Simon Says

Their first week as finalists wasn't easy on the poor Idol ladies—and not only because they were under the weather. If they thought they would get any credit from Simon Cowell for dragging themselves out of their beds and on to the stage, they were wrong. Very wrong.

Simon was in no mood for excuses after Kristy Lee Cook soldiered through her song. "I thought your performance was robotic. Bronchitis, flu, whatever." Looks like she won't be getting a "get well" card from him any time soon.

The judge had no mercy for suffering Carly Smithson either. "I know that you’ve got bronchitis," he said as he sharpened his blades to cut her down to size. "Sorry, but I have sat here year after year and someone with your capability has come out and totally blown me away, whether it was Kelly or Fantasia, and I was generally expecting something fantastic," he told her. But this performance? "Everything about it for me was a let down."

Joanne Borgella's stage fright didn't win her any sympathy—"I don’t accept this thing about nerves anymore," he sneered, "very average version of a cabaret song"—while

Alexandrea Lushington's best efforts were casually tossed into the trash as Simon dismissed them as "one of those horrible little shows. I’m sorry, it reminded me of a terrible ’60s musical."

And then there was Kady Malloy. She wowed the judges during the auditions with her Britney Spears impersonation, but that particular talent came back to bite her this time around. "When you’re someone else, you’re fantastic," Simon opined, noting that he was not so impressed with her own performance. "I don’t know who could impersonate you. A pencil or something."