The first real contender to go down

He was still a relative longshot compared to Davids Cook and Archuleta, but I think most people could see a scenario where Michael Johns won this season of American Idol. So it is disappointing to see him go home before Syesha Mercado or Kristy Lee Cook, who I don't think anyone could really see winning the title. But I suppose it shouldn't be that surprising. For all Michael's talent, he just didn't show it off enough. He was my third choice coming into the top 12, but after his "Bohemian Rhapsody" in Hollywood week, the only two times he really stood out were the two weeks before this one--with "We Are the Champions" and then the Dolly Parton song last week. Every other week, he basically did a relatively faithful cover of a classic rock song and was fine but nothing special. And in a year when many of the contestants are taking well known songs and tweaking them (or, more correctly, singing covers that somebody else did that change up well known songs), it just wasn't enough.

In other notes from tonight's show: I wasn't that crazy about the Chris Brown-Jordin Sparks duet, but I did like the whole performance Jordin, in particular, was doing. And Chris Brown had a much better performance in this venue than he did on the O.C. He should stick to singing.

I guess they ran out of time and couldn't show that "I'm A Believer" video on Idol Gives Back. It's a shame they didn't run out of time tonight, too. What a pointless waste of time and effort. The time and money they spent making that would have put to much better use being given to any of the Idol Gives Back charities.

And finally, there's something that bothered me tonight. Why was the Idol gang singing such an overtly religious song tonight. "Shout to the Lord" was, if I heard the title correctly, the song that the Idols sang at the beginning of the show tonight, and I believe at the end of the show last night. The opening lines to the song were "My Jesus, my savior. Lord, there is none like you." If an Idol chose to sing a song like this for inspirational night, that's fine, it's their choice. But for the producers to pick a song for the Idols to sing that excludes all non-Christians in America seems to be an pretty strange choice for a show that has an incredibly diverse audience. I'm not offended, I'm just puzzled and bothered by the choice--did they not realize that Elliot Yamin, for instance, might not have wanted to sing this song? Or that some viewers might have been turned off? Did anyone else notice this?