Tuesday Night TV Roundup

OK!'s Elizabeth Herr breaks down your fave show of the night: Idol!

American Idol: "It figures that after a mostly fantastic top 12 show, they had to screw up a good thing by extending the Lennon/McCartney/Beatles theme for another week. Here’s the rundown:

Amanda Overmyer, 'Back in the USSR': This was just… Amanda. You know, more of the same. Simon said she’s in danger of becoming boring, and he’s right, but he’s also wrong in terms of the larger picture. Amanda has become boring on this show. The Southern-rock thing is who she is, but it doesn’t gibe for me with a lot of the songs she’s chosen, and her performances do end up sounding samey. If she was fronting her own band and singing her own songs, she could be awesome. But as far as her imposing her style on other people’s songs, she leaves me cold.

Kristy Lee Cook, 'You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away': Kristy could be this year’s Haley Scarnato, hanging on longer than you’d expect given the fact that she has no discernible talent other than a pretty face. Her stage presence last night was absolutely nonexistent, and she certainly had no connection to the song. What a waste of space. I need her gone yesterday.

David Archuleta, 'The Long and Winding Road': While Davy boy was redeeming himself from that hot mess last week, I couldn’t help but notice that he looks like the Chris Kattan character Mr. Peepers from SNL. I know, weird, but seriously, the resemblance is there. Anyway, David does have a beautiful voice, but I wouldn’t go as far as the “master class” praise that Simon heaped on him.

Michael Johns, 'A Day in the Life': Everything in me wants to love Michael, but, last week aside, he just keeps falling short. Why did he pick this? (Turns out he was honoring a friend who passed away.) The arrangement gave me serious whiplash because, as Simon noted, this song is too complicated to fit into a minute and a half. Plus, he biffed that falsetto note at the beginning. This was just a whole world of pain that Michael brought down on us.

Brooke White, 'Here Comes the Sun': There is nothing Brooke can do to make me dislike her. So she dances like Ed Grimley, who cares? Obviously there’s no way she could live up to last week’s emotionally raw 'Let It Be,' but I thought she did a great job with 'Sun.' Her voice sounded great, she looked cute. Simon hated it, but can we go ahead and put this in context for a minute? It kind of galls me that he can call this a mess after watching Kristy Lee and Michael screw up so royally.

David Cook, 'Day Tripper': I almost never take anything Randy says seriously, but he’s right: David’s a rock star. He broke out a frickin’ vocoder! And the electric guitar was back, complete with picks tossed to the crowd. And the growled 'I found out'? Hot. Also, Simon, get a clue: David’s 'arrogance' is a hallmark of rock gods through the ages.

Carly Smithson, 'Blackbird': Carly finally wowed me this week. She should let her lower range come out to play more often — it sounded great. So I’m listening to her and thinking, Simon will love this. And, of course, he goes in the opposite direction and calls it indulgent and a bad song choice. What crawled up his butt?

Jason Castro, 'Michelle': This was just… adorable. He’s adorable. Randy says it was very subdued for him, but, um, isn’t Jason always subdued? Paula thought he was disconnected without his guitar and got sing-songy. She’s not entirely wrong, but still, adorable.

Syesha Mercado, 'Yesterday': This was actually lovely. The quiet start was nice, and she didn’t go too big with it, which was the right choice. Simon and I agree, though, that Brooke should have sung it.

Chikezie, 'I’ve Just Seen a Face': This felt totally cheap and artless after last week. He had a decent enough R&B start and then, all of a sudden, we’re at a country hoedown. Said Simon: 'It started off okay and then you played the harmonica.' Seriously, what was that? Man, Chikezie, what gives? Just when you’d won me over you had to go and shoot yourself in the foot.

Ramiele Malubay, 'I Should Have Known Better': Not as bad as last week, but still not great. Simon says she, like others tonight, suffered from poor song choice, which is true. If, for some inexplicable reason, America decides to grant Kristy Lee another stay of execution, could Ramiele be the next one to go?" -- Elizabeth