We scoured the earth (and the archives at various record companies for failed projects that showed vocal promise) to create the greatest assemblage of singing talent American Idol has ever seen! So what happened? After last year's virtual snooze-fest, how did a season that truly did give us perhaps the greatest depth of talent we've ever seen (an argument could be made for Season Five) give us such lackluster shows?

After Sanjaya-gate last year, the biggest controversy to come out this year was that finalist David Hernandez used to be a stripper and David Archuleta's dad might be a Mr. Meany-Pants. And we got to be pissed that Kristy Lee Cook outlasted the likes of Michael Johns. Not until we got to the finale of Davids did things get really intense.

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After a great opening week performance, Alexandrea Lushington really slipped in her second week on the American Idol stage. Unfortunately, we hadn't seen enough of her personality yet to make any sort of connection with her, and so we were left with an audience that probably didn't remember how solid she was and only remembered a very shaky, off-key performance seriously lacking in confidence.

In AOL's interview with Alexandrea Lushington, she admitted to being surprised about her early elimination, but remained confident that everything happens for a reason. "I think because this happened it was supposed to happen. I know that I'm going to benefit from it all."

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(S07E16) We're getting closer and closer to the Top 12, and more importantly closer to the end of thrice-weekly Idol. There were almost 31 million votes cast last night, but still not enough for four more contestants. This week, both the boys and girls were largely disappointing, with many of the top performers from last week fumbling, and only a few showing marked improvement.

A portion of that, I think, can be blamed on the theme weeks. For many of these kids, songs from the '60s and '70s represent songs they've never heard before in their lives. That's not fair to those contestants or the audience. If this is the season where we're supposed to get to know these singers better, why not let us have three weeks of getting to know the type of music they both enjoy and know they can sing well. Once you've found your Top 12, you can put those kids through the ringer with your theme weeks.

(S07E15) The theme again was "Songs from the '70s," and for the most part I think the girls handled it better than the boys last night. And they also remained consistent with their performances last week to the most part. That is to say that the girls who struggled last week seemed, at best, to do only marginally better this week. The only surprises for me were some of the girls who blew me away last week turned around and struggled with their vocals tonight.

(S07E12) I have to say tonight's show was a mixed bag for me. There were a lot of surprises for me with the girls' performances, some good and some bad. I went into the show with a few clear favorites and a few that I didn't have high hopes for and it all got turned around on me. There wasn't as much of a "Wow!" factor with any of the girls and actually none of them earned the patented DOUBLEPLAY, but that's not to say there weren't some great performances.

I give Idol a lot of crap, and most of it is pretty well deserved, but one thing they've been hyping is absolutely true. This Top 24 has the deepest pool of talent, and if we (that means you and me) can truly get rid of the twelve weakest singers we're going to have the most amazing Top 12 we've ever seen. If that happens, I guarantee you the ratings questions about Idol being down this year will disappear as those ratings shoot right through the roof.

So are you, like me, pissed that we have no idea who Jasons Castro and Yeager are? Upset that we've never seen Luke Menard before we saw that he was in the Top 12. Well, if you're reading this then you're online. And if you're online, then you can run on over to AmericanIdol.com and see introductory videos of the entire Top 24, as well as a clip of the photo shoot that brought you our fantastic Top 24 gallery.

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Now that we know who they are we can see how they've been cleaned up by FOX and photographed. And that crazy Top 24 promo photo featuring the contestants hiding behind Simon masks has been replaced with the above photo, minus the masks. Oh those wacky kids over at FOX. They're so creative!

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(S07E10) Looks like Idol's getting an early start with the cheesy blatant endorsements. They opened this episode with an incredibly corny Jumper intro featuring Hayden Christensen and Ryan Seacrest. But tonight is all about about the chair and final judgment for the contestants. No more singing; no more chances to prove themselves. It's simply a matter of sitting down and hearing if they're in the Top 24 or headed home.

A couple of days ago, the purported list of the Top 24 contestants spilled across the Internet. Monday, I took you through the list of Top 12 Boys, so now we're going to look into the Top 12 Girls. And let me tell you, after researching these 24 (whether they're the accurate Top 24 or not is still up for debate), I can tell you that American Idol is definitely NOT about finding great undiscovered talent this year.

After the lackluster response to last year, they were determined to get better singers on the air, so it makes sense to look for people who've already had major record deals and have already been signed by major labels and stars, but whose big debuts just kind of fizzled. You know they've got talent because they were already signed once, they're just not signed now. So it's "Unsigned Talent" that's more important than "Undiscovered Talent." I just wish they'd be more honest about it on-screen instead of pretending these people just walked in off the farm.

[UPDATE - Now updated and with additional audition video! - j/h]