So, are we to assume the "pre-teen girl" demographic is going to rule over the voting again? Or did we just lose two forgettable female singers?

I'm digging the season overall. For once, there is no FRONTRUNNER, although there are several standouts who easily would've been frontrunners in previous seasons. I don't think anyone has this wrapped up. Then again, the three that had it wrapped up in the last three seasons (Archuleta, Lambert, Bowersox) were runners-up anyway.

For now all eliminations have been deserved. I don't see anyone being unreasonably pushed by the audience like that Tim guy last season.

Who's this Tim you speak of?

It's actually older women who control the voting on this show, not pre-teen girls. That's why Lee Dewho? won.

It's also probably what gave David Cook the edge in 2008, although his appeal was more all-encompassing than Lee since he was actually, you know, good. Kris Allen was a bit more of an anomaly since his appeal was more young adults and people in their 20s/30s, Adam Lambert snagged more of the older woman crowd.

I don't see a woman winning this show ever again, though.

I just discovered Paul's band The Grand Magnolias. Awesome stuff!

Oh, you mean Smiley McHappypants.

Paul - 9/10 The judges didn't give him enough credit for this, though they liked it. I love this folksy kind of music and I loved this.
Jacob - 9/10 This was awesome.
Pia - 8.8/10 As Simon would say, she is in a vocal "masterclass". I love her voice. Yes, I know for some people ballads can get a little boring. But when she hits the notes she hits, it's not boring for me.
Haley - 8.5/10 WOW! She sounded great!
Lauren - 8.5/10 Great. I really loved her this week.
James - 8.5/10 He was great again, but not the best of the night. A little too much screeching for me, but it worked.

Naima - 7.7/10 I thought the judges overpraised her a bit and I thought she actually could have brought more energy earlier in the song. But still very good.
Casey - 7.5/10 I'm very tired of his "singing" style. But he was still pretty good tonight.
Stefano - 7.5/10 he sounded great, but the judges are right, he needs to connect with the audience.
Scotty - 7/10 This could have been a lot worse, but on a good night like this it's toward the bottom of the heap. The last third was really good though. This theme was always going to be hard for him and he did better than I expected.
Thia - 6.5/10 Better than last week.


That was a great night of Idol!

Thia is going home. Stefano will join her in the bottom 3. No clue who will join them as the third person. They were all so good!

Huzzah for Haley! Hopefully she'll escape the bottom 3 this week, lol.

Glanced at DialIdol...

Scotty is destroying everyone EVERY week.

MY GOODNESS.

That was a fantastic comeback from Haley. Great stuff.

This was a pretty damn good episode. Everyone was good!

i have nothing against Scotty, he is actually pretty great at what he does but i just cant stand country music, specially the type of old school stuff he does. I just hope he doesnt end up winning this thing.

Goo Paul!

If anyone other than Thia gets voted out, I could see the judges using their save this week.

Casey is still just a performer and not a very good singer as he continues to show. Again, good performer but average singer if that.
Thia picked a okay song and sang it well but it was forgettable.
Paul sang a song that Adam killed and there was no way he could match it so why pick it. I didn't think it was that good and I'm over his "unique" sound.
Scotty reminds me of Clay Aiken except he's country. I also hope he doesn't win this. His country voice isn't even that good anyway. Can he even hold a note longer than 2 seconds?
Pia sang her song impeccably but like J.Lo mentioned Pia needs to infuse some emotion into her singing and she needs to do something more uptempo like Randy said. I still love her voice though.
Haley sang wonderfully. I thought it was touchy in the beginning but she brought it home as it went along. She looked very nice as well.
Jacob sang well but it was forgettable again. I don't even remember the song he sang.

Alot of the singers were quite forgettable tonight honestly but they performed their songs very well overall.

Stefano seems to sing in a higher range for all his songs. Maybe if he could lower it a bit it wouldn't sound weird to me.
James has a very strong voice and I like how he's controlling his screaming for the most part although the end of that song he did was a bit screamy. Plus, did Taylor hicks do this song before?
Lauren sang her song well but it wasn't memorable.
Naiema performed her song well too but I could have done without the dancing. What was the point?

James
Pia
Lauren

Thia should be going home.

Casey Abrams - Dude. Shave. Other than that I really liked it.

Thia Megia - It was good vocally, but overall it felt slightly flat.

Jacob Lusk - If I were him I'd be worried not only about hitting high notes too much, but about all the diva stuff he puts out. His performances still look like a drag show to me. He's good vocally. Can't deny that...

Lauren Alaina - I love this song. That being said this was a good rendition. I like Lauren.

Stefano Langone - I'm not a fan of his voice at all. I never clicked to him and considering he's been delivering same performances in a row I don't think I ever will. He's a pretty boy and sounds good when he talks, but when he sings he's kinda annoying.

Haley Reinhart - Big, big, big vocals, but small, small, small impression on me. I was just yawning all the time.

Scotty McCreery - Well that was dissapointing. This was not a Motown song. It was country. Way too changed. And I didn't really liked it as much as his previous performances. I like you Scotty but I really hoped you will at least try to do the other genres without running back to country safe zone...

Pia Toscano - Vocals are great, but this girl is sooooooo boring to me. And she's just like Thia. She only sings big ballady songs. Yawn.

Paul McDonald - Hopefully he's the next one to go. It's like a goat found its way to a mic.

Naima Adedapo - When I saw her crazy tribal dancing in the preview I laughed my ass off. That African style wiggling during the actual performance was soooooo radnom. But OK performance.

James Durbin - To me he is currently the most complete performer. Great vocals, nice on stage presence.


Overall:
8/10
James Durbin
Jacob Lusk
Casey Abrams

7/10
Lauren Alaina

6/10
Pia Toscano
Scotty McCreery
Thia Megia
Haley Reinhart
Naima Adedapo

5/10
Stefano Langone

4/10
Paul McDonald

I think this was a slightly boring night. The people I like disappointed. Others disappointed too. A lot of them gave sub-par performances compared to their previous ones... Eh...

I think the key to liking the night so much was that I didn't watch the performances. I closed my eyes and just listened. Otherwise Jacob really annoys me. Plus I like most of the songs they performed.

James has to check his ego or he's going to lose his fans despite his talent.

I think cockiness is part of James' charm. He has it but not enough to offend anyone. At least that's how I see him.

Hmm. Ryan said the result might surprise us. Thia would not be a surprise, but just about anyone else would be. I'm a little nervous now.

Could be Casey.

WTF!!!!!!

Hulk Hogan!

Okay, that surprised me.

James reaction was great.

Huh. I bet the judges are going to have to make a tough decision on whether to save Casey or not. I personally don't think they should. He's a good performer and artist, but not a great singer. I can't see him winning.

YES!

HALEY SURVIVES!!!

I wanted to hear Casey sing that song!

Anyway, they are going to regret that decision later. I guarantee you Thia or Stefano go first next week.

Waste of a save.

The public spoke. He was probably near the bottom 3 every show and now he finally owned it and they spare him so fast. Joke.