Shoebox: Benedict had one of those (extremely) rare nights when he manages to dial down the suckage to tolerance level, mostly because he had a built-in intelligent interview question to ask each Idol ("What changed?").

That said...the only reason he didn't drag Liz into his lap a la Diane was that he was standing this time. Step away from the underage divas, Benedict. They'll only break your heart anyway.

Really enjoyed the 'get real or go home' format tonight; some competitive tension, however manufactured, was a v. nice change from the assembly-line blandness of the past weeks.

Liked the judicial context - except inasmuch as it gave Zack the excuse to repeat the same vague advice over and over, getting a little less coherent each time. Loved the knowing (as opposed to shocked) chuckles from the audience when Sass made that drunk crack. Busted...

Bernard. Who continues to have a truly lovely voice and no stage presence whatsoever. I mean...you're confronting your cheatin' lover with your anguished jealousy and suspicion, Bernard, y'know? Lose the big happy smile, keep the jacket, and we'll talk.

Joe Dwarf: So busy trying to add stage presence he forgot how to sing. Dropped some serious clunkers along with a few good notes. Love the jacket, though. See ya.

Shoebox: Liz. Whitney. Whitney, Liz. I'm sure you two know each other, right? Great - I'll be over checking out the other channel, OK? Seriously, she displays decent diva potential. Given that I was hoping for much, much more, however...ugh.

Joe Dwarf: I'm going to say it once only - Liz is not a fucking diva. None of these people are. It's the most misused word in Idoldom these days. A diva is a world class bitch with world class talent and the word comes from opera, so you don't have to sing like Whitney, you just have to be as talented and bitchy as she is. When diva got distorted to mean singing loud with melisma I don't know. But I wish it would stop.

OK, got that off my chest... on to the suckage: Liz, technically [yawn] prof[yawn]icient...soooo sleepy

Shoebox: Raj...was smokin'. Also smooooth. And any other cliches indicating sweet soulfulness that I'm forgetting. Yeah, when he stops I can recall a studied quality, but it just goes down so engagingly that I buy into it with all my heart when he's onstage.

Joe Dwarf: Best performance of the night. Too bad he's gonna get thumped by a better looking guy shooting double barrels of cheese at the audience.

Shoebox: Kyla has got to be sabotaging herself. The wonderful jazzy cabaret vibe was buried under a song selection that couldn't have been less appropriate unless it had involved chirrun. The adult, sophisticated beauty was coated in a thick layer of pretty pink princess (I swear we sell that jacket at Zellers with Hilary Duff's label on it...) First time I ever saw an Idol contestant generic herself right out of the competition.

Joe Dwarf: Gah, that was worse than if she had tanked. Nailed every note and I felt nothing. If you're gonna sing an old clunker like that, better find the emotion behind it. This was more "look at all the pretty pink notes Byrd said I could sing. Isn't my pretty pink makeup awesome? Cool pink jacket, eh?"

Shoebox: Ted...[childishly defensive voice] I don't care if he's old and talks back and has nothing special vocally. Joy to the World is my very most favourite dumb '70s song ever and he absolutely rocked it out. It was the most fun I've had watching CI this year. [/childishly defensive voice] (I was however on the floor at Jake's comments about 'giving the song the emotion that it needs'. Yeah, because songs about bullfrogs drinking wine with fishies are deep, man.)

Shoemom's sympathetic take: "He's a real nice guy. You take him to a party, give him a beer and have him sing. He'd make everybody happy."

Joe Dwarf: I was smiling all through it, but no way in hell will that take him to the final. An old song sung in old style by an old man.

Shoebox: Elena, true to her word, trades in the zany-doll for a pull-the-string-Lea Salonga Barbie: very pretty, very sweet, very boring. There's got to be a happy medium in here somewhere, and I guess I can put up with the musical-theatre affectations while she looks. But not for long.

Joe Dwarf: OK, I'll shock you by actually getting the Lea Salonga reference. My kid's doing a piece from Les Mis for her music camp, so we were watching the dream cast concert. Lea is a fucking spectacular singer, she puts all the Whitney/Mariah crowd to shame for being able to belt it out and still pour a ton of emotion into the song. Elena, you are no Lea.

She is however, very pretty and nailed every note. I don't care for the tone of her voice very much though, I haven't liked it in any of her performances. Still, way better her than Testosterone Ken and I wouldn't mind if she carried on. Man's gotta have some eye candy after all.

Shoebox: Jason. aka living proof that the contestants read their own press. He's bound and determined to demonstrate Personality and Desire or die in the attempt. "He's Tyler Hamilton!" Shoemom exclaims. Close enough, but it's missing that special leathery cheeziness (part of the problem may be the bland song) and is mostly just very meh. I've never found myself so totally missing what the judges saw before.

Joe Dwarf: Speak of the peroxide cheese boy: Jason - I'm with Zack, except for the hyperbole. I hate the song, hate the style of performance, hate the smarm, hate the cheese but you've got to admire the skill. Man can sing. He should just go sing at some more weddings and not on my TeeVee. Sigh. We're stuck with the tool. PS how does "getting back to his Newfoundland roots" translate to singing an uptempo version of an Elton John ballad?

Shoebox: Andrew: Shoemom's in lurve. She buys into him completely and thinks that was just the most soulful performance she ever heard. Me, I think he got in some splendid vocal moments, agree with Sass (there's another near-first...) that he's very vocally mature and can only get better...and also think Raj is already there, so, whatever.

Joe Dwarf: I liked his first performance, and I like this one. Cat can sing, and there's just something about the kid that I like. He doesn't have a prayer, but I wish him well.

OK, back to the show... one thing that bugged was the artificial set-up and pummeling of Kyla. They had the song titles in front of them, even commenting twice on the upcoming choice. One presumes they've heard the dress rehearsal, so they have a rough idea of what's coming. Yet they insist on this entirely artificial "well, we hope she does something in the McLachlan/Amos vein because we think that's where her strength lies" followed by "Stand By Me? We are shocked and dismayed!!! What a horrible song choice." I mean, she sucked and no excuses but still that seems like a shitty thing to do to her. For one thing, it sabotages the votes she might get just based on the quality of her voice, which is still quite good despite the suckage of the song choice and cheese factors.

Results Show

Shoebox: Is there a HATE train yet for Jason? Because I repeat, he is roughly 1/4th as good as he thinks he is...somewhere roughly between 'Random guy in bar' and 'Random guy busking in subway station'. Except I've run into many, many buskers who kept it more real than this cheezeball. It kills me that this is what passes for 'rocking out' on this show (just as Jacob is 'so crazy and original'). Especially when Canada already had the real deal last year, in Billy, to compare to. It's like Mister Rogers' Rock'n'Roll Neighborhood around here. Sheesh.

...Oh, and one more thing...Manoah? If you insist on trying to out-perky the Dufflets, fine. But could you at least buy a bra? Please? Your students are watching, for the love of Pete.

I love Ted and all, but Raj wuz robbed. Some record label needs to sign this guy on pronto; he's a pro waiting to happen.

I get the distinct feeling it's only a matter of time before a)Elena gets bored and disconnects from the song, and hence the audience, again; or b)she stays with the poor-man's-Lea-Salonga schtick and just gets boring, period. Because she really doesn't have that great of a voice, after all. Besides the vibrato there's the SHOUTING! factor to consider. Remember last year, how we figured the dumped contestants could form their own group? This year, I'm thinking more a musical-theatre troupe. Andrew Lloyd Webber, look out.

One thing I'm baffled about re: Kyla is her own utter ack of perception. Surely, at some point, she had to have gotten the message that the judges had constructed a nice cozy box for her as their pet offbeat Artiste. Even if she hated it, staying in that Box would have gotten her glowing, possibly even Theresa-esque reviews. How does the full-bore PPP gear and overdone-to-death song fit anywhere in this scenario as a great idea?

Interesting moment just at the end: Everybody doing the Big Giant Group Hug thing except Kalan, hovering uncertainly around the perimeter. Damn, but this kid is shy. It makes the moments when he does bust out a facial expression altogether startling. (Shoemom: "He's not good-looking at all...but he's just beautiful. If that makes any sense.")

Joe Dwarf: If there's one thing I've learned watching 3 or 4 variations on this crappy theme is that all bets are off once they get to the round of 10. We may see greatness, but it's more likely there'll be suckage on an unprecendented level.

On last night's show - no real surprises. Elena didn't sound as crappy as many people thought she did on the sing-out. She'll at least make it more interesting than some of the singers who are better than her, but would have no chance of surviving the first few rounds. Yeah, I'm looking at you Raj and Andrew.

Mrs. Dwarf on observing Theresa providing sympathy hugs for all the losers - "oh look, it's like she's the camp counsellor".