No, it's 28. THey were all 28 when they auditioned and have since turned 29.

Ah, gotcha. I think regardless of specific age, the dramatic groupings of age are bigger to me.. Most of the contestants are mid to late 20's, where last year it seemed like around half were not even 18 yet.

I'm going to start following. It I find it interesting from a statistical perspective. I think it's a cool intellectual exercise - even to the point of how Idol tries to counteract it.

Hell, I'd consider downloading it and trying to use it to vote - when I have never voted before.

I think it's in the best interests of most contestants that they be older. I think they should raise the minimum age to 18 or 19 from 16. Let them get some exposure on the show, but don't put them through to the point that they are disqualified from future shows (like they handled that pretty Texas girl who was under 18). Builds some continuity in the AI storyline from season to season, and gives them some time to mature and become better singers/performers.

Totally agreed. Like I said, I think this would have benefitted Sanjaya big time.

If you know they won't make top 12, lean towards the 25 year old so that he can get it out of his system and move on, rather than the 17 year old that can grow and come back in a year or two.

I loved yesterday's show. I really think that it is Antonella's time to go.

She is not that pretty, but will stay if vote for the worst backs her up again.

Antonella and haley will go tonight

I will probably catch flack for this here, but we shall see.

She is far better looking than Pickler and she made it to the top 6 or so. Pickler could sing better, but was still far worse than people that went before her.

Pickler had several things going for her: (1) decent looking; (2) charming personality/shtick; and (3) decent singer. Barba, arguably, has one of those (although I personally hate the NY look/attitude). her vocals are even worse because she's being compared to better singers than Pickler was last year. And there's nothing charming about her. She comes off as a bitch, a lot of people think she's also a slut, and she's demonstrated that glorious NYattitude when given bad reviews.

All that said, I'll be shocked if she goes home tonight.

I'm only addressing the attractiveness issue. :) I agree with the rest. And I think Antonella comes off as less of an idiot than Pickler but instead comes off as a bitch.

But the idiot thing was a plus for Pickler, given where she was from. Calamari practically put her in the finals.

It was charming in a way. This Barbarella ho impresses me as nothing but an asshole.

I do not expect Antonella to be kicked off the show any soon than week 7. That seems to be about the time that the people voting seriously will overcome the VFTW crowd.

And she will become more and more of a raging bitch over that time period because I don't think she realizes she is just continuing on because she is a joke not becase people think she is talented.

Where's John Feinstein when you need him? I think he's about run out of sports prefaces and hasn't released a book since I started typing....

I would call it A Season on the Brink II just to drive Bob Knight crazy.

I hope Gina goes home tonight. She thinks she's much better than she actually is.

Gina is awesome. She already made top 12.... who was the first person they kicked off? I didn't watch

and suddenly, millions of internet accounts were cancelled.

Now I'll never hear the Set it Off soundtrack quite the same way again.

I love that in Antionella's good bye song she screwed up about 4 times. She was awful.

Watching the basketball game....who got sent home?

Kicked off
 

Antonella
Sabrina
Jared
Sundance

I thought it was gonna take a Presidential Edict to get Antonella off so I am happy. Sabrina wouldn't have been my second choice, but she's not too far from it. Jared I thought was talented but rarely delivered. Sundance suprises me some, but I had lost a lot of faith in him post audition.

You and me both. Although..... I believe there is a little blurb at the end of the show that says that the show reserves the right to disregard the vote. I wouldn't be surprised if she was just axed regardless.

I'm surprised most fans conveniently ignore that, which I believe has been on there since the early days. Every year, I and others mention that but fans get too enamored with VFTW and busy signals to realize that the show does come down to ratings and producers' discretion in considering the fan voting.

I would think that's for the case if somebody is proven to be cheating vote wise. I think they actually would rather Antonella advance, she's probably good for ratings.

Or most just don't subscribe to your theory that just because they can, they do, with no evidence at all.

So you want to believe that it is all pure democracy? Wow.

You'll have to do better than pure incredulity.

Average score of 12 finalists through the semi-final rounds:

Melinda Doolittle: 95
LaKisha Jones: 85
Jordin Sparks: 84
Chris Richardson: 83
Blake Lewis: 81
Stephanie Edwards: 78
Gina Glocksen: 77
Chris Sligh: 67
Haley Scarnato: 60
Brandon Rogers: 58
Phil Stacey: 54
Sanjaya Malakar: 49

Coming up: Diana Ross week... I don't think the guys are going to enjoy this.

I wonder if doolittle isnt the best voice ive ever heard on this show. I know Undewoood's Heart song was good, but all the rest I dont remember being as good as Doolittle. Certainly not as consistent this early, no?

I was sad but not surprised to see Sundance lose out to Sanjaya. As I told me kids, Sanjaya can just show up and not sing and still get more votes than Sundance. It still sucks. I don't like Sanjaya's personality, and I can hardly hear the guy over the music.

Haley getting in sucked, too. We'll see if those two (Sanjaya and Haley) keep stealing votes from people who actually belong there.

Well at least we got one of the two worst out of there. Just wish it had been Sanjaya instead of Antonella. Haley advancing over Sabrina was the real shocker, as it seemed nobody particularly liked her. (I do, but she's up against a lot of talent). Thought Sundance would make it too. I just don't understand this fascination over Sanjaya. I think perhaps he is the worst finalist in Idol history, though he has some heavy competition there.

And on the flip side - good news for the Divas.


I think Sabrina suffered from being the 4th best Diva which just really put her in a void for votes.

I think John Stephens easily still holds that title.

You know, I think it's great what the show is doing for impoverished people in America and in Africa, but I admit that I was disappointed that the big announcement had nothing to do with the competition.

Wade OTM about why Sabrina went home. She was 4th among the 4 divas and they split the R&B vote, which obviously isn't big enough to sustain them all. That's what happened when LaToya and Jennifer Hudson went home the same week the year Fantasia won it all.

I'm shocked Antonella went home, but in the end, it boiled down to people having a reason to hate her in addition to her sucking which lead her to be voted off, while Sanjaya just plain sucks but seems like a nice kid to most people. I bet he's around for quite a while. He certainly deserved to go before Sunfire, but that dude was really overrated, so I'm not crying for him.

If you go back and look at the Nigel quote I pasted last week, it seemed fairly obvious the announcement would have something to do with charity or the military. "We're the first show to talk about this" and "it involves American Idol and America"... stuff like that.

I admit that I missed the quote. Even if I had seen it, though, I would have expected some revolutionary way for voters to get involved with the competition. I'm not really sure exactly what that would be, but I still wouldn't expect what we got.

It's a good thing they're doing, though, so more power to 'em... except for Ryan Seacrest chasing African kids around. No good can come from that.

I thought it was extremely pretentious.

So I'm in NYC this weekend, and guess which of these stuffed shirts I saw in the lobby of my hotel yesterday? Pretty odd coincidence, seeing as though I just posted these pics.

Seriously? "You gotta pronunciate"? Yeesh...

Hehe yeah that one got me too.

The judges bitch about making a song your own and then 2 guys try to make a song their own and they bitch about just singing it.

Who the F thought a Diana Ross week was a good idea?

that make it your own line makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit everytime i hear it.

The people who want to see a Diva win?

Tough week...theme is blatantly in favor of the big voiced divas...I'd say Melinda was still the best this week, followed by a chalk trifecta of Lakeesha and Jordin. I was least impressed by Brandon this week, he really bores me. Svenjaya could go home on any given week but this wasn't his worst performance. Haley and Stephanie blew the lyrics but they at least sung well.

Hard week for most of the guys and Gina theme wise. I was hoping Gina would find a way to Ginafy a Ross song and she didn't. Chris had similar issues. Blake and Phil I think were the best guys but they weren't near the level of Melinda, Lakeesha and Jordin.

I'm with you Mustang. Drives me crazy when they say you have to be original, then totally slam them for being it. Earlier they slammed Brandon for not being original. You can't have it both ways. It's fine if you say you don't like their take on Diana Ross songs but give them credit at least for trying to modernize them.

This was bound to be a tough night for the guys anyway with them singing songs from a female vocalist, so I'm glad some of them changed the arrangements.

Hard for me to judge these performances because I'm not a Diana Ross fan and don't know and/or like many of her songs. It was nice though to see Haley come alive tonight...well until she forgot the words. I did like Chris Sligh's take on Endless Love but that arrangement didn't match the vocals. I think I will go with him as my favorite guy performance and Jordin as favorite girl performance.

Sanjaya will remain as my worst performance until he gets voted off. Although that was the best he's done I think, put a little passion into it instead of just standing there and singing softly.

I took a picture of it last year.

Could also be that there are only so many artists who have twelve songs recognizable by a large cross-section of the audience.

Do you know, where you're going to? Do you like the things that life is showing you? Where are you going to? Do you know?

Do you sing? Inspired like a star? Or do you trip on lyrics from afar? Or are you precious like a Malakar? Do you know?

It was Diana Ross week, and no one went with the Theme from Mahogany. Un believable. Like having a Knack week without anyone singing My Sharona. There was some Endless Love, which thankfullly ended after 90 seconds. Someone had a very brief Love Hangover. Someone tried to Hurry Love. But no one sang the song that separated Diana Ross from all the other talented singers of the '60s, '70s and '80s. Not even the hard to parallel Doolittle.

Next week is probably Knack week for all I know, because this week was awkward, especially for the overwhelmed male contingent.

On to the rankings for week 4, the first of the finals:

1. Melinda Doolittle. She wasn't perfect this week, which comes as a bit of a shock. I think she realized she could pick just about anything and do a pretty good job. That was enough to lead the pack on a fair night. Score of 89.

2. Jordin Sparks. Vocally, I thought she tried a lot and she was very nervous. She made some mistakes, especially near the beginning. But she also brought out qualities in her voice that reminded me of what Idol is really about - discovering new talent. Perhaps she should have waited a year or two, maybe she would be a Doolittle in a crowd of amateurs. She's more than good enough now, and if she grows up quickly, she could be a contender. Score of 87.

3. LaKisha Jones. Another solid performance from the steadiest contender this side of Doolittle. Score of 85.

4. Phil Stacey. And now we drop into the realm of the mediocre. This was by far his best performance of the season, I did see for the first time that he really can sing. He did indulge himself with a couple of off-key screaming notes, far less than his usual dozen. He was okay. He bought himself another week or two. Score of 74.

5. Gina Glocksen. I want to like her more. She has the same problem Phil has - the louder she gets the more I forget she can sing. She has to fight, more than anyone, the line between singer and performer. Performers do not do well in this format. Score of 73.

6. Chris Sligh. Yeah, the arrangement just murdered a great song. That aside, he wasn't too bad. He does have a nice, melodic voice. Score of 70.

7. Blake Lewis. It's a lot to expect a white beat-boxer who seems to prefer electronica to do a passable Diana Ross. He did a passable something, but it paled in comparison to the original. A whiter shade of pale. I look forward to his take on themes that aren't as powerful. Score of 66.

8. Haley Scarnato. She cried. She's even pretty when she cries. Score of 65.

9. Stephanie Edwards. All the talent in the world and she has no idea how to present it. If she were singing The Star Spangled Banner, it would go on for ten minutes and finish with a trill that would have Frances Scott Key ducking and covering. She needs to stop oversinging every single bar. I thought she had more pitch problems than usual. I'm not liking her as much as I did earlier in the competition. Score of 58.

10. Chris Richardson. With his stiff dancing and his pained expressions, I wonder if someone might have jammed a long stick up his rear end prior to his performance. This was a very tough theme for his style, and he was dreadful tonight. He deserves a mulligan. Score of 47.

11. Brandon Rogers. There really is only Brandon, and he does sound the same every week. The question with him is only about song choice and theme, and he failed to make the necessary adjustments for this type of song. His time is limited. Score of 45.

12. Sanjaya Malakar. It's really pointless to criticize him now. He chose a bland song and made it blander. He blandunciated. He needs to go home to his sister. Score of 38.

Who will be bottom three: Sanjaya, Stephanie and Brandon.

Who will go: Brandon.

Who should go: Sanjaya.