What an awful week of Idol

You know Tuesday wasn't a good night on American Idol when Ryan doesn't even mention the number of votes on the results show. And then when Ryan introduces the taped package reviewing last night, he doesn't even say the usual "what a great night"--he knows he can't fool anyone.

Unfortunately, tonight's hour of Idol was pretty lackluster too. The medley was, as usual, dreadful. That "behind-the-scenes" look at the Ford commercial felt like it lasted three hours. And the call-in segment, which I actually said I enjoyed last week, now seems like a bad idea. If they just have people ask Simon questions, it might work, but why would anyone care what the last song was that Ramiele downloaded onto her IPod?

OK, I'll stop complaining and say that I enjoyed seeing Kellie Pickler again, and I kind of like that song. And it was nice to Elliott Yamin and Fantasia in Africa, and I liked that he was sporting his Star of David. And the lineup of mentors is pretty strong. Yes, Andrew Lloyd Webber unfortunately means there will be a Broadway night, but Dolly Parton is great (if there has to be a country night, at least they have a quality mentor), Mariah Carey is a big star who is sort of interesting (with an album conveniently coming out) and Neil Diamond is someone I have suggested for a theme week in the past (a guy who wrote lots of classic songs with strong melodies).

Finally, we get to our elimination, and although I picked Kristy, it's not particularly surprising that it was Amanda. The combination of her mediocre performance (even worse tonight), her position singing first in a two-hour show that felt even longer, and the fact that she was pretty much doing the same thing every week (and threatened last night to continue repeating herself because, she said, she only has 90 seconds a week to demonstrate why people should come to her concerts) was inevitably going to lead to her ouster in the next few weeks. We just got it a week or two before I may have expected it.

Let's just hope we have a brand new theme next week. Fingerhut out.