Taking a quick glance at the poll, the four people that you say will be leaving this week are:

1. Sanjaya Malakar – 55 votes
2. Antonella Barba – 48 votes
3. Haley Scarnato – 21 votes
4. Jared Cotter – 8 votes

We’ll see how it goes, that may be a pretty good guess on those going home. I think Jared my slide by in front of Phil or Sundance though.

• Blake Lewis and LaKisha Jones - SAFE!
• Chris Sligh – SAFE!
• Jordin Sparks – SAFE!
• Phil Stacey - SAFE!
• Jared Cotter – VOTED OFF! (The poll has its first winner!)
• Melinda Doolittle and Brandon Rogers – SAFE!
• Gina Glocksen and Chris Richardson – SAFE!

Time to spotlight Carrie Underwood and her journey through the nights of American Idol, selling 5-time platinum albums and winning lots of Grammy’s as well. Good performance, she’s a great country singer and will have a long career in music.

• Antonella Barba – VOTED OFF! (The poll’s second winner!)
• Stephanie Edwards – SAFE!
• Haley Scarnato – SAFE! (SHOCKER!!)
• Sabrina Sloan – VOTED OFF! (BIG MISTAKE!)

I’m happy for Haley, I think she’s got an audience and isn’t that bad, but she’s not better than Sabrina. Not sure what the final result totals for votes were, but I’ve got to imagine it was a close one.

Next it’s going to be between Sundance and Sanjaya. I sure hope America doesn’t get another one wrong and vote Sundance off and move Sanjaya through to the Final 12. I have a feeling if Sundance makes it to the Final 12, it will be the push that he needs to really start rocking out to what his real style of music and he starts to shine.

Tonight is the 200th Episode of the show. They announce American Idol’s Idol Gives Back. It’s interesting to see that Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell go on a trip to visit Africa to what appears to be a children’s school. This American Idol charitable organization is going to send people all over the country as well. Efforts to help improve the lives of people that are still trying to work out of Hurricane Katrina in Lousianna and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We’ll look at this some more and get more details with another post later. This is a great effort that American Idol is taking on and I really appreciate and admire them for it.

• Sanjaya Malakar – SAFE!
• Sundance Head – VOTED OFF!

I think this is another mistake, but we’ll see. I think he just had too many performances that were just so-so and not enough for people to remember. He didn’t get back into his southern rock kind of style that he really needed to capitalize on to go further in the competition! Simon had a great comment when Ryan asked him what happened, Simon said “the volume was turned down!”

I think Jared, Sabrina and Sundance should have all made it. We’ll see. I’m sure there are plenty of people hoping for some kind of Wild Card option to get one of these four back into the competition.

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Blake Lewis
First we got to meet one of his comedy characters he plays, “Jimmy Walker Blue”. This guy is crazy! and I love it. He can sing, great personality, he’s got rhythm and of course the item that makes him totally unique to this competition his beat-boxing-sound effects.

• Randy: didn’t even recognize the song and loved it. It was hot!
• Paula: didn’t recognize the song either, but was interested and that’s tough to pull off
• Simon: Randy and Paula are right, he’s standing out in the crowd, he’s an individual and making it current. He will 100% make it through to next week

— Commercial Break — 

Sanjaya Malakar
He can actually hula because he lived in Hawaii. Yeah, I’m not sure I would have shared that. He’s singing “Waiting on the World to Change” by John Mayer. Great song and it actually fits his style a little bit, at least what he’s exhibited this far in the competition. It’s a nice change for him to do something a little more contemporary and recent. Not too bad actually. If he keeps his popularity vote along with picking up some votes for actually singing well, he may be here another week. I think this is by far the best performance of his season.

• Randy: didn’t seem to like his performance, maybe not even better than last week
• Paula: Paula says the guys around him are pushing him to be better as well. Continue to get out of his comfort zone but keep trying. Raise your game
• Simon: “It wasn’t as ghastly as last week”. The Paula hair style comment was pretty funny. Simon doesn’t think his singing is worthwhile to still be here and maybe it’s just his hair

Sundance Head
Sundance says that America will be surprised to know that he’s actually thin in real life and just wears the fat suit so he can live a normal life when he’s not on the show. Really funny comment. I’m not sure the Pearl Jam song he’s singing is really doing anything for him. The style fits his vocal tone pretty well, but I just don’t think it was a good song choice overall. I can see him roaring out “Enter Sandman” by Metallica though. Let’s see what the judges think.

• Randy: some pitchy spots here and there, but what he loved was putting the southern rock stylings on the song
• Paula: midway through he really kicked in his Sundance groove and pulled it out tonight
• Simon: didn’t like it as much as last week, but this week was a very generic bar singer. Didn’t like the song, very indulgent choice of songs

— Commercial Break —

Travis Tritt is in the audience tonight and Randy Jackson is producing his next album called “The Storm”.

Chris Richardson
Was chunky growing up and got healthy and lost 40 pounds. He takes a big turn this week and is singing a country song. Oddly, it’s a ballad and that’s helping the performance I believe. He’s really infusing the vocal with a higher, pinched nasal sound, which I’d associate with a country music trait in general. Not too bad and I’m not a big country fan.

• Randy: Every week he comes out and puts the boys on blast. Switching it up. He’s “in it to win it”
• Paula: intonation in his voice to the pop-country style. He picked a great song
• Simon: it was good, but he’s not jumping out of his chair. Though his voice was too “nasally” but the performance is he “sold it”

— Commercial Break —

Catch us after the jump for Part II in the next post.

Post from: Crushable

Nick Pedro: 25 from Taunton, MA
Dedicating his song to his girlfriend. Singing “Fever”, another song made popular again from Michael Buble. I don’t really like the rhythm of the song the way he’s singing. Just seems off to me. As it’s moving on it’s building and he’s doing a good job with it overall. The guys have really turned it up from last week. I think many of them began to realize that if they didn’t there would be an all-female Top 6.

• Randy – pitchy and rushing a little bit, but very nice
• Paula – loves the tone of his voice, throwback to “Fly Me to the Moon” he did as audition
• Simon – good, didn’t have enough charisma to sing the song. Good voice, just work on the charisma.

— Commercial Break —

Blake Lewis: 25 from Seattle, WA
Dedicating his song to his parents who have inspired him to really pursue his dreams. Blake is singing “Virtual Insanity” by Jamiroquai. I love this song! Sounds like he started off a little too high on the pitch. He’s getting the opportunity to break out into a little beat-boxing and what sounds like scratching in a house mix. The total package is available with Blake! Great voice, unique, dancer and LOADS of charisma.

• Randy – so good to see him return to form, “I LIKE YOU MAN!”
• Paula – smart choices, unique, nobody else like him “WAY TO GO”
• Simon – of course he disagrees. Copycat at the first, originality in the middle section, and tune was off in the last part. “VERY DISAPPOINTED” [I don't like it when they don't let Simon finish his talking and opinion]

— Commercial Break —

Brandon Rogers: 29 from Altadena, CA
Brandon dedicates the song to his grandmother that always pushed him to succeed and to do more with his life. Catching me off guard with a Cyndi Lauper song, “Time After Time”. This is definitely not going to go over well with the judges. I believe he’s sealing his fate with this song. He’s not really doing a good job singing it either. I believe it’s going to be Brandon and Sanjaya going home this week.

• Randy -didn’t like the song choice, didn’t show off his voice like it should have
• Paula – felt his heart in the song and he didn’t have to over-sing the song
• Simon – it’s a singing competition, he has got to come out here and “make a WOW! impact”

Simon is being a little hardcore, smart-a$$ tonight. Let the man mention his dad’s birthday. Nobody said anything when LaKisha mentioned her daughter’s birthday.

Chris Richardson: 22 from Chesapeake, VA
Dedicates the song to his grandmother. Hopefully Simon won’t have a cow. “Geek In the Pink”. I’ve never heard this song before, but the song totally fits Chris’ style and abilities. Song is by Jason Mraz, and reminds me I really like his music. The song has some interesting opportunities to highlight his rapping style, but then slows down and shows off some vocal skills as well.

• Randy – is in it to win it, hotter than the original
• Paula – [didn't say much]
• Simon – “the best tonight by a mile”

— Commercial Break —

Sundance Head: 28 from Porter, TX
Dedicating his performance to his 2-month old son that’s been born since he started this American Idol journey. Sundance chokes up as he talks about the things he’s missing. “Mustang Sally”, this is totally the type of song he needed to come out with. It gets back to his blues roots and the type of sound he had in his auditions. I love the way he has his raspy voice and this song highlights as this well. Lots of energy which is what he needed. I think the judges are going to like him coming back out and showing them why they put him through in the first place.

• Randy – what a difference a week makes, welcome back Sundance. Dropped a bomb on it. That’s the reason he’s here.
• Paula – you’ve gotta sing like this every week. Amazing range. Best vocal he’s ever heard.
• Simon – glad we’ve got the Sundance back that we really like. Encourages him though by saying he can do better.

That’s the end of the show tonight. I’ve said it before already, I think Sanjaya and Brandon have targets on their backs tonight. Nick might be on their heels though.

Post from: Crushable

Girl Top Votes:

1. Antonella Barba (12 votes)
2. Leslie Hunt & Nicole Tranquillo (Tied w/ 5 votes)

Interestingly enough, Amy Krebs got “0″ votes.

Guys Top Votes:

1. Sundance Head (19 votes)
2. Sanjaya Malakar (11 votes)

Here’s the actual poll results 

Be sure and check-out our new poll for who’s going home next week. 20 contestants are left, and four more go home next Thursday.

Post from: Crushable

If you’ve taken a chance to vote in our latest poll, you’ll notice that the following guys have votes(#) against them: AJ Tabaldo(2), Nicholas Pedro(1), Paul Kim(2), Sundance Head(1).

We’ll see how it plays out.

— Commercial Break —

First up for the guys is Rudy Cardenas singing “Free Ride”. Not doing too badly. His voice fits this song pretty well and he’s having fun with it. It’s amazing the difference some make-up, warddrobe, full-band and back-up singers make to lay out the whole package.

He’s getting some serious applause. Randy says he got the party started, but it was corny. Paula thinks he was “fantastic”. Simon says it was nothing new and the song was dated.

— Commercial Break —

Brandon Rogers has sung with Christina Aguillera, Justin Timberlake and Usher as a back-up singer. Pretty cool the back-up singers are moving forward this season. It would be interesting to have one of them win, but I don’t think they will. He’s singing “Rock With You” and he doesn’t sound very good to me. I believe he’s at risk. Has some pitch problems and a little bit of rhythm issues as well. Let’s see what the judges say.

Ahhh, Randy says “pitchy”. Paula agrees, good comment from her saying he’s used to doing the background runs and now he’s the lead singer and doesn’t need to flourish the music too much. Simon says he did a safe performance. Simon says he’s better than his performance showed.

Jason “Sundance” Head is up next. I like this guy, but he’s crashed a little bit in Hollywood with lyrics and performance. Let’s see if he can recover now that millions of people are watching him. I like his personality. Singing “Nights in White Satin”. I believe Simon is going to say it was safe and not very exciting. Just sounds weird to me. Not the best song choice in my opinion. I believe his personality will carry him through the first few rounds though, but he’s really going to have to find his groove and start winning some hardcore fans now.

Randy likes his bluesy thing but has abandoned it. Pitchy all the way through. Paula says “wrong song” and pitch was all over the place. Simon says with that performance he wouldn’t have made it here in the first place.

— Commercial Break —

Ahhh, I forgot Paul Kim was the one to sing the Shai song for his audition. Nice song. This guy is going to be barefoot for every performance according to him in an earlier show. He’s singing “Never Gonna Dance Again”, but it’s not working for me. Picking up a little bit as he puts some more energy into, well that was until he went into falsetto and really missed the notes. Really bad. He may be one of the first two guys to go home.

Randy doesn’t like the song choice, pitchy weird, middle worked, falsetto didn’t work. Randy still likes his potential though. Paula says he over sang and didn’t find his “center”. Simon tells him to put his shoes on next week if he’s still here. Third rate version of the song, he needs to “wow” and he’s not according to Simon. Ryan joins Paul onstage sans shoes. Kind of funny.

Up next is Chris Richardson. He kind of snuck by me up to this point and I didn’t remember his voice was as nice and strong as it was. I think he’ll be a final 12 contestant. Let’s see if he doesn’t disappoint.

Singing “I Don’t Wanna Be” by Gavin DeGraw and is doing a great job. He’s standing a little too still at the mic stand though. He can move, he needs to show it off a little bit. He’s one of those contestants that makes it look like he’s been doing this his whole life and is exactly where he needs to be right now.

I think the judges are going to say the best performance of the night so far. Randy feels like the show just started. Paula liked it. Simon really likes him, but thought his voice sounded very small in the song. He’s got a total package to offer, but needs to bring up the strength of the vocal.

— Commercial Break —

Nick Pedro leads us in after the break. Pitchy, but not doing too badly. He hits the falsetto much better than Paul Kim. Boring performance in my opinion. I think you really should bring it hard on the first night and go from there.

Randy thinks the nerves were going too much for him. Randy said it was good and “boring”. Paula said the tone of his voice in the audition was what made it for him and this performance was pretty flat tonight. Simon didn’t think it was that bad. Says he lost his spark a little bit, very charming, very nervous. They all just miss the energy and confidence they saw in his audition.

That’s it for the first 6 guys tonight. Catch the follow-up post for the final 6.

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