David's Undercooked Performance

Despite the David Cook fans in the audience holding up a sign reading "David knows how to Cook up a song!," it looked like the American Idol finalist's streak of winning performances might have come to a halt Tuesday night with his half-baked version of "Innocence" by Our Lady Peace.

"I didn't like this very much at all," warned judge Simon Cowell after David, who had written the words "get back" on his palm, sang the tune. "It was a teensy weensy bit pompous."

Meanwhile, on a night where the Idol contestants were allowed to pick their favorite inspirational tune, it was a ukelele-playing Jason Castro who managed to inspire rave reviews from all three judges for his rendition of the Wizard of Oz classic "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Randy Jackson said the dreadlocked singer's performance was "crazy, molten hot!" and even Simon had to admit that it was "fantastic."

Ironically, considering the night's theme, Jason was a rare bright spot in an otherwise blah evening. For the second week in a row, Syesha Mercado, who was chastised last week for attempting to match Whitney Houston, was rapped on the knuckles once more for overreaching in her song selection as she did a serviceable version of Fantasia's "I Believe."

And although Simon commented that Carly Smithson's outfit had finally measured up to his high standards, the Irish lass’s vocals apparently didn't. "You could be in a bit of trouble," he declared after she belted out Queen’s "The Show Must Go On."

(On a side note, someone should tell the 24-year-old singer to do a little more fact-checking before her next pre-taped segment. This week she mentioned that she remembered watching Queen perform on Live Aid when she was a child, which is possible but highly unlikely as she was not even 2 years old when the huge charity concert took place in July of 1985!)

Similarly, Aussie hunk Michael Johns received shrugging reviews from Simon and Randy for his Steve Tyler impersonation on the Aerosmith classic "Dream On," which the acid-tongue Brit described as "a bit wannabe-ish."

With Wednesday night's star-studded Idol Gives Back special, the eight remaining finalists get an extra night off before they find out whose Idol journey ends this week.