Carly Smithson, not quite a superstar

Six weeks ago, I thought Carly had a shot to win. By the last couple weeks, it was clear that wasn't going to happen. And yet I like her a lot more than I did six weeks ago. I think it had a lot to do with the huge amount of screen time and over-the-top praise from the judges that Carly got in the audition and Hollywood phase of the show. She was never as good as Simon and Randy and Paula told us she was, and the constant crying in her audition clips was tiring and annoying. And I think that came back to haunt Carly. She turned out to be a pretty good singer, but she was never as good as Simon had claimed she was (or Paula or Randy, for that matter.) And the crying she did the first few weeks about how tough the music business was (despite the fact that she once did put out an album on a major record label) and her general nervousness most of the time masked what eventually seemed like a pretty fun personality in the last few weeks. All that, combined with the fact that she looked like she was in severe pain when singing a lot of the time, combined to make Carly not particularly popular. And the husband with the face tattoo weirded people out. Anyway, I'd rather hear her sing Neil Diamond songs than Syesha, Brooke or Jason, and Archuleta too, but I guess we won't have that opportunity. (For instance, Carly singing "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" might have worked, but Syesha singing the same song? Not looking forward to it. And you know she's picking it. Just like Archuleta will be doing at least one of Heartlight and America. A couple other guesses: I'm feeling Jason Castro for I'm a Believer, David Cook might try to do something with Red, Red Wine, and Girl You'll Be A Woman Soon is a definite possiblity, and Brooke--I have no idea. Play Me? I do hope someone does Love on the Rocks.)

As for the rest of the show, to use a Simon term, it was a mixed bag. The group sing was, as usual, terrible. I liked that Leona Lewis song the first 800 times I heard it, but I think I'm already getting sick of it. It was nice to see Clay and Tamyra (still the most shocking elimination in Idol history), and actually I would have rather spent a little more time with them and less timne hearing both of the final two sing. And Andrew Lloyd Webber was just as entertaining tonight. Fingerhut out.