Last night's American Idol opened the competition's not-quite-semifinal, not-quite-final round, with the 13 singers who were selected as this year's spotlighted contestants making their way through the songs of Michael Jackson. While Paula Abdul was only interested in seemingly tipping the producers...

Last night's American Idol showcased the varying talents of eight singers who the judges liked but who for whatever reason (demographics, tattoos, outright lousy performances) weren't embraced by the calling and texting public. Only three of them were supposed to make it into this year's group of Id...

In addition to sending Lil Rounds, Scott MacIntyre, and Jorge Nunez through to the Top 12, last night's peppy-for-an-elimination-episode edition of American Idol set the field for tonight's Wild Card round. And... well, it's more than a little disappointing. People who completely botched their initi...

So, tomorrow night is American Idol 's Wild Card round, in which the judges bring back their favorite singers who didn't make the cut over the last few weeks, then grant three of them passes to the Top 12, whose finals begin in a mere six days. There are going to be eight or nine contestants—t...

A performance of "Hey There Delilah" being my favorite of the night. Von Smith not being annoying. An 18-year-old with a neck tattoo. Last night's American Idol , in which the last third of the Top 36 competed for America's phoned-in affections, was full of odd things, and made me wonder just how th...

Last night's American Idol served as yet another testament to the completely broken nature of this ridiculous 36-semifinalist setup. Most of the performances were, unfortunately, pretty bad—so lousy, in fact, that I felt for even the most off-pitch contestants, since this was pretty much their...

American Idol insider blog Joesplace has a list of rumored song choices for tonight's episode of American Idol , in which 12 more semifinalists put themselves up to be loved by the nation while Paula Abdul quietly stews about the four-judge format and Simon Cowell tries to stay awake. Is the oh-so-t...

Last night's American Idol finally brought us to the semifinal round, with 12 hopefuls—including this season's Officially Chosen One, the sad-backstory-filled-yet-optimistic Danny Gokey—making their way to the Idol stage. The theme was "Hot 100 songs through the years," although most of ...

The producers of American Idol hastily booted major-label refugee Joanna Pacitti from its semifinalist pool early yesterday morning, after the final Hollywood Week episode, complete with Pacitti celebrating her victory, had aired on Fox affiliates around the country. Why did the show's higher-ups wa...

Well, after the early-morning scandal involving Joanna Pacitti sliding out of the competition because of "impropriety," recapping last night's episode of American Idol seems a little bit anticlimactic. So all I will say about the "judges' mansion" episode is that I can't believe Tatiana and Von Smit...