turned out -- my first good week in a while). But will the ultimate prediction -- Paris out -- be correct? Unbearable thrills and chills...

The bottom two

OK, it's the bottom three as predicted: Paris, Katharine, Elliott. Paris makes bottom two, also not surprising.

The dreaded group-sing returns

Here we go. I should have remembered that when there's no special guest on the results show, it's time for the return of the Idol group-sing, where the finalists gang up on some dismally bland inspirational ballad. The song then gets released as a single, a format no one buys any more, so when several thousand tone-deaf viewers out of the 28 million total audience buy the single, it races to the top of Billboard's singles sales chart and becomes another link in Idol's chain of meaningless No. 1's that nobody ever hears except right now on TV. And I sincerely hope that's the last time I hear that one (Together We Are One).

Somebody has to go tonight, and based on that performance, it could be anyone and I wouldn't much care.

Bring on the results.

Fearless pre-show predictions

This is getting easier, if only because of simple numbers. That's not to say I'm going to become infallible anytime soon, though, as last week's pick of Paris instead of Kellie proved.

But I'm the stubborn type; I'm sticking with Paris as my prediction to go home. Her companion in the bottom two will be either Katharine or Elliott, I'm thinking. If I'm forced to pick one, I'll say Elliott, but it's a close call. It all depends on whether Katharine sufficiently redeemed herself with her second song, Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, or whether people just thought it was weird that she was singing on her knees.

See you at 9 p.m. ET for live shocked and horrified reactions to the results.

Mood of Idol Nation -- the Blog Pound poll

This two-song bit has really thrown things for a loop. Most of the certainty that marked previous editions of your consensus views on the Idols has vanished. Whereas Elliott pulled an 88% favorable rating last week, this week the highest favorable is 65%. And a lot of the comments are undecided, meaning either that you were neutral or you liked one song and disliked the other. So I've added a new neutral/divided/undecided category to this week's poll.

"Read more" to see the results ...

Who demanded this 'Encore'?

Idol Season 5 is into the homestretch, which among other things means it's time for the souvenirs to start piling up. First out of the pipeline is the annual finalist anthology, this year titled American Idol Season 5 Encores.

It's hard to imagine anyone getting really excited about owning tracks by all 12 finalists, so the marketing strategy has to be aimed at the fanatic followers of individual contestants who will get the chance to own a recorded memento of one of their favorites. The anthology is made up of, supposedly, the most memorable cover versions each of the 12 has sung on the show.

"Read more" for track details and commentary. My question to you: Is this something you'd want to keep in your record collection?

Thanks and clarifications

Thanks again for your patience as we endured technical difficulties Tuesday night. Unavoidably, we lost the "live" buzz of posting my reactions to the Idols' performances immediately, but the posts still reflect those instant opinions, repackaged by artist for speedier reading.

I should make one clarification, to try to stave off another Leon Russell/Donny Hathaway crediting debate. I mentioned that Elliott's On Broadway was a cover of George Benson's cover of The Drifters' original, and that the song was written by the fabled New York writing team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Well, that last part was half right; also credited as songwriters are the great production/writing team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who are also responsible for classics ranging from Hound Dog to Is That All There Is. (Of the four writers, by the way, only Mann attempted a singing career, and he would probably be the first to say the results weren't all that distinguished.)

Back shortly, first to discuss the American Idol Season 5 Encores album lineup, then to put together your collective insight on who's going to lose in the weekly "wisdom of crowds" poll.

Dual song night: Muddying the waters

Bumping the Idols up to two songs did seem to cloud the overall picture a little, as I speculated earlier. I don't think any one performer emerged as a clear standout Tuesday night, although one performance certainly did. So let's try to assess the finalists in the form of individual awards for their night's work:

Katharine: The Agony & Ecstasy Award -- Her year-of-birth song, Phil Collins' Against All Odds, was just excruciating. A melodramatic ballad of the sort she leans toward, it was sung unevenly and at times in a painfully strained manner. Then, just when I was thinking she might have been bad enough to pre-empt Paris from her seemingly foreordained departure Wednesday, Katharine completely reversed herself with a cool, unconventional song choice (the Brit hit Black Horse and the Cherry Tree by KT Tunstall, now a hit here too) and a performance to match.

Elliott: The At 'Home' on 'Broadway' Award -- Overall, Elliott appeared much more confident and relaxed (although I'm not sure admitting to a nail-biting habit on national TV was a smooth move -- I could be wrong on this, though). Maybe a little too relaxed on his current song, Michael Buble's snoozerama ballad Home -- nice, sentimental, safe choice, big with the older demographics, but it didn't really offer him much chance to show off his skills. His earlier version of George Benson's 1978 version of On Broadway (the great 1963 Drifters hit written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil) was livelier, very self-assured though greeted with oddly lukewarm judges' reactions. Overall he didn't hurt himself.

Paris: The Consistency Award -- She was the only artist who turned in two equally solid performances; everyone else had some degree of variation. Prince's Kiss gave her the chance to strut a bit, and she met the challenge of covering Mary J. Blige's Be Without You admirably. I couldn't say Paris was burning on either song, but she was quite good throughout. Don't think she'll survive to the next week, though.

Chris: The Be True to Your School of Rock Award -- Given the golden opportunity to pick two rockers, Chris started with a stinker -- Styx's retrocious (if I can coin a term here) Renegade, which not even a Robert Plant could have saved -- and Chris is no Plant. But choosing a song by Southern rockers Shinedown, I Dare You, was a good idea (suggested by many of you, in fact), and he did a good job with it. Most of his fans will forgive Renegade (heck, most of his fans probably like Renegade), and he goes into Wednesday in good shape.

Taylor: The Sly, Slick & Wicked Award: Well, the producers did say the Idols could pick a top 10 song from any current Billboard chart, and Billboard does have a reissues chart, and The Beatles were on it, so Taylor shrewdly managed to make George Harrison's Something his "current" number. Good idea, too; he sang it soulfully and subtly, a glaring contrast to his clownish version of that archaic blue-eyed funk relic Play That Funky Music by Ohio one-hit wonders Wild Cherry.

Initial guesswork on the finishes: Paris and Elliott in the bottom two, Paris goes home.

Do two songs dilute Idols' impact?

Just a random thought, but it seems as if so far this season certain performances have had a big impact on changing people's perceptions of various finalists. The obvious example in the negative sphere is Mandisa's fatal Shania Twain cover on country night. It will be interesting to see if Elliott's A Song for You will be his big positive turnaround moment.

But we may never know. Each finalist performing two songs increases the chances that everything will even out. For example, Taylor might do a great job on his birth-year song and pick a lame current tune and come off lackluster. The overall effect would be he averages out as average, keeps his dedicated fans but doesn't make many conversions among the undecided.

I have no mathematical or logical evidence to support this hunch, but I think converting to the two-song model will freeze most voters into their familiar patterns of supporting their favorites. The twist will come with each elimination: Let's say Paris goes this week; where do her fans gravitate? Katharine? If Elliott gets bounced, does Taylor or Chris get the benefit? (Or maybe Katharine again?)

Speaking of birth years, by the way, it appears Chris was born in December 1979, which would render 1980 suggestions null and void. Sorry, we'll all have to rewind a year.

You choose the songs the Idols should sing

It's Monday, and your Idols have already chosen and likely rehearsed their song choices for tomorrow night half to death by now. But it's always interesting to take a look at what you think they should sing -- and I'll bet most of your choices will be better than what they come up with (and what the show's producers and song publishers allow them to do).

"Read more" to see some intriguing suggestions for each Idol:

Overexposure: An issue that resonates

Just had a chance to skim some of your responses on the "familiarity breeds contempt" topic, and at the risk of breaking my arm patting you guys on the back, terrific stuff! Clearly the idea of overexposure to the contestants over the long season resonates. 

One idea I hadn't considered that surfaced was that this season, with the proliferation of Idol blogs and other Internet coverage, the overexposure syndrome becomes even worse. If you're at all interested in the overall Idol panorama -- which probably is a given if you're paying attention to this  manifestation of the Idol explosion -- you're going to be swamped with opinions, analysis, recaps and rants.

I'm interested to see how this overexposure idea plays out over the home stretch. As I explained (probably not articulately enough), I exaggerated my before-and-after assessments of the finalists to provoke discussion. My own opinions are generally less extreme, but I have definitely changed my perceptions on some of the contestants. This week, with two songs per finalist, should be a crucial one.

With Idols, does familiarity breed contempt?

I guess Kellie Pickler was the catalyst for the idea expressed in the title of this post, but it applies in varying degrees to all the Idols. Often, what seems fresh and appealing about the contestants when you first encounter them becomes stale, tiresome or outright irritating by the time you get past the halfway point in the finals. It may be down to nothing more than sheer overexposure for those of us who are hooked on the show. And, with four weeks of at least two performances apiece, some of these grating qualities will become greater (grater?) problems as we become ever more familiar with these people. Hit "Read more" below for my assessment of each Idol.

One thing that's not so familiar to most of you is what it's like to actually attend one of the live Idol broadcasts. Rich Martini, one of the experts on our  Idol coaches panel, offering advice and counsel every Tuesday, got the chance to go to a recent show and gave us a detailed inside look.

More song variety ahead?

While everyone mourns, or celebrates, the departure of Kellie, we move on to the two-songs-per-finalist phase next week. The themes, as many of you know, are: 1) a song from the year the contestants were born, which means a late-'70s to late '80s range, and 2) a current top 10 song (from the various Billboard charts).

Those themes should offer more variety than the straitjackets of Bocelli-esque love songs or Rod Stewart-supervised standards. Good. We can use a jolt of variety and currency, especially after the musty museum pieces that aired Tuesday.

If you have ideas about birth-year or current song choices for the Idols, I'd love to see them. Back later with more frivolity.

Kellie is gone: A blessing in disguise?

The seemingly invulnerable Kellie Pickler became the seventh Idol finalist to fall, in an upset defeat over Paris, who most people thought was doomed. While there are reasons to mourn (give me a minute to think of one), this result has some positive effects on the competition.

For one thing, it disposes of the widespread conspiracy theory that votefortheworst.com was somehow influencing enough people to vote for Kellie that she was bulletproof. She has never been in the bottom three. Well, that changed in a hurry.

It also means that the final five, like them or not, are all good singers. The battle will still be won partly (maybe even mostly) on personality and image, but at least there will be no Jasmine Trias-like embarrassments this season.

And several people have pointed out that Kellie has seemed visibly upset lately, almost cowering like a misbehaving puppy as she awaited the judges' verdicts, and that she no longer seemed to be able to handle the pressure. If that's so, it's a mercy she's gone.

Meanwhile, Paris' placement in the bottom two doesn't bode well for her. I'd be amazed if she makes it past next week.  Elliott and Taylor finished third and fourth (we don't know in which order), which is about right for Taylor if he was fourth and a bit unfair for Elliott, but still a boost from his previously shaky status.

The only way to justify Chris and Katharine scoring the most votes is that they've been generally acclaimed the front-runners for most of the season, and their fan bases seem sizable and committed. I think Taylor could still sneak into the final two if he steps up his game and avoids all ballads like the bubonic plague. Elliott seems slated for fourth.

But I could be wrong. And would anyone be surprised? (Oh yeah, I'm still looking for that reason to mourn Kellie's departure. Well, it is the end for the country contingent, with Bucky also gone, which deprives us of one musical flavor. That's a little bit sad ...)

Kellie -- no longer bulletproof

OK, there's some logic in the universe, although Katharine and Chris getting the most votes is an offense against good taste.

Now let's see how far the reign of justice extends ... Wow, all the way! Kellie's gone. She has deserved it for some weeks, but seemed bulletproof. I'm surprised, but with the overall quality of the contest in mind, not displeased.

Results seem obvious -- but are they?

Ten minutes to cram in the results torture ritual. Paris and Kellie grouped together looks ominous for them -- unless it's a typical clever producers' shell game. We'll see ...

Elliott and Taylor safe. No huge surprise here. Logic dictates that Paris and Kellie have to be the bottom two, right?

Unwelcome reminder of past horrors

Is it just me, or did the recap of last night's show make the performances sound even grislier? (If shorter, at least.)

Back when the results start materializing.

Fearless pre-show predictions: The judgment of Paris

When it comes to Idol predictions, I'm not shy about going out on a limb carrying a Tobe Hooper-model chainsaw. But a show as near-universally grating as last night's throws the predictive machinery into breakdown mode.

Essentially, everybody but Elliott deserves to be in the bottom three, and anybody (including Elliott, who has spent time there before) could end up in the B3. But let's look at the possibilities.

I'm going to say Elliott did well enough to earn a safe week. You folks certainly seemed to agree, judging from the poll results. Chris, whom you liked a heck of a lot more than I did, should also be safe, assuming his bottom-two finish last week was a temporary blip.

That leaves Taylor, Paris, Kellie and Katharine competing for a jeopardy position. Taylor has a strong fan base, but was probably worse than Katharine (and about equal to Paris; Kellie was in a class of her own -- a remedial class) last night, and I don't think all three guys are going to be safe. So I'll predict:

Bottom 3: Taylor, Kellie, Paris

Bottom 2: Kellie, Paris

Loser: Paris. Deserves to be Kellie, but as I've said before, people, for whatever reason, just aren't warming to Paris, and she became vulnerable with a subpar performance last night.

See you around 9 for live reactions.

The mood of Idol Nation: The Blog Pound Poll

It's always fascinating to see your reactions to the previous night's show, and I've got to say they weren't all that positive overall. Many comments about the judges' inconsistent and inappropriate antics, and maybe even more about the celebrity coaches, generally along the lines of Andrea Bocelli was useless and David Foster was unlikable and unhelpful. (He would make a good guest judge, though, if they still had them -- he sounded a welcome note of reality during his Nashville Star guest-judge stint.)

As for the contestants themselves, hit "Read more" to see the unscientific results of your comments. Otherwise, I'll be back before the show with fearless predictions.

The bottom five, the morning after

Tonight, a bottom three won't be big enough to reflect last night's five-star pile-up on the highway to Idol stardom.  Granting Elliott a figurative immunity "idol" (to mix reality-show metaphors) for a relative standout performance, let's look at why each of the rest of the finalists deserves to be in the bottom five.

Taylor:  Just Once was maybe not the worst possible song, but certainly the worst possible type of song -- a straight, oh-so-dull ballad that sounded the snooze alarm.

Paris: The Way We Were was too indelibly stamped with the original singer's personality, and alternately undersinging and oversinging it did not help.

Kellie: She unchained that melody all right, taking it to places it was never meant to go. Overdue for her comeuppance.

Katharine: Same problem as Paris, only with more oversinging. I have nothing more to say. (Well, that's not true, but this will do for now.)

Chris: He is the most "authentic" rock singer Idol has ever produced, but it occurs to me that with that hideous Creed song, the hopelessly overexposed and sickly sweet What a Wonderful World and now the just plain sickly Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? (not to mention that weird Queen song), he may have the worst musical taste on the planet.

OK, enough about my opinions (for the moment, anyway). This afternoon, we'll see who you think is going to get shaved tonight. (Maybe we should call it the Barber Poll.)

Summing up: The most grating love songs of all time

In my wildest nightmares I couldn't have predicted such abysmal song choices. All of a sudden I have a new respect for the Great American Songbook, because now I've been exposed to the Great American Schlock Treatment.

I have never liked A Song for You (mainly because I've heard it most by Leon Russell, who is a pretty wretched singer), but the more I think about it, Elliott's performance of it stood out in stark relief. Everything else was dismal in one way or another (often in multiple ways). Let's count them down:

Katharine: I Have Nothing is one of those overwrought Whitney Houston ballads that are somewhat salvaged by Houston's undeniably fine voice, but are ruinous when sung by others. She tried way too hard and fell flat.

Kellie: Talk about falling flat. Even the big high note on Unchained Melody I thought she hit reasonably well sounded off on the playback, and she floundered soullessly through the rest. Bad enough for instant expulsion, though I'm not going to go out on that limb just yet.

Paris: With Streisand ballads such as The Way We Were, you can't match the melodrama and mannerisms of the original, so it's bound to come out bland as flan -- and it did. Could be a ticket home if Kellie manages to survive another disaster.

Taylor: Well, he already proved he can't sing vanilla country; now he has proved he can't sing vanilla soul ballads such as Just Once either. All his eccentric appeal was absent, leaving a gaping black hole of dullness.

Chris: He may have to kiss his hopes of being a real rock star goodbye; performances like this cheese festival linger in the memory. I have no idea what possessed the judges; maybe they were desperate to praise something. But Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? is widely reviled for good reason, and Chris did nothing to change that perception.

Worst night of the season. Elliott will gain from this; everybody else suffers severe damage.

Who will get the love on 'Love Songs' night?

I like to post some sort of prediction about who will do well on the show coming up, but the vagueness of tonight's "Greatest Love Songs of All Time" theme throws me. It's too broad -- anybody could do anything, and some of them will probably venture out into left field.

My hope is that no one will try to sing the kind of "popera" that coach Andrea Bocelli records -- sort of the worst of two worlds (although Simon, the Svengali behind the dire Il Divo popera group, would probably love it). I don't think anyone will go as far as to attempt an aria (don't do it, Elliott, aria crazy or something?), but I do fear the evening's selections will veer toward the slushy side of the street. And just because that worked surprisingly well last week with standards doesn't mean the show should push its luck with more music for grandmothers.

Anyway, I think Chris will pull something rock-oriented out of his hat, although I hope it's not some dreary '80s power ballad. Kellie could get lucky with a good country love song, but I'm not holding my breath. The others should all do OK if they pick songs suited to their styles and strengths. Let's hope those songs are sufficiently interesting to keep our eyelids open.

Better singers but no goosebumps this season

We've got a hot one, Blog Pound!

I've got to say I'm really impressed with the comments I've read so far on my post rating the final six contestants in each year. (See "Rating the five 'Idol' seasons" below.) Really perceptive points.

There's the usual wide range of opinions, of course, and even a few people who went the extra mile by rating a few contestants who didn't reach the final six in their respective seasons. (Plus William Hung, whom I prefer to ignore on general principle. Not the show's finest moment.)

Generally, though, there's agreement that based on vocal quality this is the best batch of Idols yet. And yet ...

Something's missing, many of you say, for reasons including:

> Better voices, worse personalities. For whatever reason, this season's crop is not touching you emotionally.

> No standouts. With overall quality higher, no one is established as a clear front-runner, Kelly or Fantasia-style.

> They're too genre-specific. Kellie/country, Katharine/cabaret, Taylor/soul, Chris/rock (hey ... never mind, too easy) -- we're lacking a versatile boundary-straddler.

> And most tellingly of all, no goosebump/water cooler/oh wow moments. Nobody, many of you say, has delivered that one knockout punch ... yet. Some of the examples you cite from previous seasons are Carrie singing Heart's Alone and Fantasia doing Summertime.

Well, maybe we'll get one of those breakthroughs tonight. Although with the Andrea Bocelli/David Foster/love songs concept going, I'm not confident we will. In any case, these are great points to contemplate.

Rating the five 'Idol' seasons

Let's try to do the impossible. Let's take personality out of the Idol competition and consider only the singing ability of the final six.

Now, having taken the subjectivity out of the equation, we're going to put it right back in. We (and by "we," I of course mean "I" -- till you weigh in) are going to rate the finalists' singing skills on a 1-10 scale (based on general Idol talent levels, not on real-world skills) and compare them to the final six in Idol's previous seasons, to see whether voters are doing a better job at isolating the best singers.

Highly subjective conclusion: This season has the best overall top six singers yet. "Read more" for the breakdown:

The worst that could happen ... and the best

If there's one thing we can agree on in this particularly polarized community here, it's that no one knows exactly what's going to happen on Idol as we start the home stretch. That, of course, won't stop me -- or you -- from making predictions.

I want to take a slightly different approach today, though. I'll look at each of the six remaining finalists from two angles: the best thing that could happen to them in the contest (what's their peak potential) and the worst. I may revisit this exercise in later weeks, though it probably will devolve into something meaningless when there aren't many contestants left. "Read more" for the details:

Ace is out, but Chris' showing is the shocker

So Ace finally got his place on the next plane home. Only his most fanatic followers are likely to be surprised; his elimination had been building momentum for weeks now. As many of you have remarked, he peaked with Father Figure before the finals even started.

Bigger question: How did Chris wind up in bottom-three jeopardy? That must have shocked him, and a lot of other people. Despite the judges' misguided enthusiasm, he wasn't all that great, but I would have thought his fan base would have seen him through. To be safe next week, he's going to have to find a rock-oriented "greatest love song of all time." Whatever could it be? Maybe Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child o' Mine? Limp Bizkit's Nookie?

I'm seriously starting to wonder what Paris, who also hit the bottom three this week, has to do to get her due in this crowd -- I would still rank her above Kellie, Elliott, Katharine and Chris, and at least tied with Taylor. But there's a real chance she could go as early as next week, if Kellie continues her astonishing run of ... is it luck or a breakout of mass delusion among voters?

OK, I was one of Kellie's defenders for her performance, but it still was one of the two worst, and there's no excuse for her escaping the bottom three.

Finally, Taylor endured an almost-medieval form of torture when he was asked to pick the group of three he thought was safe, but he handled it with amusing flair.

All in all, a strange night, and who knows what treasures (and horrors -- Andrea Bocelli?) next week will bring us?

Ace in the right place

How could Kellie survive her self-admitted butchery? Bizarre. The anti-Paris sentiment is really getting disturbing, although at least she's safe.

It had to be Ace, since Chris wasn't going to go. No surprise there, and we can cease debating whether Ace is really an underrated singer or just a pretty face. He deserved this, if not necessarily for last night, for the last several weeks.

Bottom three(s)

Very cruel process tonight, and with Kellie and Ace in different groups, injustice will be done one way or the other.

And talk about bad theme nights -- Andrea Bocelli? The Greatest Love Songs of All Time? This sounds ominous.

The show's first half: Not much excitement

So far the night is notable chiefly for the newly shaven Ryan, the lamest imaginable version of one of my favorite new wave pop-schlock rockers, Kids in America, and a Rod Stewart rendition of a standard (The Way You Look Tonight) that was probably worse than most of the Idols' performances.

But the drama is coming up ...

Pre-show prediction: Ace out

With fewer finalists left, it should be getting easier to predict the bottom three. Let's see if that theory works out.

My fearless pre-show projections:

Bottom three: Ace, Kellie, Elliott. Elliott doesn't deserve to be there -- that "honor" should go to Taylor or Chris off last night's performances, but those two are far more popular and immune for now from a lackluster night.

Loser: If it were up to you all, it would be Kellie, but I think Ace has built up enough overall lack of support over several weeks that it will be his time to take off tonight.

See you at 9 p.m. ET for the results.

The mood of Idol Nation: Week 6

Whew! Tons of comments on the standards show. I looked at as many as I could to summarize your sentiments, which were unusually positive. That reflects a general feeling that this theme night was more successful than usual for generating good (or acceptable, anyway) performances.

Anyway, here, unscientifically tabulated by our crack research team (namely, me), are your rankings:

1. Taylor: His fans are a ferocious bunch. Just try directing a little criticism at their Idol and you'll see. Good thing I didn't say something like "Taylor puts the 'troll' into Soul Patrol." People -- I'm a Taylor fan; I just thought he was off a little with You Send Me. Anyway, you didn't agree, and his positive-to-negative ratio was the best, at better than 4-1.

2. Chris: Also a dedicated cadre of fans. (I think by now just about everyone has a fanatic fan base. The question is whose is biggest.) Better than 3-1 thought it was a wonderful world when he was singing.

3. Katharine: Many were impressed by her last night, but she seems to either inspire adulation or puzzlement as to what her appeal is. Consensus (more than 70%) was that she had a good night, though.

4. Elliott: Bit of a surprise, but his near-escape last week seems to have rallied his supporters, and his favorable rating was over 70% as well.

5. Paris: Just a hair under Elliott; she impressed slightly more than 70%, with the remainder apparently annoyed for the most part by her squeaky speaking voice and habit of thanking the judges for their comments.

6. Ace: No controversy over who you thought were the worst two. Ace's comments ran 3-1 negative, with some saying, grudgingly, that he sang OK but most appalled by his look. (My favorite comparison: He looked like Steven Segal.)

7. Kellie: The real voters seem to like her, but you've turned on her big time. Her favorables scored only 15% this week, and a lot of those were for her "honesty" in admitting she "butchered" her song rather than for her actual performance.

We'll see how accurate your feelings are. I'll be back later with a pre-show prediction of the bottom three.

An instant retrospective ranking

I probably have less natural affinity for the Great American Songbook than I do even for the songs of Queen. Contrary to Rod Stewart (who was one of the less annoying guest coaches so far), rock 'n' roll came about, I think, as a reaction to those songs and their overly mannered construction and subjugation of music to lyrics, rather than as an outgrowth of them. But I can stew about those philosophical considerations another time.

Onto the show, which was much better than most. Standards probably bring out the best in the Idols. They have to pay attention to the words, which helps keep them from over singing (well, except for Taylor), and the restraint they showed paid off in an overall high level of quality.

I'd rank them as follows:

1. Paris. Katharine was close, but Paris' style was more adventurous. And she pulled it off in fine fashion -- both vocally and visually.

2. Katharine. It would have been surprising had she blown it on standards night, but she certainly didn't come close to messing up. Much better than she has been of late.

3. Elliott. I don't know if he will ever rivet us as a visual spectacle, but he sounded cool and calm, and collected a lot of well-deserved compliments from the judges.

4. Chris. Overshadowed by Paris and Katharine, but he proved he could handle the radical changeover from his favored material.

5. Taylor. Loved the song choice, wish he would have executed better. That ending was kind of a mess. The judges were, as often happens, way too euphoric in lauding his performance.

6. Kellie. Still don't think it was as much of a disaster as the judges (and she) seemed to, but it had its wobbly moments and paled by comparison to the five above.

7. Ace. Bad hair. Bad vocal. Bad day tomorrow, if there's any justice.

You'll no doubt have a range of interesting opinions.

Standard deviation

This post's title is a math term I dimly recall from high school statistics, but it's also what we can expect to hear tonight on Idol. The so-called Great American Songbook standards are tricky numbers. Words often take precedence over melody and certainly over beat in songs of the pre-rock era, so you need clarity of diction, something at which some finalists are not exactly world-class practitioners. You also need the ability to handle a subtle, often delicate sort of melody -- again, not necessarily a given for this swinging septet.

Offhand, I'd guess Katharine, Paris and Elliott should be in good shape with this theme. Kellie, Ace and Taylor could struggle, although the last two could surprise me if they choose wisely. You'd think Chris would be out of his element, but he handled his country ballad well, so I have a hunch he'll find a way to work his way around a standard as well.

We'll see. Going live at 8 p.m. ET.

More schemes for themes

Well, you've outdone yourselves on this topic. The fascinating ideas for Idol theme nights keep pouring in. Before I catch up with some additions to the single-artist proposals and get into the broader themes, I should acknowledge, thanks to a couple of reminders, that Billy Joel has already received the Idol theme-night treatment. I'm not surprised I blocked out that memory.

Anyway, I'm not going to comment individually on most of these, but here are some of the other noteworthy single-artist ideas: Aerosmith, Babyface, Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson (as if), Journey, Dave Matthews Band, Van Morrison (great idea, and watching the curmudgeonly Van dispense advice would be worth the price of admission), Tom Petty, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paul Simon, Tina Turner and, non-alphabetically but most amusing of all, Paula Abdul.

"Read more" for a selection from the many ideas of broader scope:

Themes to be a lot of good ideas out there

It's still early in the life of my recent post about better theme nights, but the ideas are rolling in -- and there are plenty of good ones. Obviously, not all of them are practical (as the people suggesting them often acknowledge), but there are certainly enough to shake up the dull, oldster-oriented run of current themes (otherwise known as the Graying of American Idol).

The ideas for nights of Beatles, Elvis Presley, U2, Rolling Stones, Eagles, Springsteen and such must have run into artist or artist estate refusals, since you'd have to assume some bright spark in the Idol brain trust must have come up with them at some point. (I know the dangers surrounding assuming anything, but these people aren't idiots, they're just TV executives.)

"Read more" to contemplate some more ideas (originating from you, comments by me). Otherwise, I'll be back with more theme nights later, plus a preview of what USA TODAY's Idol coaches are up to this week.

Better theme nights, in your imaginations

The comments are revealing some interesting ideas for Idol theme nights that would stave off the all-enveloping boredom that the current themes seem to be inspiring. One point people have been making: Only longtime artists have enough material to qualify for a theme night. But it doesn't have to work that way. They didn't make the Idols sing Kenny Rogers songs; he just served as a symbol of country music. You could theoretically have Deborah Harry representing new wave, Fred Durst repping rap-rock, Chris Cornell fronting Grunge Night, even John Lydon instructing the Idols on punk basics.

"Read more" to see my thoughts on a smattering of suggestions so far -- and keep 'em coming.

Could 'Idol' use some younger blood?

Not a lot of tears shed for Bucky, apparently. People, where's your compassion? Seriously, it was more of a "what took so long?" sentiment. And if your comments have any predictive value, Ace should be quaking in whatever kind of footwear he favors. (To be honest, I've never really noticed.)

Meanwhile, could this show skew any older? I touched on this earlier, but the geezer factor is totally out of hand. Here's a number for you: 242 -- the combined ages of Barry Manilow, Kenny Rogers, Stevie Wonder and Rod Stewart. Average: 60.5. (The three main Queen guys average a relatively juvenile 56.3.)

As a few of you have theorized, one reason for this preponderance of elders is that there's a scarcity of younger, more current artists who are willing to be associated with Idol. Sure, being seen by 30 million people is attractive, but the potential credibility damage seems to be a bad trade-off in their minds.

That's a shame. It probably deprives us of such treats as Emo Night with Fall Out Boy or Falsetto Night with James Blunt (Ace's big chance) or an opportunity for the Idols to sing the songs of Pink. OK, all of those sound ludicrous, but it sure wouldn't hurt to get a little more contemporary.

Bottom 3 to Bucky out: No big surprises

With Elliott, Bucky and Ace falling in the bottom three, I could break my arm patting myself on the back for the accurate prediction. But, really, is anyone out there surprised?  (And, by the way, my fallibility is definitely still in place since Bucky was ousted and I had picked Ace.)

Elliott may not have deserved to be there based on singing ability, but you need some semblance of a personality hook on this show, and so far, we're not seeing it.

Ace is a lucky fella. But barring an improbable comeback, his days are numbered. And Bucky, well, he looked unbeatable for a few weeks, scoring low on the polls and the comments, delivering performances that covered the spectrum from lukewarm to mediocre, yet somehow deflecting fate. I could actually envision him making a decent Southern rockish record; in some ways, I think his voice is more pleasing than Bo Bice's. But the spark just wasn't there. 

I await your reactions ...

Bottom three picks

With my perfect record on the line (of failing to predict an eliminated Idol so far this year -- no, wait, I think I got Lisa right), I'm fearlessly forecasting tonight's bottom three before the show starts.

Bottom three: Bucky, Elliott, Ace. Women are vanishing from the finals at an alarming rate; time for the guys to sweat a little.

Bottom two: Bucky, Ace. Although their fanbases may just keep them out of trouble, their performances definitely merit this placement.

Packing his luggage: Ace. He will rock us no more.

Week 5: The mood of Idol nation

Idol's attempt to fit all the finalists in a Queen-sized bed sure has you divided. Lots of people are maintaining it was the worst Idol show they'd ever seen, others going with the "not as bad as expected" stance. (No one seemed to think it was one of the greatest moments of music TV they'd ever seen.)

Likewise, in the few weeks I've been conducting these casual surveys of the comments on Wednesdays, I have never seen such a division of opinion, on practically everyone. Usually the splits are pronounced 4-1, 6-1, 10-1 in one direction or the other, but not today. They're close, and they lean toward the negative -- meaning you collectively didn't like the show much.

"Read more" to see your consensus opinions on the finalists, ranked from most favorable ratio to least:

An 'original' notion

Thinking about all these theme nights that have bedeviled both contestants and viewers this season, I came up with one I'd almost pay to see. (What follows is not an original idea; I've seen it brought up once or twice in your comments, and it's crossed my mind in previous seasons as well.)

On Tuesday night Nashville Star, Idol's country clone, staged one of its annual theme nights: Original Songs. NS suffers from worse judges (at times in past seasons it's been like having three Paulas, if you can imagine), worse host banter and other assorted embarrassments, but there are some things it does better than Idol. The band is far more accomplished, the songs are more upbeat, the contestants are (usually) stronger singers, and then there's Original Songs night.

Not all country singers write, but it's great that the show makes that part of its apprenticeship ordeal. But can you imagine this crop -- or any other -- of Idols trying to write their own songs? Some of these finalists might be able to pull off a passable original -- I'm thinking Taylor and Chris, who have done some regional recording. Elliott might have the potential. Maybe even Bucky. But Katharine? Paris? Ace? Kellie? Who could imagine?

Well, it'll never happen, because Idol is all about singing (well, singing and image). But it makes for a tantalizing fantasy.

Long live Queen: Idols couldn't butcher them

Well, that wasn't so bad, was it? After a rock-bottomed start from Bucky and Ace, I was generally entertained. (It sure helps that the songs don't last more than about 90 seconds.)

At least Kellie has a new career to fall back on if this singing gambit doesn't work out. Expect the poster to go on sale next week. The dominatrix outfit sparked a more fiery performance on Bohemian Rhapsody, and her votes should spike upward -- unless everyone was jolted by her dizzying reversion to type when listening to the judges. I'd cut her a break -- maybe she didn't quite hear Simon saying that "on paper" her Rhapsody shouldn't work, or understand his accent, but lord, that girl can sound dopey. Can I get a witless?

Paris carried off a similar look, but because she followed Kellie, she lost the shock value, even if she probably (as almost always) sang better (on The Show Must Go On). Hope that doesn't rebound on her, because she definitely does not deserve bottom-three status.

Nor does Chris, who made the best of the less-than-memorable Innuendo; nor Katharine, who did the same for the snoozefest ballad Who Wants to Live Forever; nor Taylor, who did exactly what I thought he'd do with Crazy Little Thing Called Love: sing it with rockabilly soul and dance like crazy.

I thought Elliott was borderline -- not bad, but not especially strong, either, and I was admittedly distracted by how silly Somebody to Love is as a song. Should save that one for Jefferson Airplane night.

But the fat-bottomed two have to be Ace, whose We Will Rock You should have been reported to the Better Business Bureau for false advertising, and Bucky, for whom I'm running out of synonyms for "lame." Maybe someone as flamboyant and unafraid to make a fool of out himself as Freddie Mercury was could get away with a song as ludicrous as Fat Bottomed Girls. But Bucky can't, and if justice prevails, Wednesday night he won't.

Pre-show picks and pans

Tonight's show has me puzzled. I really don't know what to expect. (I could say, "except for a bunch of bad performances of bad songs," but that might not be true. Some performances may transcend all expectations. Some may trash even the lowest expectations.)

Nonetheless, here are some pre-show hunches about the status of the eight finalists.

Safe: It's hard to imagine Chris blowing it on a rock night. Katharine should be able to handle her song (Who Wants to Live Forever) and her fan base will take care of the rest. Taylor got the song best suited to his style, and one that's pretty hard for a singer with a modicum of talent to mess up -- unlike some of the more complex Queen songs.

Could go either way: Elliott seems to be on the down slide, but despite Somebody to Love being one of my least favorite songs in the world, I think he'll do a solid job with it. Ace's only problem is if no one believes him when he promises to "rock you." (Remember, the last time he made that claim, he sang a Train song.) It may seem surprising, but I think there's enough of a chance that Kellie may pull off an interesting variation on Bohemian Rhapsody that she belongs in this category. Triumph or train wreck, that's for sure.

Vulnerable: I just have a bad feeling that Paris is not long for the show. I think she should be in the top 3 or 4, but "America" doesn't seem to be buying it. And it remains to be seen whether she can rock. Finally, Bucky. Fat Bottomed Girls. Does this sound like a recipe for success to you?

Lots of people are queasy over Queen

Just reading some comments, and, man, most of you seem to be dreading tonight. With good reason, if you're a Queen fan; no one looks forward to having a favorite artist's songs desecrated.

As I said earlier, I'm somewhat immune to that anguish, since I was never much of a Queen fan to begin with (it mostly sounded pretentious and somehow overripe to me), so I'm not going to regard any of these versions as sacrilege. It's theoretically possible that I might like one of the Idols' versions better than the original, but I have to admit that's pretty unlikely. (Unless Kellie comes up with a genius rearrangement of Bohemian Rhapsody.)

I'll post again before the show starts (8 p.m. ET) with my usual foolhardy guesses about who's vulnerable this week. Then we'll go live and dangerous.

'Idol' coaches make their calls

It's Tuesday — time for our cadre of Idol coaches to critique last week's country buffet and to offer tips that will help the contestants avoid making a mockery of Freddie Mercury's catalog. This time, they say Paris Bennett, Elliott Yamin and Taylor Hicks are vulnerable.

Plus, as an online exclusive, panelist Don Waller offers his take on the other Idols. Some highlights:

Kellie. She needs to hit one out of the park to get people to take her seriously. She needs to surprise us. We need to see if she's Ann-Margret or Ann-Margrock.

Chris: OK, he finally showed a modicum of variety. Now can we see a third emotion?

Ace: I can't advise the guy, I can only console him with this: he continues to stave off his eventual fate of becoming a male model or playing Jeff Spicoli in the remake of Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Bucky: He's likeable in a marshmallow peanut sort of way, but if he doesn't get to do Crazy Little Thing Called Love, his only hope is that everybody else falls on their aspirations. (Bucky could have an interesting night -- he's doing Fat Bottomed Girls. Taylor got Crazy Little Thing.) 

Idols chat about their Queen choices

A bunch of you have had fun speculating about which Queen songs the Idols should perform Tuesday night. Well, that's about enough of that: USA TODAY TV reporter Bill Keveney has the scoop from the Idols themselves, along with a comment from each about the song or the experience. (Don't miss Bucky's.) You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll snort with disbelief!