michaeljohns

(S07E24) Since everyone seems to like getting together to share in Idol goodness, we'll continue running these live chats during both the performance and results show until the end of the season. We'll be hosting one during the live 8pm ET broadcast tonight. Watch the Top 10 perform songs from the year they were born tonight, and be sure and come back tomorrow when former contestant Kimberly Locke performs.

You can join the chat by following this link. Look for the full episode review right here later tonight.

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(S07E23) Everyone had so much fun in the live chat during the Top 11 performance show that we're doing it again! We'll be hosting another live chat during the live 9pm ET broadcast tonight. And we may just do it for the rest of the season, too. Watch the results and sound off about the painful group number as it happens. Critique Kellie Pickler's return to the Idol stage and vent about all the "filler" Ryan subjects us to before voting out ... well who do you think it will be?

You can join the chat by following this link. Look for the full episode review right here later tonight.

(S07E22) In response to the huge excitement and interest in this season's batch of American Idol contestants, we'll be hosting a live chat during the live 8pm ET broadcast tonight. Watch the show and share your throughts with other Idol fans in real-time. Don't agree with what Simon said? Speak out and be heard! Tonight, the Top 11 continue last week's theme by performing songs from the John Lennon/Paul McCartney catalog of classic hits.

You can join the chat by following this link. Look for the full episode review right here later tonight.

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Rather than have all these various posts about this American Idol poll and that American Idol poll, we decided to pool them all up into one delicious post each week. We will look at a few online polls that were conducted from the end of last week's results up to the performance show Tuesday. And then a few that were conducted after this week's performance show, but before the results were revealed Wednesday.

That way we can see how the week's performances affected a contestant's overall popularity, and how well the internet can predict eliminations. We'll also see how each contestant fared week to week in each poll, moving up or down. If you don't like waving at boring numbers, you might just want to move onto that nice article below this one. It looks friendly enough. But if you like getting mired in stats and rankings and seeing more than any sane human should ever need to about eleven singers, follow me across this jump...

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The songs of Lennon/McCartney again?! The "best" Top 12 -- okay, 11 now -- continues to tackle some of the greatest songs ever written. To celebrate enthusiasm for this year's crop of finalists, we're hosting a live chat during tonight's live performance episode (8pm ET). It's a great opportunity to sound off on the performances and offer your own critiques of the contestants ... and judges.

The chat will begin shortly before the show starts. A link to the chat will be provided in the recap post, so check the front page later tonight to join the conversation. See you tonight!

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Well, the final results are in from AOL's Idol Poll, running from the end of the competition on Tuesday to the "Results Show" on Wednesday. While there's not a great deal of deviation from the preliminary results we reported on Wednesday, it's interesting that David Hernandez actually went up slightly in their rankings, from 9th to 8th, before ultimately getting eliminated. They were way off on this one. What's the margin of error, I wonder.

The only other change of any significance was Carly dropping from the #2 slot all the way down to #4, allowing David Cook and Brooke to each move up a slot. This I can understand as both of them had really good nights. But what's up with all the Syesha haters? The final tally is "after the break."

(S07E21) For the first in a season full of hour-long American Idol results show, I'll give Idol credit for filling it pretty well. It was nice to see past runner-up Katharine McPhee perform on the Idol stage again, as well as the video footage of the Idols reacting to their sudden fame. What they need to do is turn the Results show into more of a classic variety show. And keep those past Idol contestants coming, too. American Idol has been around long enough now that it has it's own legacy and tradition, so keep honoring that.

As for the results, while the person who left wasn't necessarily the consensus choice, it was someone that I'm perfectly alright with seeing leave at this early stage. In fact, I could have lost the whole "Bottom Three" tonight and not lost any sleep over it.

What a difference a day makes. After the surprising performances on last night's Top 12 performance show, AOL's American Idol poll has shown some significant shifts. While David Archuleta has been a strong favorite across most polls, I don't think anyone can argue that last night he had a pretty dramatic misstep, forgetting lyrics and generally turning in a pretty bad performance.

The question is, will the David A. faithful continue to flock behind their golden boy, or is one bad performance enough to knock him off the top perch. And what about Chikezie, who turned in his strongest performance of the competition so far. Was it enough to bring him up in America's hearts? I've got two sets of poll results for you. The first from the week prior to last night's show, and the second after last night's performance.

(S07E20) After what went down last week, I'd be scared to death to perform first. On the girls' side, Asia'h performed first, followed by Kady. For the boys, it was Luke up first followed by David Archuleta and then Danny. So, other than David, all four eliminated contestants sang first on their respective performance shows. Do we forget so quickly, America? Maybe a whole night of Beatles classics will make it all a bit more memorable for you.

TVGuide.com ran a poll ranking the Top 12 American Idol finalists. While you can click on the link to check out the full list, and their percentages, I have to ask if it's really as cut and dry as that list makes it out to be. A couple of years ago, Taylor Hicks was an early fan favorite, never appearing in the bottom and always polling high like this, but even he didn't garner nearly half of all votes like a certain Star Search winner.

Is it that people really like David Archuelta to win or that they think it's inevitable he will win? I know some people I've talked to that say they figure he'll win at the same time saying they don't think he should. What do you think? Do you think David Archuleta has already won, basically, and it's all going to come down to who can come in second?

(S07E19) Thank god it's the end of three-times-a-week Idol. Tonight, we lost four more contestants to the ether and said hello to our Top 12. It's been a long road coming, and while I can't say I agree 100% with the Top 12, I will agree that most of the contestants in it deserve to be there.

Honestly, I think the Idol team accomplished their goal of creating the most talented Top 12 in Idol history. Say what you want about their professional pedigree and the lack of true amateurs in this group because in the end it won't really matter. What they will bring is a better more consistent product to the screen. Sure there's early favorites, but who can honestly predict the winner at this point (I know some of you are very certain you know who it will be)? Can you even predict the Top 12?

(S07E17) This is it, folks! After these next two weeks, we'll have our Top 12. Which two of those smiling faces doesn't deserve to be there? Well, I had a pretty good idea going into tonight's episode and after it, I'm even more certain. I hope you all get it right. The boys were more comfortable this week and it showed in their performances. I think a lot of it had to do with the theme: '80s songs. Finally, songs they may actually be familiar with and possibly even have a personal connection to.

(S07E14) Tonight was a weird night for me as the boys who blew me away last week...well, kind of didn't. And the guys who barely squeaked by upped their game tremendously. It was like a mix-and-match of who was good and bad from last week and it made my brain hurt. Now I'm all kinds of confused and don't know who should go home anymore. There's still some easy fat to trim, but now I don't think it's nearly as obvious which six of these ten should make the Top 12. Good for them, but hard for us.

(S07E11) The continuing efforts by the Idol folks to make me happy are really appreciated, I want you guys to know that. Not only did they acknowledge that certain of tonight's contestants have had very little to no screen time thus far, but they went so far as to show us some early audition footage for them.

It may not seem like much, but that little bit shows us the contestant singing a couple different songs, maybe in differing styles. This gives us a more well-rounded basis on which to assess their performance here. Everyone has an off-week from time to time and it would be horrible for someone to have a bad night on the only night we see him/her if his/her other auditions were amazing.

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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