Bogus Gold

A little of the expected, and a little of the surprising in the first cut. We had the gigantic Up-With-Idol 60's themed group sing-along. Not bad, as such things go. Could have been a lot worse.

Plus we got to see Paula Abdul making a rather Tina Turner-like middle-aged come back video for a song on Randy Jackson's new album. The song was pretty wretched, but her dancing was good. Is it just me or does Randy Jackson seem almost amused by the obvious "we're totally cashing in on the Idol franchise" aspect to this thing?

And, of course, we had the eliminations.

Garrett leaving was not one of my predications, but hardly shocking. He was weak, and in reading other blogs about it people seemed a lot more hostile to the hair than I expected.

Amy leaving was inevitable. She sounded no better on that awful song during the sing out last night. Ugh!

Joanne leaving was a little sad, I thought, but also not a shock. She gave a bad performance on a night she could afford it least.

Colton caught me by surprise. I actually thought he did a pretty nice job. Did Simon's withering criticism really sway that many votes? If one of the gay Elvis acts had to go, I would have thought it would be Danny.

What most surprised me was that neither Luke nor Jason got cut, as I thought they both delivered that fatal combination of forgettable plus poor singing. My own darkhorse pick of the guys to be knocked off, David, was also safe. So I guess not everyone found him as forgettable as me. And he did sing well.

Those of you into Kristy (*cough* Jeff *cough*) can breathe easy. I thought she was in serious danger this week, but she survived. Presuming she will go into next week both healthy and not in the lead off spot her chances should be vastly improved.