'American Idol' betting odds: David Cook favored to win it all!

Well, “Idol” junkies, it’s finally down to the wire. Next week, America will choose its seventh American Idol. My money is on David.

But seriously folks, the tension is mounting! All season long, David Archuleta has been the presumptive champion. That angelic voice, that joyful smile, that aw-shucks demeanor; what more could tween America want?

Nobody could have predicted that a mysterious rocker with a 5 o’clock shadow would sidle up and threaten Archie’s crown, and yet that’s exactly what happened. Even oddsmakers who favored Archuleta all season are changing their tune to David Cook. 

BetCRIS.com has predicted the following shocking odds:

Odds that David Archuleta will win: 43/20 or 32% chance of winning

Odds that David Cook will win: 20/57 or 74% chance of winning

The oddsmakers at bodoglife.com agree that Archuleta has gone from top dog to underdog:

David Archuleta: +160
David Cook: -230

Nsawins.com also places Cook in the lead.

Bet365.com now lists David Cook at 4/11 while David the Younger stands at 2 to 1.

-- Stephanie Lysaght

As soon as an "American Idol" contestant is eliminated, before he or she even has time to cry, scream or kiss their mother, JD Roberto appears. He is the host of "American Idol Extra," a behind-the-scenes "American Idol" post-show that runs Thursday nights on the Fox Reality Channel.

"Idol" alums Constantine Maroulis and Gina Glocksen serve as JD's co-hosts on the show, conducting interviews with a lively mix of celebrities, "Idol" judges and "Idol" experts. It is JD's portion, however, that truly sets the "Idol Extra" apart from other "Idol"-themed after-shows. Because JD meets each contestant for the first interview of their post-Idol career, he is like the grim reaper of "Idol" lore.  When JD approached Carly Smithson after her ouster, she reacted by shielding her face in mock-horror. "Oh, it's you!" She exclaimed. "I never wanted to see you!"

After exchanging a few words with JD and soaking up some love from Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, and Simon Cowell, the fallen Idol gets an hour of much-needed down-time, away from the press and their fans. What the eliminee does during that hour of relative solitude remains a mystery.  My uneducated guess is that some sort of coaching occurs, preparing the fallen Idol for the impending deluge of press.

After the hour expires, the eliminated contestant heads to the set of "Idol Extra" for the first formal interview since his or her ouster, again with JD Roberto. On Wednesday night, it was Syesha Mercado's turn to face the man, the myth, the legend, the reaper.

Typically, "Idol Extra" is filmed on the "Idol" stage, but since the flagship show moves to the Nokia Theatre next week, stagehands broke down the "Idol" set on Wednesday evening, leaving "Idol Extra" to shoot in the parking lot. The setup in the parking lot was primitive and the air was chilly, but the audience didn't seem to mind.  They were easily placated by a steady stream of "American Idol" T-shirts and Reese's Pieces.

"I'm like a black Christina Aguilera-slash-Alicia Keys," explained Syesha Mercado, without so much as a chuckle, during a conference call with the media this morning. It became clear over the course of the call that Syesha's unlikely success on "American Idol" was largely due to her vigorous self-confidence and unwavering work ethic. "People will know who I am," insisted the fallen Idol. 

Syesha was quick to attribute some of her strength to her father's battle with substance abuse. "The past has a lot to do with the type of person you are," she mused. "I'm gonna make him proud so that he wants to make me proud."  She said this statement more than once throughout the call, as if in gentle warning to her recovering father. "It's just a beautiful story to tell," Syesha later said, adding: "One day I'll tell it. In a book." 

But penning her memoirs is hardly the only thing on Syesha's mind. She also wants to act on Broadway, perhaps in "The Color Purple," star in a film, release an album, open an organic restaurant and more.  (Seriously, I couldn't type fast enough to keep up.)  Syesha rattled off this list with conviction, as though there was nothing remotely daunting about it. 

And it was that whole-hearted faith in her own potential that shot Syesha, against all odds, into the Final Three. "I never packed my bags," she said simply. She didn't want to leave yet, she explained, so why would she pack her bags?

But Syesha's confidence finally faltered after her performance Tuesday. "I was like, 'It's over,'" she recalled. "I got too many bad comments from the judges to keep me there." And because Syesha rarely says anything negative or impolite, it was surprising to hear her question the producers' choice for her on Tuesday: a song from "Happy Feet." "I think my nieces and nephews liked it," Syesha remarked suggestively, adding "It's not like I could change it, so I had to try to make the best of it."  When a reporter remarked that it wasn't really a "singer's song," Syesha agreed.  "No," she said, "it really wasn’t."

But soon enough she was back to her sunny old self. And although Syesha Mercado's favorite subject seemed to be Syesha Mercado, when the conversation turned to the two Davids, David Cook and David Archuleta, she obliged.  "I feel like I'm a little sister and a big sister with both the Davids," she said.  When asked what the Davids said to her after she got booted Wednesday, however, Syesha maintained that she didn't remember. Then, she added: "It's not the end of the road. They were happy for me. Just letting me know they cared. Giving me hugs."

And as the interview drew to its necessary close, Syesha left us on a characteristically high note. "I'm just ready to take on the world!" she exclaimed. "I am so ready!"

-- Stephanie Lysaght

Photo courtesy of Fox

When "American Idol" returns for its eighth season in January, it will still be a singing competition. But get ready for some significant changes in terms of how the show is produced.

Acknowledging that he's not pleased with the performance of the show this year, Fox Chairman Peter Liguori told reporters during a conference call Thursday that he has met with the show’s producers and “everyone is really committed and excited” to revamp the show next year.

“Both the network and the producers really want to take a look at  the show for next year and see what we can to do inject it with new levels of energy and new unpredictable twists and turns and ramp up the storytelling,” Liguori said.  “We do constantly want to make this show the most relevant, zeitgeisty show on TV to keep it on the tips of everyone’s tongue.”

Liguori said the writers strike is partly to blame for the show’s ratings declines. 

“We think the show has somewhat suffered from the post-strike malaise of folks watching less broadcast TV,” he said.

Asked whether the cast was also responsible for viewers turning away, President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly replied:

“Let’s put it in some context. ...It’s not like it’s in the death throes here,” he said. “There’s some real charm in that cast. Whether it’s caught the world on fire, I don’t know. Some of it is just natural maturity of the show. It’s been a phenomenon, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t go through some natural aging just like any other show. We’ll do some of those creative twists next season, and we’ll see what comes out of it."

Liguori also said that the Wednesday results show will, at least on most weeks, go back to a half-hour. One thing that won’t change: the people sitting at the judges table.

“We love Paula,” Liguori said, responding to a question. “She’s coming back.”

-- Maria Elena Fernandez

Wednesday night, the final night in the Idoldome, saw at last the journey reach its irreducible core.  After all the ups and downs, what the season was about was what it had seemed to be, what many hoped it would be for these last weeks –- the battle of the Davids, David Cook vs. David Archuleta.  Syesha Mercado, having dodged so many bullets for so long, was finally dispatched at the very respectable No. 3 slot on a night as tear-jerking as any the show has yet produced.

There are two crucial episodes in each "American Idol" season. The first is the Green Mile --  the show at the end of Hollywood Week in which the remaining 50-some aspirants learn one by one if they have been accepted into the Top 24, an entire episode of pure razor’s edge dramatic tension as each is hurled to the entertainment heavens or plunged forever into the abyss of anonymity.

The second crucial episode is the one in which the surviving Final Three return to their hometowns; the triumphal marches showcase in stark tear-jerking Technicolor the noblest heights of the "Idol"  phenomenon. Here is where it sinks in that a mere four months ago, Archuleta, Mercado and Cook were, in fact, a high school student, an aspiring actress and a bartender, and now, they go back home for the first time, their lives utterly and irrevocably changed.

Sometimes, things turn out just like you thought they would. That new program manager you thought was flirting with you over at the water cooler asks you out. You cut out carbs and lose 5 pounds. Keeping the Tater Mitts gloves you bought after watching that infomercial and treating Mom to a pedicure instead guarantees you a happier Mother's Day. And the two "American Idol" finalists everyone was betting on, at least since the moody and glorious Carly Smithson felt the blade a month ago, are indeed battling for the crown next week.

David Archuleta and David Cook -- the clean teen versus the Bed Head by TIGI-coiffed rocker -- should make for a final round marked by big notes and bitten lips. Both young fellows looked kinda sick after learning they'd be going on, in contrast to departing Syesha Mercado, who kept her Miss World smile frozen in place as she delivered yet another pitch-perfect, stylish performance, reprising "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys.

In her hometown visit, her dad bravely reminded the world that he'd struggled with drugs and alcohol, and suddenly, we all remembered -- Syesha's not part-robot because she's evil, but because she's been holding it together as her family's struggled for God knows how long.

Leading to what will probably be the most closely fought final in the its history, "American Idol" winnowed its field to two after ousting jazzy singer Syesha Mercado on the Wednesday results show.

Mercado had struggled through much of the season -- occupying a seemingly permanent berth in the bottom tier -- before finally surging in the final weeks and outlasting all her 12 fellow female contestants. In the last month, she seemed to find her voice, however, performing jazzy, Broadway-esque songs that accentuated her light touch. 

However, in this week's final-three performance show, she struggled to keep pace with alternative rocker David Cook and 17-year-old sensation David Archuleta. In particular, her rendition of the sultry standard "Fever" left the judges cold. Simon Cowell even termed it bad cabaret.

Mercado was ousted in a week in which more than 56 million votes were cast to choose the finalists. The show also featured tear-jerking video packages of the remaining contestants' journeys home, where they all were met by massive crowds.

With two finalists each drawing on massive popular support, next week's finals could be the closest race for the crown in the show's history. Archuleta has become a 'tween phenomenon this season, with his soulful renditions of ballads and giggling, youthful manner. Cook has surged in the last six weeks, rising from the lower ranks of most predictions and winning over fans with his dramatic alternative-rock takes on popular songs.

Check back later for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield

Photo: Fox

Just two months ago, 12 strangers stepped onto this stage, bearing the weight of a multigazillion-dollar entertainment powerhouse on their collective shoulders. Eight weeks later, the crowd Tuesday in the Idoldome was no longer swooning for mere firmaments in the franchise’s galaxy, but as the fans of three individuals who have sung through fire and earned their places among "Idol" immortals. 

Ultimately, what was quantified by this column as the most talented season in "Idol" history, has produced a Final Three worthy of the name, and three individuals worthy to stand with the Final Three of any season. Along the way, giants have fallen; the losses of Michael Johns and of the greatest performer in "Idol" history (also the most electrifying), Carly Smithson, still sting. And the lights still shine bright from the supporting cast -- Chikezie Eze, Ramiele Malubay, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, David Hernandez, Brooke White and Amanda Overmyer, still with two months' hindsight, not a forgettable talent amongst them.

But ultimately from this chaos of unknown talents, three singers, David Cook, Syesha Mercado and The Chosen One, David Archuleta, emerged from the thickets hardened, weary but determined, the youthful bloom of Hollywood Week long gone, but in its place the calm that comes only from hard-won experience (except for Archuleta, who seems as nervous and giggly as the day he stepped on this stage.) 

The pressures of life in the "Idol" contestant ranks at these exalted heights are incomparable. This week alone, the survivors were forced to master and make their own three songs (two of which were foisted upon them) while dealing with wardrobe, photo shoots, gala trips home, studio sessions, Ford commercials –- all of which comes at the end of two months of nonstop labor in a bubble isolated from their family, friends and home. And while all performances were not perhaps equal on Tuesday night, all rose to this challenge and performed, at worst, decently.

In the climactic moments of what should have been a thrill-inducing semifinal, the three most dutiful finalists ever to dominate "American Idol" fulfilled homeroom teacher Ryan Seacrest's opening descriptions so perfectly, one suspected the producers had slipped in animatronic replacements for the nervous wrecks we've seen the last couple of weeks.

Not that Seacrest's tags were that creative. He called David Archuleta "a high school student," Syesha Mercado "an actress," and David Cook "a bartender" -- that last one got a mortified guffaw from the Missouri rocker. But in a show devoted to song choices from the judges, the producers and the contestants themselves, the singers' most memorable performances mined the truth behind these simple labels.

Taking on Chris Brown's languidly anthemic "With You" as his personal song selection, Archuleta wobbled his hips like a duckling learning to mate and grinned with the glee of someone surprising himself. It was his least comfortable performance in weeks, full of vocal stumbles, and he did seem silly uttering the phrase "my boo" (It's an Afro-Caribbean term, popular in hip-hop songs, and our Mormon favorite is just not fly enough to pull it off.) But the song's awkward movements gave us something more important than his other two spot-on ballads could offer: a glimpse at a Pinocchio letting himself become a real boy, made of something other than beautifully polished wood.

That quick glimpse into the heart of goofy Archie -- who actually sees the girls screaming at his feet, and wants to touch their outstretched hands, and even steal a glance at one or two -- exposed a side different than this baby trouper projects when he's playing the balladeer. Chastised by the judges, Archuleta retreated behind his grown-up mask for his next number, a rigorously sincere version of Dan Fogelberg's wedding song, "Longer."

When “American Idol” sneezes, American culture catches pneumonia. Across the Internet, beside the water coolers, on magazine covers and morning news chat shows, every inch of each week’s show is subjected to scrutiny worthy of an International Atomic Energy Agency spot inspection team. Every misstep comes under the remorseless spotlight of America’s pundit army.

And of all the iffy decisions each contestant makes, none –- not picking a terrible song, forgetting a lyric or flubbing an interview segment –- is as likely to earn a singer the collective wrath of the nation as a bad fashion choice. “Pitchy” singing can be forgiven. Skeletons from one’s past are gladly shoved back in the closet. But if you are a 17-year-old singer with a reputation more wholesome than Betty Crocker's, as David Archuleta's is, and you step on stage in leather pants, neither God nor man nor the Fox network can save you.

Who’s riding this bronco? As it turns out, it’s one thin, dapper, soft-spoken Brit by the name of Miles Siggins. Having emerged from the U.K. punk scene, launched the Stussy line and worked to dress some of the giants of music before joining “American Idol” in its second season, Siggins still finds himself somewhat unprepared for the intensity of the microscope he lives under today, as the show’s chief stylist.

Asked about the above leather pants incident, he took a deep breath and emitted a rueful chuckle.
“They weren’t leather pants, believe it or not,” he said. “They were like kind of a shiny wool .... I didn’t think they were going to be quite as shiny on camera. And when I saw them in dress rehearsal, I was like, oh, my God, Simon [Cowell] is going to flog me.”

Over the past few months, there has been no shortage of rumors about Jason Castro. Did he mouth the words “don’t vote” after his performance last week?  Did he forget the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man” on purpose?  Of course not.  And during a conference call with the media this morning, the fallen Idol was quick to clear up any misconceptions about his behavior on "American Idol." The lyric from “Mr. Tambourine Man” is “something that’s like written on your soul,” marveled Jason, “and somehow it slipped my mind.”

When the contestants began to perform two songs each week instead of one, things got rough for Jason.  “My mind was just split, and I couldn’t deliver either-or,” he admitted, citing his lack of experience as one reason why learning two songs a week was so difficult. “I just started playing guitar my freshman year of college and started singing shortly thereafter. I’d never even learn a song all the way through.”  Needless to say, if learning one song "all the way through" was too much for Jason, learning two songs every week was near impossible. “I couldn’t fall in love with [two songs in one week]," he added. "You need time for that.”

And although in the end Jason’s inexperience may have been his undoing, it was also the thing that made him so endearing.  “I am kinda as raw as it gets, and I haven’t done much of anything singing-wise, and maybe that’s good on TV,” mused Jason. “I dunno.”

So was Jason as relieved as he looked when he finally got eliminated Wednesday night?  “I was as happy last night as I was when I found out I’d made the top 24,” Jason confessed, adding, “How am I gonna do three songs when I cant even do two right?”

When the conversation inevitably turned to Paula Abdul accidentally judging a song that Jason had not yet sang, Jason was amused. Whereas many in the blogosphere were convinced that the judges had it in for Jason and that Paula’s mistake affected Jason's second performance, Jason shot down that theory. “That was kinda funny,” he chuckled, recalling the incident. “I was just kinda confused. … I don’t know. It was an honest mistake. And I don’t think it really affected my next performance.” 

And just so you know, if Jason had stayed next week, he would have sung “Blue Eyes” by the Cary Brothers. “That one would have been good,” he proclaimed with a laugh, adding, “I don’t know about the other two.”

But even though he won't get to perform “Blue Eyes,” Jason doesn’t seem too upset. “I just miss home,” he confessed.  “I kinda miss working in the summers with my dad. … We design and build custom swimming pools. … I’d survey lots and clean pools and stuff.”

And when this overnight celebrity tells you that he misses cleaning “pools and stuff,” you can’t help but love him. Jason has managed to stay incomprehensibly grounded throughout the competition, largely thanks to his disinterest in what reporters like yours truly have to say about him. “I really don’t read anything, like everything y’all are probably 'bout to write,” he confessed with a chuckle.   

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And now, at last, the final lap. In the Idoldome on Wednesday night, where the faithful gathered for the ritual execution of Jason Castro, the room seemed dominated by an unstable mixture of euphoria and exhaustion as we enter the last phases before the anointing at the Nokia in a mere two weeks' time.   

From what promised just three months ago to be the most sure and predictable of seasons, a final three has emerged that not a pundit alive would have prophesied.  That from the ashes of the promised Johns-Smithson-Archuleta clash should have emerged this group would have been unthinkable when the Top 24 appeared.  David Cook began this season seen as a derivative lightweight Daughtry, called charmless by Judge Cowell, given to sulking at negative reviews and snapping at the judges, he seemed destined for the briefest of also-ran candidacies. Syesha Mercado was a pretty face with a traditional style bound to disappear beneath the more contemporary and quirky pyrotechnics from Smithson, Amanda Overmyer, Brooke White, Ramiele Maluby and even, back when, Alaina Whitaker and Alexandrea Lushington. 

But here they are preparing for what promises to be, once we can get over the fact that it was not at all what we expected, a very strong final three.  Perhaps not quite on a level with Season Four’s Underwood/Bice/Solomon showdown, but on a par with Clarkson/Guarini/McKibbin and pound for pound, for my money, a mile ahead of Studdard/Aiken/Gracin, Barrino/DiGarmo/Trias, Hicks/McPhee/Yamin and inarguably more interesting than Sparks/Lewis/Doolittle.

The season’s greatest shock has to be the completely unforeseen endurance of Syesha Mercado.  Perpetual denizen of the bottom three, she dodged bullet after bullet, only really coming to life in the last few weeks and proving that a strong close  is everything.  Singing in an old-fashioned style of the type that for so long completely dominated "Idol," fading into a host of more contemporary performers, including one prodigy genetically engineered to drag  the show into its age of grace, Syesha seemed to have arrived at the Idoldome a couple years too late.  But to again quote the author William Gibson: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”  It would seem that what has worked for "Idol" voters for so many years still, in fact, works.

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “American Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted "Idol" strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute.  A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Bob Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol': Syesha Mercado faces the Idol Extra reaper

As soon as an "American Idol" contestant is eliminated, before he or she even has time to cry, scream or kiss their mother, JD Roberto appears. He is the host of "American Idol Extra," a behind-the-scenes "American Idol" post-show that runs Thursday nights on the Fox Reality Channel.

"Idol" alums Constantine Maroulis and Gina Glocksen serve as JD's co-hosts on the show, conducting interviews with a lively mix of celebrities, "Idol" judges and "Idol" experts. It is JD's portion, however, that truly sets the "Idol Extra" apart from other "Idol"-themed after-shows. Because JD meets each contestant for the first interview of their post-Idol career, he is like the grim reaper of "Idol" lore.  When JD approached Carly Smithson after her ouster, she reacted by shielding her face in mock-horror. "Oh, it's you!" She exclaimed. "I never wanted to see you!"

After exchanging a few words with JD and soaking up some love from Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, and Simon Cowell, the fallen Idol gets an hour of much-needed down-time, away from the press and their fans. What the eliminee does during that hour of relative solitude remains a mystery.  My uneducated guess is that some sort of coaching occurs, preparing the fallen Idol for the impending deluge of press.

After the hour expires, the eliminated contestant heads to the set of "Idol Extra" for the first formal interview since his or her ouster, again with JD Roberto. On Wednesday night, it was Syesha Mercado's turn to face the man, the myth, the legend, the reaper.

Typically, "Idol Extra" is filmed on the "Idol" stage, but since the flagship show moves to the Nokia Theatre next week, stagehands broke down the "Idol" set on Wednesday evening, leaving "Idol Extra" to shoot in the parking lot. The setup in the parking lot was primitive and the air was chilly, but the audience didn't seem to mind.  They were easily placated by a steady stream of "American Idol" T-shirts and Reese's Pieces.

"I'm like a black Christina Aguilera-slash-Alicia Keys," explained Syesha Mercado, without so much as a chuckle, during a conference call with the media this morning. It became clear over the course of the call that Syesha's unlikely success on "American Idol" was largely due to her vigorous self-confidence and unwavering work ethic. "People will know who I am," insisted the fallen Idol. 

Syesha was quick to attribute some of her strength to her father's battle with substance abuse. "The past has a lot to do with the type of person you are," she mused. "I'm gonna make him proud so that he wants to make me proud."  She said this statement more than once throughout the call, as if in gentle warning to her recovering father. "It's just a beautiful story to tell," Syesha later said, adding: "One day I'll tell it. In a book." 

But penning her memoirs is hardly the only thing on Syesha's mind. She also wants to act on Broadway, perhaps in "The Color Purple," star in a film, release an album, open an organic restaurant and more.  (Seriously, I couldn't type fast enough to keep up.)  Syesha rattled off this list with conviction, as though there was nothing remotely daunting about it. 

And it was that whole-hearted faith in her own potential that shot Syesha, against all odds, into the Final Three. "I never packed my bags," she said simply. She didn't want to leave yet, she explained, so why would she pack her bags?

But Syesha's confidence finally faltered after her performance Tuesday. "I was like, 'It's over,'" she recalled. "I got too many bad comments from the judges to keep me there." And because Syesha rarely says anything negative or impolite, it was surprising to hear her question the producers' choice for her on Tuesday: a song from "Happy Feet." "I think my nieces and nephews liked it," Syesha remarked suggestively, adding "It's not like I could change it, so I had to try to make the best of it."  When a reporter remarked that it wasn't really a "singer's song," Syesha agreed.  "No," she said, "it really wasn’t."

But soon enough she was back to her sunny old self. And although Syesha Mercado's favorite subject seemed to be Syesha Mercado, when the conversation turned to the two Davids, David Cook and David Archuleta, she obliged.  "I feel like I'm a little sister and a big sister with both the Davids," she said.  When asked what the Davids said to her after she got booted Wednesday, however, Syesha maintained that she didn't remember. Then, she added: "It's not the end of the road. They were happy for me. Just letting me know they cared. Giving me hugs."

And as the interview drew to its necessary close, Syesha left us on a characteristically high note. "I'm just ready to take on the world!" she exclaimed. "I am so ready!"

-- Stephanie Lysaght

Photo courtesy of Fox

When "American Idol" returns for its eighth season in January, it will still be a singing competition. But get ready for some significant changes in terms of how the show is produced.

Acknowledging that he's not pleased with the performance of the show this year, Fox Chairman Peter Liguori told reporters during a conference call Thursday that he has met with the show’s producers and “everyone is really committed and excited” to revamp the show next year.

“Both the network and the producers really want to take a look at  the show for next year and see what we can to do inject it with new levels of energy and new unpredictable twists and turns and ramp up the storytelling,” Liguori said.  “We do constantly want to make this show the most relevant, zeitgeisty show on TV to keep it on the tips of everyone’s tongue.”

Liguori said the writers strike is partly to blame for the show’s ratings declines. 

“We think the show has somewhat suffered from the post-strike malaise of folks watching less broadcast TV,” he said.

Asked whether the cast was also responsible for viewers turning away, President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly replied:

“Let’s put it in some context. ...It’s not like it’s in the death throes here,” he said. “There’s some real charm in that cast. Whether it’s caught the world on fire, I don’t know. Some of it is just natural maturity of the show. It’s been a phenomenon, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t go through some natural aging just like any other show. We’ll do some of those creative twists next season, and we’ll see what comes out of it."

Liguori also said that the Wednesday results show will, at least on most weeks, go back to a half-hour. One thing that won’t change: the people sitting at the judges table.

“We love Paula,” Liguori said, responding to a question. “She’s coming back.”

-- Maria Elena Fernandez

Wednesday night, the final night in the Idoldome, saw at last the journey reach its irreducible core.  After all the ups and downs, what the season was about was what it had seemed to be, what many hoped it would be for these last weeks –- the battle of the Davids, David Cook vs. David Archuleta.  Syesha Mercado, having dodged so many bullets for so long, was finally dispatched at the very respectable No. 3 slot on a night as tear-jerking as any the show has yet produced.

There are two crucial episodes in each "American Idol" season. The first is the Green Mile --  the show at the end of Hollywood Week in which the remaining 50-some aspirants learn one by one if they have been accepted into the Top 24, an entire episode of pure razor’s edge dramatic tension as each is hurled to the entertainment heavens or plunged forever into the abyss of anonymity.

The second crucial episode is the one in which the surviving Final Three return to their hometowns; the triumphal marches showcase in stark tear-jerking Technicolor the noblest heights of the "Idol"  phenomenon. Here is where it sinks in that a mere four months ago, Archuleta, Mercado and Cook were, in fact, a high school student, an aspiring actress and a bartender, and now, they go back home for the first time, their lives utterly and irrevocably changed.

Sometimes, things turn out just like you thought they would. That new program manager you thought was flirting with you over at the water cooler asks you out. You cut out carbs and lose 5 pounds. Keeping the Tater Mitts gloves you bought after watching that infomercial and treating Mom to a pedicure instead guarantees you a happier Mother's Day. And the two "American Idol" finalists everyone was betting on, at least since the moody and glorious Carly Smithson felt the blade a month ago, are indeed battling for the crown next week.

David Archuleta and David Cook -- the clean teen versus the Bed Head by TIGI-coiffed rocker -- should make for a final round marked by big notes and bitten lips. Both young fellows looked kinda sick after learning they'd be going on, in contrast to departing Syesha Mercado, who kept her Miss World smile frozen in place as she delivered yet another pitch-perfect, stylish performance, reprising "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys.

In her hometown visit, her dad bravely reminded the world that he'd struggled with drugs and alcohol, and suddenly, we all remembered -- Syesha's not part-robot because she's evil, but because she's been holding it together as her family's struggled for God knows how long.

Leading to what will probably be the most closely fought final in the its history, "American Idol" winnowed its field to two after ousting jazzy singer Syesha Mercado on the Wednesday results show.

Mercado had struggled through much of the season -- occupying a seemingly permanent berth in the bottom tier -- before finally surging in the final weeks and outlasting all her 12 fellow female contestants. In the last month, she seemed to find her voice, however, performing jazzy, Broadway-esque songs that accentuated her light touch. 

However, in this week's final-three performance show, she struggled to keep pace with alternative rocker David Cook and 17-year-old sensation David Archuleta. In particular, her rendition of the sultry standard "Fever" left the judges cold. Simon Cowell even termed it bad cabaret.

Mercado was ousted in a week in which more than 56 million votes were cast to choose the finalists. The show also featured tear-jerking video packages of the remaining contestants' journeys home, where they all were met by massive crowds.

With two finalists each drawing on massive popular support, next week's finals could be the closest race for the crown in the show's history. Archuleta has become a 'tween phenomenon this season, with his soulful renditions of ballads and giggling, youthful manner. Cook has surged in the last six weeks, rising from the lower ranks of most predictions and winning over fans with his dramatic alternative-rock takes on popular songs.

Check back later for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield

Photo: Fox

Just two months ago, 12 strangers stepped onto this stage, bearing the weight of a multigazillion-dollar entertainment powerhouse on their collective shoulders. Eight weeks later, the crowd Tuesday in the Idoldome was no longer swooning for mere firmaments in the franchise’s galaxy, but as the fans of three individuals who have sung through fire and earned their places among "Idol" immortals. 

Ultimately, what was quantified by this column as the most talented season in "Idol" history, has produced a Final Three worthy of the name, and three individuals worthy to stand with the Final Three of any season. Along the way, giants have fallen; the losses of Michael Johns and of the greatest performer in "Idol" history (also the most electrifying), Carly Smithson, still sting. And the lights still shine bright from the supporting cast -- Chikezie Eze, Ramiele Malubay, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, David Hernandez, Brooke White and Amanda Overmyer, still with two months' hindsight, not a forgettable talent amongst them.

But ultimately from this chaos of unknown talents, three singers, David Cook, Syesha Mercado and The Chosen One, David Archuleta, emerged from the thickets hardened, weary but determined, the youthful bloom of Hollywood Week long gone, but in its place the calm that comes only from hard-won experience (except for Archuleta, who seems as nervous and giggly as the day he stepped on this stage.) 

The pressures of life in the "Idol" contestant ranks at these exalted heights are incomparable. This week alone, the survivors were forced to master and make their own three songs (two of which were foisted upon them) while dealing with wardrobe, photo shoots, gala trips home, studio sessions, Ford commercials –- all of which comes at the end of two months of nonstop labor in a bubble isolated from their family, friends and home. And while all performances were not perhaps equal on Tuesday night, all rose to this challenge and performed, at worst, decently.

In the climactic moments of what should have been a thrill-inducing semifinal, the three most dutiful finalists ever to dominate "American Idol" fulfilled homeroom teacher Ryan Seacrest's opening descriptions so perfectly, one suspected the producers had slipped in animatronic replacements for the nervous wrecks we've seen the last couple of weeks.

Not that Seacrest's tags were that creative. He called David Archuleta "a high school student," Syesha Mercado "an actress," and David Cook "a bartender" -- that last one got a mortified guffaw from the Missouri rocker. But in a show devoted to song choices from the judges, the producers and the contestants themselves, the singers' most memorable performances mined the truth behind these simple labels.

Taking on Chris Brown's languidly anthemic "With You" as his personal song selection, Archuleta wobbled his hips like a duckling learning to mate and grinned with the glee of someone surprising himself. It was his least comfortable performance in weeks, full of vocal stumbles, and he did seem silly uttering the phrase "my boo" (It's an Afro-Caribbean term, popular in hip-hop songs, and our Mormon favorite is just not fly enough to pull it off.) But the song's awkward movements gave us something more important than his other two spot-on ballads could offer: a glimpse at a Pinocchio letting himself become a real boy, made of something other than beautifully polished wood.

That quick glimpse into the heart of goofy Archie -- who actually sees the girls screaming at his feet, and wants to touch their outstretched hands, and even steal a glance at one or two -- exposed a side different than this baby trouper projects when he's playing the balladeer. Chastised by the judges, Archuleta retreated behind his grown-up mask for his next number, a rigorously sincere version of Dan Fogelberg's wedding song, "Longer."

When “American Idol” sneezes, American culture catches pneumonia. Across the Internet, beside the water coolers, on magazine covers and morning news chat shows, every inch of each week’s show is subjected to scrutiny worthy of an International Atomic Energy Agency spot inspection team. Every misstep comes under the remorseless spotlight of America’s pundit army.

And of all the iffy decisions each contestant makes, none –- not picking a terrible song, forgetting a lyric or flubbing an interview segment –- is as likely to earn a singer the collective wrath of the nation as a bad fashion choice. “Pitchy” singing can be forgiven. Skeletons from one’s past are gladly shoved back in the closet. But if you are a 17-year-old singer with a reputation more wholesome than Betty Crocker's, as David Archuleta's is, and you step on stage in leather pants, neither God nor man nor the Fox network can save you.

Who’s riding this bronco? As it turns out, it’s one thin, dapper, soft-spoken Brit by the name of Miles Siggins. Having emerged from the U.K. punk scene, launched the Stussy line and worked to dress some of the giants of music before joining “American Idol” in its second season, Siggins still finds himself somewhat unprepared for the intensity of the microscope he lives under today, as the show’s chief stylist.

Asked about the above leather pants incident, he took a deep breath and emitted a rueful chuckle.
“They weren’t leather pants, believe it or not,” he said. “They were like kind of a shiny wool .... I didn’t think they were going to be quite as shiny on camera. And when I saw them in dress rehearsal, I was like, oh, my God, Simon [Cowell] is going to flog me.”

Over the past few months, there has been no shortage of rumors about Jason Castro. Did he mouth the words “don’t vote” after his performance last week?  Did he forget the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man” on purpose?  Of course not.  And during a conference call with the media this morning, the fallen Idol was quick to clear up any misconceptions about his behavior on "American Idol." The lyric from “Mr. Tambourine Man” is “something that’s like written on your soul,” marveled Jason, “and somehow it slipped my mind.”

When the contestants began to perform two songs each week instead of one, things got rough for Jason.  “My mind was just split, and I couldn’t deliver either-or,” he admitted, citing his lack of experience as one reason why learning two songs a week was so difficult. “I just started playing guitar my freshman year of college and started singing shortly thereafter. I’d never even learn a song all the way through.”  Needless to say, if learning one song "all the way through" was too much for Jason, learning two songs every week was near impossible. “I couldn’t fall in love with [two songs in one week]," he added. "You need time for that.”

And although in the end Jason’s inexperience may have been his undoing, it was also the thing that made him so endearing.  “I am kinda as raw as it gets, and I haven’t done much of anything singing-wise, and maybe that’s good on TV,” mused Jason. “I dunno.”

So was Jason as relieved as he looked when he finally got eliminated Wednesday night?  “I was as happy last night as I was when I found out I’d made the top 24,” Jason confessed, adding, “How am I gonna do three songs when I cant even do two right?”

When the conversation inevitably turned to Paula Abdul accidentally judging a song that Jason had not yet sang, Jason was amused. Whereas many in the blogosphere were convinced that the judges had it in for Jason and that Paula’s mistake affected Jason's second performance, Jason shot down that theory. “That was kinda funny,” he chuckled, recalling the incident. “I was just kinda confused. … I don’t know. It was an honest mistake. And I don’t think it really affected my next performance.” 

And just so you know, if Jason had stayed next week, he would have sung “Blue Eyes” by the Cary Brothers. “That one would have been good,” he proclaimed with a laugh, adding, “I don’t know about the other two.”

But even though he won't get to perform “Blue Eyes,” Jason doesn’t seem too upset. “I just miss home,” he confessed.  “I kinda miss working in the summers with my dad. … We design and build custom swimming pools. … I’d survey lots and clean pools and stuff.”

And when this overnight celebrity tells you that he misses cleaning “pools and stuff,” you can’t help but love him. Jason has managed to stay incomprehensibly grounded throughout the competition, largely thanks to his disinterest in what reporters like yours truly have to say about him. “I really don’t read anything, like everything y’all are probably 'bout to write,” he confessed with a chuckle.   

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And now, at last, the final lap. In the Idoldome on Wednesday night, where the faithful gathered for the ritual execution of Jason Castro, the room seemed dominated by an unstable mixture of euphoria and exhaustion as we enter the last phases before the anointing at the Nokia in a mere two weeks' time.   

From what promised just three months ago to be the most sure and predictable of seasons, a final three has emerged that not a pundit alive would have prophesied.  That from the ashes of the promised Johns-Smithson-Archuleta clash should have emerged this group would have been unthinkable when the Top 24 appeared.  David Cook began this season seen as a derivative lightweight Daughtry, called charmless by Judge Cowell, given to sulking at negative reviews and snapping at the judges, he seemed destined for the briefest of also-ran candidacies. Syesha Mercado was a pretty face with a traditional style bound to disappear beneath the more contemporary and quirky pyrotechnics from Smithson, Amanda Overmyer, Brooke White, Ramiele Maluby and even, back when, Alaina Whitaker and Alexandrea Lushington. 

But here they are preparing for what promises to be, once we can get over the fact that it was not at all what we expected, a very strong final three.  Perhaps not quite on a level with Season Four’s Underwood/Bice/Solomon showdown, but on a par with Clarkson/Guarini/McKibbin and pound for pound, for my money, a mile ahead of Studdard/Aiken/Gracin, Barrino/DiGarmo/Trias, Hicks/McPhee/Yamin and inarguably more interesting than Sparks/Lewis/Doolittle.

The season’s greatest shock has to be the completely unforeseen endurance of Syesha Mercado.  Perpetual denizen of the bottom three, she dodged bullet after bullet, only really coming to life in the last few weeks and proving that a strong close  is everything.  Singing in an old-fashioned style of the type that for so long completely dominated "Idol," fading into a host of more contemporary performers, including one prodigy genetically engineered to drag  the show into its age of grace, Syesha seemed to have arrived at the Idoldome a couple years too late.  But to again quote the author William Gibson: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”  It would seem that what has worked for "Idol" voters for so many years still, in fact, works.

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “American Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted "Idol" strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute.  A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Bob Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol': Fallen Idol Syesha Mercado says good-bye

"I'm like a black Christina Aguilera-slash-Alicia Keys," explained Syesha Mercado, without so much as a chuckle, during a conference call with the media this morning. It became clear over the course of the call that Syesha's unlikely success on "American Idol" was largely due to her vigorous self-confidence and unwavering work ethic. "People will know who I am," insisted the fallen Idol. 

Syesha was quick to attribute some of her strength to her father's battle with substance abuse. "The past has a lot to do with the type of person you are," she mused. "I'm gonna make him proud so that he wants to make me proud."  She said this statement more than once throughout the call, as if in gentle warning to her recovering father. "It's just a beautiful story to tell," Syesha later said, adding: "One day I'll tell it. In a book." 

But penning her memoirs is hardly the only thing on Syesha's mind. She also wants to act on Broadway, perhaps in "The Color Purple," star in a film, release an album, open an organic restaurant and more.  (Seriously, I couldn't type fast enough to keep up.)  Syesha rattled off this list with conviction, as though there was nothing remotely daunting about it. 

And it was that whole-hearted faith in her own potential that shot Syesha, against all odds, into the Final Three. "I never packed my bags," she said simply. She didn't want to leave yet, she explained, so why would she pack her bags?

But Syesha's confidence finally faltered after her performance Tuesday. "I was like, 'It's over,'" she recalled. "I got too many bad comments from the judges to keep me there." And because Syesha rarely says anything negative or impolite, it was surprising to hear her question the producers' choice for her on Tuesday: a song from "Happy Feet." "I think my nieces and nephews liked it," Syesha remarked suggestively, adding "It's not like I could change it, so I had to try to make the best of it."  When a reporter remarked that it wasn't really a "singer's song," Syesha agreed.  "No," she said, "it really wasn’t."

But soon enough she was back to her sunny old self. And although Syesha Mercado's favorite subject seemed to be Syesha Mercado, when the conversation turned to the two Davids, David Cook and David Archuleta, she obliged.  "I feel like I'm a little sister and a big sister with both the Davids," she said.  When asked what the Davids said to her after she got booted Wednesday, however, Syesha maintained that she didn't remember. Then, she added: "It's not the end of the road. They were happy for me. Just letting me know they cared. Giving me hugs."

And as the interview drew to its necessary close, Syesha left us on a characteristically high note. "I'm just ready to take on the world!" she exclaimed. "I am so ready!"

-- Stephanie Lysaght

Photo courtesy of Fox

When "American Idol" returns for its eighth season in January, it will still be a singing competition. But get ready for some significant changes in terms of how the show is produced.

Acknowledging that he's not pleased with the performance of the show this year, Fox Chairman Peter Liguori told reporters during a conference call Thursday that he has met with the show’s producers and “everyone is really committed and excited” to revamp the show next year.

“Both the network and the producers really want to take a look at  the show for next year and see what we can to do inject it with new levels of energy and new unpredictable twists and turns and ramp up the storytelling,” Liguori said.  “We do constantly want to make this show the most relevant, zeitgeisty show on TV to keep it on the tips of everyone’s tongue.”

Liguori said the writers strike is partly to blame for the show’s ratings declines. 

“We think the show has somewhat suffered from the post-strike malaise of folks watching less broadcast TV,” he said.

Asked whether the cast was also responsible for viewers turning away, President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly replied:

“Let’s put it in some context. ...It’s not like it’s in the death throes here,” he said. “There’s some real charm in that cast. Whether it’s caught the world on fire, I don’t know. Some of it is just natural maturity of the show. It’s been a phenomenon, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t go through some natural aging just like any other show. We’ll do some of those creative twists next season, and we’ll see what comes out of it."

Liguori also said that the Wednesday results show will, at least on most weeks, go back to a half-hour. One thing that won’t change: the people sitting at the judges table.

“We love Paula,” Liguori said, responding to a question. “She’s coming back.”

-- Maria Elena Fernandez

Wednesday night, the final night in the Idoldome, saw at last the journey reach its irreducible core.  After all the ups and downs, what the season was about was what it had seemed to be, what many hoped it would be for these last weeks –- the battle of the Davids, David Cook vs. David Archuleta.  Syesha Mercado, having dodged so many bullets for so long, was finally dispatched at the very respectable No. 3 slot on a night as tear-jerking as any the show has yet produced.

There are two crucial episodes in each "American Idol" season. The first is the Green Mile --  the show at the end of Hollywood Week in which the remaining 50-some aspirants learn one by one if they have been accepted into the Top 24, an entire episode of pure razor’s edge dramatic tension as each is hurled to the entertainment heavens or plunged forever into the abyss of anonymity.

The second crucial episode is the one in which the surviving Final Three return to their hometowns; the triumphal marches showcase in stark tear-jerking Technicolor the noblest heights of the "Idol"  phenomenon. Here is where it sinks in that a mere four months ago, Archuleta, Mercado and Cook were, in fact, a high school student, an aspiring actress and a bartender, and now, they go back home for the first time, their lives utterly and irrevocably changed.

Sometimes, things turn out just like you thought they would. That new program manager you thought was flirting with you over at the water cooler asks you out. You cut out carbs and lose 5 pounds. Keeping the Tater Mitts gloves you bought after watching that infomercial and treating Mom to a pedicure instead guarantees you a happier Mother's Day. And the two "American Idol" finalists everyone was betting on, at least since the moody and glorious Carly Smithson felt the blade a month ago, are indeed battling for the crown next week.

David Archuleta and David Cook -- the clean teen versus the Bed Head by TIGI-coiffed rocker -- should make for a final round marked by big notes and bitten lips. Both young fellows looked kinda sick after learning they'd be going on, in contrast to departing Syesha Mercado, who kept her Miss World smile frozen in place as she delivered yet another pitch-perfect, stylish performance, reprising "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys.

In her hometown visit, her dad bravely reminded the world that he'd struggled with drugs and alcohol, and suddenly, we all remembered -- Syesha's not part-robot because she's evil, but because she's been holding it together as her family's struggled for God knows how long.

Leading to what will probably be the most closely fought final in the its history, "American Idol" winnowed its field to two after ousting jazzy singer Syesha Mercado on the Wednesday results show.

Mercado had struggled through much of the season -- occupying a seemingly permanent berth in the bottom tier -- before finally surging in the final weeks and outlasting all her 12 fellow female contestants. In the last month, she seemed to find her voice, however, performing jazzy, Broadway-esque songs that accentuated her light touch. 

However, in this week's final-three performance show, she struggled to keep pace with alternative rocker David Cook and 17-year-old sensation David Archuleta. In particular, her rendition of the sultry standard "Fever" left the judges cold. Simon Cowell even termed it bad cabaret.

Mercado was ousted in a week in which more than 56 million votes were cast to choose the finalists. The show also featured tear-jerking video packages of the remaining contestants' journeys home, where they all were met by massive crowds.

With two finalists each drawing on massive popular support, next week's finals could be the closest race for the crown in the show's history. Archuleta has become a 'tween phenomenon this season, with his soulful renditions of ballads and giggling, youthful manner. Cook has surged in the last six weeks, rising from the lower ranks of most predictions and winning over fans with his dramatic alternative-rock takes on popular songs.

Check back later for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield

Photo: Fox

Just two months ago, 12 strangers stepped onto this stage, bearing the weight of a multigazillion-dollar entertainment powerhouse on their collective shoulders. Eight weeks later, the crowd Tuesday in the Idoldome was no longer swooning for mere firmaments in the franchise’s galaxy, but as the fans of three individuals who have sung through fire and earned their places among "Idol" immortals. 

Ultimately, what was quantified by this column as the most talented season in "Idol" history, has produced a Final Three worthy of the name, and three individuals worthy to stand with the Final Three of any season. Along the way, giants have fallen; the losses of Michael Johns and of the greatest performer in "Idol" history (also the most electrifying), Carly Smithson, still sting. And the lights still shine bright from the supporting cast -- Chikezie Eze, Ramiele Malubay, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, David Hernandez, Brooke White and Amanda Overmyer, still with two months' hindsight, not a forgettable talent amongst them.

But ultimately from this chaos of unknown talents, three singers, David Cook, Syesha Mercado and The Chosen One, David Archuleta, emerged from the thickets hardened, weary but determined, the youthful bloom of Hollywood Week long gone, but in its place the calm that comes only from hard-won experience (except for Archuleta, who seems as nervous and giggly as the day he stepped on this stage.) 

The pressures of life in the "Idol" contestant ranks at these exalted heights are incomparable. This week alone, the survivors were forced to master and make their own three songs (two of which were foisted upon them) while dealing with wardrobe, photo shoots, gala trips home, studio sessions, Ford commercials –- all of which comes at the end of two months of nonstop labor in a bubble isolated from their family, friends and home. And while all performances were not perhaps equal on Tuesday night, all rose to this challenge and performed, at worst, decently.

In the climactic moments of what should have been a thrill-inducing semifinal, the three most dutiful finalists ever to dominate "American Idol" fulfilled homeroom teacher Ryan Seacrest's opening descriptions so perfectly, one suspected the producers had slipped in animatronic replacements for the nervous wrecks we've seen the last couple of weeks.

Not that Seacrest's tags were that creative. He called David Archuleta "a high school student," Syesha Mercado "an actress," and David Cook "a bartender" -- that last one got a mortified guffaw from the Missouri rocker. But in a show devoted to song choices from the judges, the producers and the contestants themselves, the singers' most memorable performances mined the truth behind these simple labels.

Taking on Chris Brown's languidly anthemic "With You" as his personal song selection, Archuleta wobbled his hips like a duckling learning to mate and grinned with the glee of someone surprising himself. It was his least comfortable performance in weeks, full of vocal stumbles, and he did seem silly uttering the phrase "my boo" (It's an Afro-Caribbean term, popular in hip-hop songs, and our Mormon favorite is just not fly enough to pull it off.) But the song's awkward movements gave us something more important than his other two spot-on ballads could offer: a glimpse at a Pinocchio letting himself become a real boy, made of something other than beautifully polished wood.

That quick glimpse into the heart of goofy Archie -- who actually sees the girls screaming at his feet, and wants to touch their outstretched hands, and even steal a glance at one or two -- exposed a side different than this baby trouper projects when he's playing the balladeer. Chastised by the judges, Archuleta retreated behind his grown-up mask for his next number, a rigorously sincere version of Dan Fogelberg's wedding song, "Longer."

When “American Idol” sneezes, American culture catches pneumonia. Across the Internet, beside the water coolers, on magazine covers and morning news chat shows, every inch of each week’s show is subjected to scrutiny worthy of an International Atomic Energy Agency spot inspection team. Every misstep comes under the remorseless spotlight of America’s pundit army.

And of all the iffy decisions each contestant makes, none –- not picking a terrible song, forgetting a lyric or flubbing an interview segment –- is as likely to earn a singer the collective wrath of the nation as a bad fashion choice. “Pitchy” singing can be forgiven. Skeletons from one’s past are gladly shoved back in the closet. But if you are a 17-year-old singer with a reputation more wholesome than Betty Crocker's, as David Archuleta's is, and you step on stage in leather pants, neither God nor man nor the Fox network can save you.

Who’s riding this bronco? As it turns out, it’s one thin, dapper, soft-spoken Brit by the name of Miles Siggins. Having emerged from the U.K. punk scene, launched the Stussy line and worked to dress some of the giants of music before joining “American Idol” in its second season, Siggins still finds himself somewhat unprepared for the intensity of the microscope he lives under today, as the show’s chief stylist.

Asked about the above leather pants incident, he took a deep breath and emitted a rueful chuckle.
“They weren’t leather pants, believe it or not,” he said. “They were like kind of a shiny wool .... I didn’t think they were going to be quite as shiny on camera. And when I saw them in dress rehearsal, I was like, oh, my God, Simon [Cowell] is going to flog me.”

Over the past few months, there has been no shortage of rumors about Jason Castro. Did he mouth the words “don’t vote” after his performance last week?  Did he forget the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man” on purpose?  Of course not.  And during a conference call with the media this morning, the fallen Idol was quick to clear up any misconceptions about his behavior on "American Idol." The lyric from “Mr. Tambourine Man” is “something that’s like written on your soul,” marveled Jason, “and somehow it slipped my mind.”

When the contestants began to perform two songs each week instead of one, things got rough for Jason.  “My mind was just split, and I couldn’t deliver either-or,” he admitted, citing his lack of experience as one reason why learning two songs a week was so difficult. “I just started playing guitar my freshman year of college and started singing shortly thereafter. I’d never even learn a song all the way through.”  Needless to say, if learning one song "all the way through" was too much for Jason, learning two songs every week was near impossible. “I couldn’t fall in love with [two songs in one week]," he added. "You need time for that.”

And although in the end Jason’s inexperience may have been his undoing, it was also the thing that made him so endearing.  “I am kinda as raw as it gets, and I haven’t done much of anything singing-wise, and maybe that’s good on TV,” mused Jason. “I dunno.”

So was Jason as relieved as he looked when he finally got eliminated Wednesday night?  “I was as happy last night as I was when I found out I’d made the top 24,” Jason confessed, adding, “How am I gonna do three songs when I cant even do two right?”

When the conversation inevitably turned to Paula Abdul accidentally judging a song that Jason had not yet sang, Jason was amused. Whereas many in the blogosphere were convinced that the judges had it in for Jason and that Paula’s mistake affected Jason's second performance, Jason shot down that theory. “That was kinda funny,” he chuckled, recalling the incident. “I was just kinda confused. … I don’t know. It was an honest mistake. And I don’t think it really affected my next performance.” 

And just so you know, if Jason had stayed next week, he would have sung “Blue Eyes” by the Cary Brothers. “That one would have been good,” he proclaimed with a laugh, adding, “I don’t know about the other two.”

But even though he won't get to perform “Blue Eyes,” Jason doesn’t seem too upset. “I just miss home,” he confessed.  “I kinda miss working in the summers with my dad. … We design and build custom swimming pools. … I’d survey lots and clean pools and stuff.”

And when this overnight celebrity tells you that he misses cleaning “pools and stuff,” you can’t help but love him. Jason has managed to stay incomprehensibly grounded throughout the competition, largely thanks to his disinterest in what reporters like yours truly have to say about him. “I really don’t read anything, like everything y’all are probably 'bout to write,” he confessed with a chuckle.   

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And now, at last, the final lap. In the Idoldome on Wednesday night, where the faithful gathered for the ritual execution of Jason Castro, the room seemed dominated by an unstable mixture of euphoria and exhaustion as we enter the last phases before the anointing at the Nokia in a mere two weeks' time.   

From what promised just three months ago to be the most sure and predictable of seasons, a final three has emerged that not a pundit alive would have prophesied.  That from the ashes of the promised Johns-Smithson-Archuleta clash should have emerged this group would have been unthinkable when the Top 24 appeared.  David Cook began this season seen as a derivative lightweight Daughtry, called charmless by Judge Cowell, given to sulking at negative reviews and snapping at the judges, he seemed destined for the briefest of also-ran candidacies. Syesha Mercado was a pretty face with a traditional style bound to disappear beneath the more contemporary and quirky pyrotechnics from Smithson, Amanda Overmyer, Brooke White, Ramiele Maluby and even, back when, Alaina Whitaker and Alexandrea Lushington. 

But here they are preparing for what promises to be, once we can get over the fact that it was not at all what we expected, a very strong final three.  Perhaps not quite on a level with Season Four’s Underwood/Bice/Solomon showdown, but on a par with Clarkson/Guarini/McKibbin and pound for pound, for my money, a mile ahead of Studdard/Aiken/Gracin, Barrino/DiGarmo/Trias, Hicks/McPhee/Yamin and inarguably more interesting than Sparks/Lewis/Doolittle.

The season’s greatest shock has to be the completely unforeseen endurance of Syesha Mercado.  Perpetual denizen of the bottom three, she dodged bullet after bullet, only really coming to life in the last few weeks and proving that a strong close  is everything.  Singing in an old-fashioned style of the type that for so long completely dominated "Idol," fading into a host of more contemporary performers, including one prodigy genetically engineered to drag  the show into its age of grace, Syesha seemed to have arrived at the Idoldome a couple years too late.  But to again quote the author William Gibson: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”  It would seem that what has worked for "Idol" voters for so many years still, in fact, works.

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “American Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted "Idol" strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute.  A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Bob Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

Upfronts: A new and improved 'American Idol'?

When "American Idol" returns for its eighth season in January, it will still be a singing competition. But get ready for some significant changes in terms of how the show is produced.

Acknowledging that he's not pleased with the performance of the show this year, Fox Chairman Peter Liguori told reporters during a conference call Thursday that he has met with the show’s producers and “everyone is really committed and excited” to revamp the show next year.

“Both the network and the producers really want to take a look at  the show for next year and see what we can to do inject it with new levels of energy and new unpredictable twists and turns and ramp up the storytelling,” Liguori said.  “We do constantly want to make this show the most relevant, zeitgeisty show on TV to keep it on the tips of everyone’s tongue.”

Liguori said the writers strike is partly to blame for the show’s ratings declines. 

“We think the show has somewhat suffered from the post-strike malaise of folks watching less broadcast TV,” he said.

Asked whether the cast was also responsible for viewers turning away, President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly replied:

“Let’s put it in some context. ...It’s not like it’s in the death throes here,” he said. “There’s some real charm in that cast. Whether it’s caught the world on fire, I don’t know. Some of it is just natural maturity of the show. It’s been a phenomenon, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t go through some natural aging just like any other show. We’ll do some of those creative twists next season, and we’ll see what comes out of it."

Liguori also said that the Wednesday results show will, at least on most weeks, go back to a half-hour. One thing that won’t change: the people sitting at the judges table.

“We love Paula,” Liguori said, responding to a question. “She’s coming back.”

-- Maria Elena Fernandez

Wednesday night, the final night in the Idoldome, saw at last the journey reach its irreducible core.  After all the ups and downs, what the season was about was what it had seemed to be, what many hoped it would be for these last weeks –- the battle of the Davids, David Cook vs. David Archuleta.  Syesha Mercado, having dodged so many bullets for so long, was finally dispatched at the very respectable No. 3 slot on a night as tear-jerking as any the show has yet produced.

There are two crucial episodes in each "American Idol" season. The first is the Green Mile --  the show at the end of Hollywood Week in which the remaining 50-some aspirants learn one by one if they have been accepted into the Top 24, an entire episode of pure razor’s edge dramatic tension as each is hurled to the entertainment heavens or plunged forever into the abyss of anonymity.

The second crucial episode is the one in which the surviving Final Three return to their hometowns; the triumphal marches showcase in stark tear-jerking Technicolor the noblest heights of the "Idol"  phenomenon. Here is where it sinks in that a mere four months ago, Archuleta, Mercado and Cook were, in fact, a high school student, an aspiring actress and a bartender, and now, they go back home for the first time, their lives utterly and irrevocably changed.

Sometimes, things turn out just like you thought they would. That new program manager you thought was flirting with you over at the water cooler asks you out. You cut out carbs and lose 5 pounds. Keeping the Tater Mitts gloves you bought after watching that infomercial and treating Mom to a pedicure instead guarantees you a happier Mother's Day. And the two "American Idol" finalists everyone was betting on, at least since the moody and glorious Carly Smithson felt the blade a month ago, are indeed battling for the crown next week.

David Archuleta and David Cook -- the clean teen versus the Bed Head by TIGI-coiffed rocker -- should make for a final round marked by big notes and bitten lips. Both young fellows looked kinda sick after learning they'd be going on, in contrast to departing Syesha Mercado, who kept her Miss World smile frozen in place as she delivered yet another pitch-perfect, stylish performance, reprising "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys.

In her hometown visit, her dad bravely reminded the world that he'd struggled with drugs and alcohol, and suddenly, we all remembered -- Syesha's not part-robot because she's evil, but because she's been holding it together as her family's struggled for God knows how long.

Leading to what will probably be the most closely fought final in the its history, "American Idol" winnowed its field to two after ousting jazzy singer Syesha Mercado on the Wednesday results show.

Mercado had struggled through much of the season -- occupying a seemingly permanent berth in the bottom tier -- before finally surging in the final weeks and outlasting all her 12 fellow female contestants. In the last month, she seemed to find her voice, however, performing jazzy, Broadway-esque songs that accentuated her light touch. 

However, in this week's final-three performance show, she struggled to keep pace with alternative rocker David Cook and 17-year-old sensation David Archuleta. In particular, her rendition of the sultry standard "Fever" left the judges cold. Simon Cowell even termed it bad cabaret.

Mercado was ousted in a week in which more than 56 million votes were cast to choose the finalists. The show also featured tear-jerking video packages of the remaining contestants' journeys home, where they all were met by massive crowds.

With two finalists each drawing on massive popular support, next week's finals could be the closest race for the crown in the show's history. Archuleta has become a 'tween phenomenon this season, with his soulful renditions of ballads and giggling, youthful manner. Cook has surged in the last six weeks, rising from the lower ranks of most predictions and winning over fans with his dramatic alternative-rock takes on popular songs.

Check back later for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield

Photo: Fox

Just two months ago, 12 strangers stepped onto this stage, bearing the weight of a multigazillion-dollar entertainment powerhouse on their collective shoulders. Eight weeks later, the crowd Tuesday in the Idoldome was no longer swooning for mere firmaments in the franchise’s galaxy, but as the fans of three individuals who have sung through fire and earned their places among "Idol" immortals. 

Ultimately, what was quantified by this column as the most talented season in "Idol" history, has produced a Final Three worthy of the name, and three individuals worthy to stand with the Final Three of any season. Along the way, giants have fallen; the losses of Michael Johns and of the greatest performer in "Idol" history (also the most electrifying), Carly Smithson, still sting. And the lights still shine bright from the supporting cast -- Chikezie Eze, Ramiele Malubay, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, David Hernandez, Brooke White and Amanda Overmyer, still with two months' hindsight, not a forgettable talent amongst them.

But ultimately from this chaos of unknown talents, three singers, David Cook, Syesha Mercado and The Chosen One, David Archuleta, emerged from the thickets hardened, weary but determined, the youthful bloom of Hollywood Week long gone, but in its place the calm that comes only from hard-won experience (except for Archuleta, who seems as nervous and giggly as the day he stepped on this stage.) 

The pressures of life in the "Idol" contestant ranks at these exalted heights are incomparable. This week alone, the survivors were forced to master and make their own three songs (two of which were foisted upon them) while dealing with wardrobe, photo shoots, gala trips home, studio sessions, Ford commercials –- all of which comes at the end of two months of nonstop labor in a bubble isolated from their family, friends and home. And while all performances were not perhaps equal on Tuesday night, all rose to this challenge and performed, at worst, decently.

In the climactic moments of what should have been a thrill-inducing semifinal, the three most dutiful finalists ever to dominate "American Idol" fulfilled homeroom teacher Ryan Seacrest's opening descriptions so perfectly, one suspected the producers had slipped in animatronic replacements for the nervous wrecks we've seen the last couple of weeks.

Not that Seacrest's tags were that creative. He called David Archuleta "a high school student," Syesha Mercado "an actress," and David Cook "a bartender" -- that last one got a mortified guffaw from the Missouri rocker. But in a show devoted to song choices from the judges, the producers and the contestants themselves, the singers' most memorable performances mined the truth behind these simple labels.

Taking on Chris Brown's languidly anthemic "With You" as his personal song selection, Archuleta wobbled his hips like a duckling learning to mate and grinned with the glee of someone surprising himself. It was his least comfortable performance in weeks, full of vocal stumbles, and he did seem silly uttering the phrase "my boo" (It's an Afro-Caribbean term, popular in hip-hop songs, and our Mormon favorite is just not fly enough to pull it off.) But the song's awkward movements gave us something more important than his other two spot-on ballads could offer: a glimpse at a Pinocchio letting himself become a real boy, made of something other than beautifully polished wood.

That quick glimpse into the heart of goofy Archie -- who actually sees the girls screaming at his feet, and wants to touch their outstretched hands, and even steal a glance at one or two -- exposed a side different than this baby trouper projects when he's playing the balladeer. Chastised by the judges, Archuleta retreated behind his grown-up mask for his next number, a rigorously sincere version of Dan Fogelberg's wedding song, "Longer."

When “American Idol” sneezes, American culture catches pneumonia. Across the Internet, beside the water coolers, on magazine covers and morning news chat shows, every inch of each week’s show is subjected to scrutiny worthy of an International Atomic Energy Agency spot inspection team. Every misstep comes under the remorseless spotlight of America’s pundit army.

And of all the iffy decisions each contestant makes, none –- not picking a terrible song, forgetting a lyric or flubbing an interview segment –- is as likely to earn a singer the collective wrath of the nation as a bad fashion choice. “Pitchy” singing can be forgiven. Skeletons from one’s past are gladly shoved back in the closet. But if you are a 17-year-old singer with a reputation more wholesome than Betty Crocker's, as David Archuleta's is, and you step on stage in leather pants, neither God nor man nor the Fox network can save you.

Who’s riding this bronco? As it turns out, it’s one thin, dapper, soft-spoken Brit by the name of Miles Siggins. Having emerged from the U.K. punk scene, launched the Stussy line and worked to dress some of the giants of music before joining “American Idol” in its second season, Siggins still finds himself somewhat unprepared for the intensity of the microscope he lives under today, as the show’s chief stylist.

Asked about the above leather pants incident, he took a deep breath and emitted a rueful chuckle.
“They weren’t leather pants, believe it or not,” he said. “They were like kind of a shiny wool .... I didn’t think they were going to be quite as shiny on camera. And when I saw them in dress rehearsal, I was like, oh, my God, Simon [Cowell] is going to flog me.”

Over the past few months, there has been no shortage of rumors about Jason Castro. Did he mouth the words “don’t vote” after his performance last week?  Did he forget the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man” on purpose?  Of course not.  And during a conference call with the media this morning, the fallen Idol was quick to clear up any misconceptions about his behavior on "American Idol." The lyric from “Mr. Tambourine Man” is “something that’s like written on your soul,” marveled Jason, “and somehow it slipped my mind.”

When the contestants began to perform two songs each week instead of one, things got rough for Jason.  “My mind was just split, and I couldn’t deliver either-or,” he admitted, citing his lack of experience as one reason why learning two songs a week was so difficult. “I just started playing guitar my freshman year of college and started singing shortly thereafter. I’d never even learn a song all the way through.”  Needless to say, if learning one song "all the way through" was too much for Jason, learning two songs every week was near impossible. “I couldn’t fall in love with [two songs in one week]," he added. "You need time for that.”

And although in the end Jason’s inexperience may have been his undoing, it was also the thing that made him so endearing.  “I am kinda as raw as it gets, and I haven’t done much of anything singing-wise, and maybe that’s good on TV,” mused Jason. “I dunno.”

So was Jason as relieved as he looked when he finally got eliminated Wednesday night?  “I was as happy last night as I was when I found out I’d made the top 24,” Jason confessed, adding, “How am I gonna do three songs when I cant even do two right?”

When the conversation inevitably turned to Paula Abdul accidentally judging a song that Jason had not yet sang, Jason was amused. Whereas many in the blogosphere were convinced that the judges had it in for Jason and that Paula’s mistake affected Jason's second performance, Jason shot down that theory. “That was kinda funny,” he chuckled, recalling the incident. “I was just kinda confused. … I don’t know. It was an honest mistake. And I don’t think it really affected my next performance.” 

And just so you know, if Jason had stayed next week, he would have sung “Blue Eyes” by the Cary Brothers. “That one would have been good,” he proclaimed with a laugh, adding, “I don’t know about the other two.”

But even though he won't get to perform “Blue Eyes,” Jason doesn’t seem too upset. “I just miss home,” he confessed.  “I kinda miss working in the summers with my dad. … We design and build custom swimming pools. … I’d survey lots and clean pools and stuff.”

And when this overnight celebrity tells you that he misses cleaning “pools and stuff,” you can’t help but love him. Jason has managed to stay incomprehensibly grounded throughout the competition, largely thanks to his disinterest in what reporters like yours truly have to say about him. “I really don’t read anything, like everything y’all are probably 'bout to write,” he confessed with a chuckle.   

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And now, at last, the final lap. In the Idoldome on Wednesday night, where the faithful gathered for the ritual execution of Jason Castro, the room seemed dominated by an unstable mixture of euphoria and exhaustion as we enter the last phases before the anointing at the Nokia in a mere two weeks' time.   

From what promised just three months ago to be the most sure and predictable of seasons, a final three has emerged that not a pundit alive would have prophesied.  That from the ashes of the promised Johns-Smithson-Archuleta clash should have emerged this group would have been unthinkable when the Top 24 appeared.  David Cook began this season seen as a derivative lightweight Daughtry, called charmless by Judge Cowell, given to sulking at negative reviews and snapping at the judges, he seemed destined for the briefest of also-ran candidacies. Syesha Mercado was a pretty face with a traditional style bound to disappear beneath the more contemporary and quirky pyrotechnics from Smithson, Amanda Overmyer, Brooke White, Ramiele Maluby and even, back when, Alaina Whitaker and Alexandrea Lushington. 

But here they are preparing for what promises to be, once we can get over the fact that it was not at all what we expected, a very strong final three.  Perhaps not quite on a level with Season Four’s Underwood/Bice/Solomon showdown, but on a par with Clarkson/Guarini/McKibbin and pound for pound, for my money, a mile ahead of Studdard/Aiken/Gracin, Barrino/DiGarmo/Trias, Hicks/McPhee/Yamin and inarguably more interesting than Sparks/Lewis/Doolittle.

The season’s greatest shock has to be the completely unforeseen endurance of Syesha Mercado.  Perpetual denizen of the bottom three, she dodged bullet after bullet, only really coming to life in the last few weeks and proving that a strong close  is everything.  Singing in an old-fashioned style of the type that for so long completely dominated "Idol," fading into a host of more contemporary performers, including one prodigy genetically engineered to drag  the show into its age of grace, Syesha seemed to have arrived at the Idoldome a couple years too late.  But to again quote the author William Gibson: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”  It would seem that what has worked for "Idol" voters for so many years still, in fact, works.

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “American Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted "Idol" strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute.  A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Bob Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Tracker: Battle of the Davids

Wednesday night, the final night in the Idoldome, saw at last the journey reach its irreducible core.  After all the ups and downs, what the season was about was what it had seemed to be, what many hoped it would be for these last weeks –- the battle of the Davids, David Cook vs. David Archuleta.  Syesha Mercado, having dodged so many bullets for so long, was finally dispatched at the very respectable No. 3 slot on a night as tear-jerking as any the show has yet produced.

There are two crucial episodes in each "American Idol" season. The first is the Green Mile --  the show at the end of Hollywood Week in which the remaining 50-some aspirants learn one by one if they have been accepted into the Top 24, an entire episode of pure razor’s edge dramatic tension as each is hurled to the entertainment heavens or plunged forever into the abyss of anonymity.

The second crucial episode is the one in which the surviving Final Three return to their hometowns; the triumphal marches showcase in stark tear-jerking Technicolor the noblest heights of the "Idol"  phenomenon. Here is where it sinks in that a mere four months ago, Archuleta, Mercado and Cook were, in fact, a high school student, an aspiring actress and a bartender, and now, they go back home for the first time, their lives utterly and irrevocably changed.

Sometimes, things turn out just like you thought they would. That new program manager you thought was flirting with you over at the water cooler asks you out. You cut out carbs and lose 5 pounds. Keeping the Tater Mitts gloves you bought after watching that infomercial and treating Mom to a pedicure instead guarantees you a happier Mother's Day. And the two "American Idol" finalists everyone was betting on, at least since the moody and glorious Carly Smithson felt the blade a month ago, are indeed battling for the crown next week.

David Archuleta and David Cook -- the clean teen versus the Bed Head by TIGI-coiffed rocker -- should make for a final round marked by big notes and bitten lips. Both young fellows looked kinda sick after learning they'd be going on, in contrast to departing Syesha Mercado, who kept her Miss World smile frozen in place as she delivered yet another pitch-perfect, stylish performance, reprising "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys.

In her hometown visit, her dad bravely reminded the world that he'd struggled with drugs and alcohol, and suddenly, we all remembered -- Syesha's not part-robot because she's evil, but because she's been holding it together as her family's struggled for God knows how long.

Leading to what will probably be the most closely fought final in the its history, "American Idol" winnowed its field to two after ousting jazzy singer Syesha Mercado on the Wednesday results show.

Mercado had struggled through much of the season -- occupying a seemingly permanent berth in the bottom tier -- before finally surging in the final weeks and outlasting all her 12 fellow female contestants. In the last month, she seemed to find her voice, however, performing jazzy, Broadway-esque songs that accentuated her light touch. 

However, in this week's final-three performance show, she struggled to keep pace with alternative rocker David Cook and 17-year-old sensation David Archuleta. In particular, her rendition of the sultry standard "Fever" left the judges cold. Simon Cowell even termed it bad cabaret.

Mercado was ousted in a week in which more than 56 million votes were cast to choose the finalists. The show also featured tear-jerking video packages of the remaining contestants' journeys home, where they all were met by massive crowds.

With two finalists each drawing on massive popular support, next week's finals could be the closest race for the crown in the show's history. Archuleta has become a 'tween phenomenon this season, with his soulful renditions of ballads and giggling, youthful manner. Cook has surged in the last six weeks, rising from the lower ranks of most predictions and winning over fans with his dramatic alternative-rock takes on popular songs.

Check back later for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield

Photo: Fox

Just two months ago, 12 strangers stepped onto this stage, bearing the weight of a multigazillion-dollar entertainment powerhouse on their collective shoulders. Eight weeks later, the crowd Tuesday in the Idoldome was no longer swooning for mere firmaments in the franchise’s galaxy, but as the fans of three individuals who have sung through fire and earned their places among "Idol" immortals. 

Ultimately, what was quantified by this column as the most talented season in "Idol" history, has produced a Final Three worthy of the name, and three individuals worthy to stand with the Final Three of any season. Along the way, giants have fallen; the losses of Michael Johns and of the greatest performer in "Idol" history (also the most electrifying), Carly Smithson, still sting. And the lights still shine bright from the supporting cast -- Chikezie Eze, Ramiele Malubay, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, David Hernandez, Brooke White and Amanda Overmyer, still with two months' hindsight, not a forgettable talent amongst them.

But ultimately from this chaos of unknown talents, three singers, David Cook, Syesha Mercado and The Chosen One, David Archuleta, emerged from the thickets hardened, weary but determined, the youthful bloom of Hollywood Week long gone, but in its place the calm that comes only from hard-won experience (except for Archuleta, who seems as nervous and giggly as the day he stepped on this stage.) 

The pressures of life in the "Idol" contestant ranks at these exalted heights are incomparable. This week alone, the survivors were forced to master and make their own three songs (two of which were foisted upon them) while dealing with wardrobe, photo shoots, gala trips home, studio sessions, Ford commercials –- all of which comes at the end of two months of nonstop labor in a bubble isolated from their family, friends and home. And while all performances were not perhaps equal on Tuesday night, all rose to this challenge and performed, at worst, decently.

In the climactic moments of what should have been a thrill-inducing semifinal, the three most dutiful finalists ever to dominate "American Idol" fulfilled homeroom teacher Ryan Seacrest's opening descriptions so perfectly, one suspected the producers had slipped in animatronic replacements for the nervous wrecks we've seen the last couple of weeks.

Not that Seacrest's tags were that creative. He called David Archuleta "a high school student," Syesha Mercado "an actress," and David Cook "a bartender" -- that last one got a mortified guffaw from the Missouri rocker. But in a show devoted to song choices from the judges, the producers and the contestants themselves, the singers' most memorable performances mined the truth behind these simple labels.

Taking on Chris Brown's languidly anthemic "With You" as his personal song selection, Archuleta wobbled his hips like a duckling learning to mate and grinned with the glee of someone surprising himself. It was his least comfortable performance in weeks, full of vocal stumbles, and he did seem silly uttering the phrase "my boo" (It's an Afro-Caribbean term, popular in hip-hop songs, and our Mormon favorite is just not fly enough to pull it off.) But the song's awkward movements gave us something more important than his other two spot-on ballads could offer: a glimpse at a Pinocchio letting himself become a real boy, made of something other than beautifully polished wood.

That quick glimpse into the heart of goofy Archie -- who actually sees the girls screaming at his feet, and wants to touch their outstretched hands, and even steal a glance at one or two -- exposed a side different than this baby trouper projects when he's playing the balladeer. Chastised by the judges, Archuleta retreated behind his grown-up mask for his next number, a rigorously sincere version of Dan Fogelberg's wedding song, "Longer."

When “American Idol” sneezes, American culture catches pneumonia. Across the Internet, beside the water coolers, on magazine covers and morning news chat shows, every inch of each week’s show is subjected to scrutiny worthy of an International Atomic Energy Agency spot inspection team. Every misstep comes under the remorseless spotlight of America’s pundit army.

And of all the iffy decisions each contestant makes, none –- not picking a terrible song, forgetting a lyric or flubbing an interview segment –- is as likely to earn a singer the collective wrath of the nation as a bad fashion choice. “Pitchy” singing can be forgiven. Skeletons from one’s past are gladly shoved back in the closet. But if you are a 17-year-old singer with a reputation more wholesome than Betty Crocker's, as David Archuleta's is, and you step on stage in leather pants, neither God nor man nor the Fox network can save you.

Who’s riding this bronco? As it turns out, it’s one thin, dapper, soft-spoken Brit by the name of Miles Siggins. Having emerged from the U.K. punk scene, launched the Stussy line and worked to dress some of the giants of music before joining “American Idol” in its second season, Siggins still finds himself somewhat unprepared for the intensity of the microscope he lives under today, as the show’s chief stylist.

Asked about the above leather pants incident, he took a deep breath and emitted a rueful chuckle.
“They weren’t leather pants, believe it or not,” he said. “They were like kind of a shiny wool .... I didn’t think they were going to be quite as shiny on camera. And when I saw them in dress rehearsal, I was like, oh, my God, Simon [Cowell] is going to flog me.”

Over the past few months, there has been no shortage of rumors about Jason Castro. Did he mouth the words “don’t vote” after his performance last week?  Did he forget the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man” on purpose?  Of course not.  And during a conference call with the media this morning, the fallen Idol was quick to clear up any misconceptions about his behavior on "American Idol." The lyric from “Mr. Tambourine Man” is “something that’s like written on your soul,” marveled Jason, “and somehow it slipped my mind.”

When the contestants began to perform two songs each week instead of one, things got rough for Jason.  “My mind was just split, and I couldn’t deliver either-or,” he admitted, citing his lack of experience as one reason why learning two songs a week was so difficult. “I just started playing guitar my freshman year of college and started singing shortly thereafter. I’d never even learn a song all the way through.”  Needless to say, if learning one song "all the way through" was too much for Jason, learning two songs every week was near impossible. “I couldn’t fall in love with [two songs in one week]," he added. "You need time for that.”

And although in the end Jason’s inexperience may have been his undoing, it was also the thing that made him so endearing.  “I am kinda as raw as it gets, and I haven’t done much of anything singing-wise, and maybe that’s good on TV,” mused Jason. “I dunno.”

So was Jason as relieved as he looked when he finally got eliminated Wednesday night?  “I was as happy last night as I was when I found out I’d made the top 24,” Jason confessed, adding, “How am I gonna do three songs when I cant even do two right?”

When the conversation inevitably turned to Paula Abdul accidentally judging a song that Jason had not yet sang, Jason was amused. Whereas many in the blogosphere were convinced that the judges had it in for Jason and that Paula’s mistake affected Jason's second performance, Jason shot down that theory. “That was kinda funny,” he chuckled, recalling the incident. “I was just kinda confused. … I don’t know. It was an honest mistake. And I don’t think it really affected my next performance.” 

And just so you know, if Jason had stayed next week, he would have sung “Blue Eyes” by the Cary Brothers. “That one would have been good,” he proclaimed with a laugh, adding, “I don’t know about the other two.”

But even though he won't get to perform “Blue Eyes,” Jason doesn’t seem too upset. “I just miss home,” he confessed.  “I kinda miss working in the summers with my dad. … We design and build custom swimming pools. … I’d survey lots and clean pools and stuff.”

And when this overnight celebrity tells you that he misses cleaning “pools and stuff,” you can’t help but love him. Jason has managed to stay incomprehensibly grounded throughout the competition, largely thanks to his disinterest in what reporters like yours truly have to say about him. “I really don’t read anything, like everything y’all are probably 'bout to write,” he confessed with a chuckle.   

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And now, at last, the final lap. In the Idoldome on Wednesday night, where the faithful gathered for the ritual execution of Jason Castro, the room seemed dominated by an unstable mixture of euphoria and exhaustion as we enter the last phases before the anointing at the Nokia in a mere two weeks' time.   

From what promised just three months ago to be the most sure and predictable of seasons, a final three has emerged that not a pundit alive would have prophesied.  That from the ashes of the promised Johns-Smithson-Archuleta clash should have emerged this group would have been unthinkable when the Top 24 appeared.  David Cook began this season seen as a derivative lightweight Daughtry, called charmless by Judge Cowell, given to sulking at negative reviews and snapping at the judges, he seemed destined for the briefest of also-ran candidacies. Syesha Mercado was a pretty face with a traditional style bound to disappear beneath the more contemporary and quirky pyrotechnics from Smithson, Amanda Overmyer, Brooke White, Ramiele Maluby and even, back when, Alaina Whitaker and Alexandrea Lushington. 

But here they are preparing for what promises to be, once we can get over the fact that it was not at all what we expected, a very strong final three.  Perhaps not quite on a level with Season Four’s Underwood/Bice/Solomon showdown, but on a par with Clarkson/Guarini/McKibbin and pound for pound, for my money, a mile ahead of Studdard/Aiken/Gracin, Barrino/DiGarmo/Trias, Hicks/McPhee/Yamin and inarguably more interesting than Sparks/Lewis/Doolittle.

The season’s greatest shock has to be the completely unforeseen endurance of Syesha Mercado.  Perpetual denizen of the bottom three, she dodged bullet after bullet, only really coming to life in the last few weeks and proving that a strong close  is everything.  Singing in an old-fashioned style of the type that for so long completely dominated "Idol," fading into a host of more contemporary performers, including one prodigy genetically engineered to drag  the show into its age of grace, Syesha seemed to have arrived at the Idoldome a couple years too late.  But to again quote the author William Gibson: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”  It would seem that what has worked for "Idol" voters for so many years still, in fact, works.

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “American Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted "Idol" strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute.  A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Bob Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Banter: Sayonara, Syesha

Sometimes, things turn out just like you thought they would. That new program manager you thought was flirting with you over at the water cooler asks you out. You cut out carbs and lose 5 pounds. Keeping the Tater Mitts gloves you bought after watching that infomercial and treating Mom to a pedicure instead guarantees you a happier Mother's Day. And the two "American Idol" finalists everyone was betting on, at least since the moody and glorious Carly Smithson felt the blade a month ago, are indeed battling for the crown next week.

David Archuleta and David Cook -- the clean teen versus the Bed Head by TIGI-coiffed rocker -- should make for a final round marked by big notes and bitten lips. Both young fellows looked kinda sick after learning they'd be going on, in contrast to departing Syesha Mercado, who kept her Miss World smile frozen in place as she delivered yet another pitch-perfect, stylish performance, reprising "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys.

In her hometown visit, her dad bravely reminded the world that he'd struggled with drugs and alcohol, and suddenly, we all remembered -- Syesha's not part-robot because she's evil, but because she's been holding it together as her family's struggled for God knows how long.

Leading to what will probably be the most closely fought final in the its history, "American Idol" winnowed its field to two after ousting jazzy singer Syesha Mercado on the Wednesday results show.

Mercado had struggled through much of the season -- occupying a seemingly permanent berth in the bottom tier -- before finally surging in the final weeks and outlasting all her 12 fellow female contestants. In the last month, she seemed to find her voice, however, performing jazzy, Broadway-esque songs that accentuated her light touch. 

However, in this week's final-three performance show, she struggled to keep pace with alternative rocker David Cook and 17-year-old sensation David Archuleta. In particular, her rendition of the sultry standard "Fever" left the judges cold. Simon Cowell even termed it bad cabaret.

Mercado was ousted in a week in which more than 56 million votes were cast to choose the finalists. The show also featured tear-jerking video packages of the remaining contestants' journeys home, where they all were met by massive crowds.

With two finalists each drawing on massive popular support, next week's finals could be the closest race for the crown in the show's history. Archuleta has become a 'tween phenomenon this season, with his soulful renditions of ballads and giggling, youthful manner. Cook has surged in the last six weeks, rising from the lower ranks of most predictions and winning over fans with his dramatic alternative-rock takes on popular songs.

Check back later for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield

Photo: Fox

Just two months ago, 12 strangers stepped onto this stage, bearing the weight of a multigazillion-dollar entertainment powerhouse on their collective shoulders. Eight weeks later, the crowd Tuesday in the Idoldome was no longer swooning for mere firmaments in the franchise’s galaxy, but as the fans of three individuals who have sung through fire and earned their places among "Idol" immortals. 

Ultimately, what was quantified by this column as the most talented season in "Idol" history, has produced a Final Three worthy of the name, and three individuals worthy to stand with the Final Three of any season. Along the way, giants have fallen; the losses of Michael Johns and of the greatest performer in "Idol" history (also the most electrifying), Carly Smithson, still sting. And the lights still shine bright from the supporting cast -- Chikezie Eze, Ramiele Malubay, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, David Hernandez, Brooke White and Amanda Overmyer, still with two months' hindsight, not a forgettable talent amongst them.

But ultimately from this chaos of unknown talents, three singers, David Cook, Syesha Mercado and The Chosen One, David Archuleta, emerged from the thickets hardened, weary but determined, the youthful bloom of Hollywood Week long gone, but in its place the calm that comes only from hard-won experience (except for Archuleta, who seems as nervous and giggly as the day he stepped on this stage.) 

The pressures of life in the "Idol" contestant ranks at these exalted heights are incomparable. This week alone, the survivors were forced to master and make their own three songs (two of which were foisted upon them) while dealing with wardrobe, photo shoots, gala trips home, studio sessions, Ford commercials –- all of which comes at the end of two months of nonstop labor in a bubble isolated from their family, friends and home. And while all performances were not perhaps equal on Tuesday night, all rose to this challenge and performed, at worst, decently.

In the climactic moments of what should have been a thrill-inducing semifinal, the three most dutiful finalists ever to dominate "American Idol" fulfilled homeroom teacher Ryan Seacrest's opening descriptions so perfectly, one suspected the producers had slipped in animatronic replacements for the nervous wrecks we've seen the last couple of weeks.

Not that Seacrest's tags were that creative. He called David Archuleta "a high school student," Syesha Mercado "an actress," and David Cook "a bartender" -- that last one got a mortified guffaw from the Missouri rocker. But in a show devoted to song choices from the judges, the producers and the contestants themselves, the singers' most memorable performances mined the truth behind these simple labels.

Taking on Chris Brown's languidly anthemic "With You" as his personal song selection, Archuleta wobbled his hips like a duckling learning to mate and grinned with the glee of someone surprising himself. It was his least comfortable performance in weeks, full of vocal stumbles, and he did seem silly uttering the phrase "my boo" (It's an Afro-Caribbean term, popular in hip-hop songs, and our Mormon favorite is just not fly enough to pull it off.) But the song's awkward movements gave us something more important than his other two spot-on ballads could offer: a glimpse at a Pinocchio letting himself become a real boy, made of something other than beautifully polished wood.

That quick glimpse into the heart of goofy Archie -- who actually sees the girls screaming at his feet, and wants to touch their outstretched hands, and even steal a glance at one or two -- exposed a side different than this baby trouper projects when he's playing the balladeer. Chastised by the judges, Archuleta retreated behind his grown-up mask for his next number, a rigorously sincere version of Dan Fogelberg's wedding song, "Longer."

When “American Idol” sneezes, American culture catches pneumonia. Across the Internet, beside the water coolers, on magazine covers and morning news chat shows, every inch of each week’s show is subjected to scrutiny worthy of an International Atomic Energy Agency spot inspection team. Every misstep comes under the remorseless spotlight of America’s pundit army.

And of all the iffy decisions each contestant makes, none –- not picking a terrible song, forgetting a lyric or flubbing an interview segment –- is as likely to earn a singer the collective wrath of the nation as a bad fashion choice. “Pitchy” singing can be forgiven. Skeletons from one’s past are gladly shoved back in the closet. But if you are a 17-year-old singer with a reputation more wholesome than Betty Crocker's, as David Archuleta's is, and you step on stage in leather pants, neither God nor man nor the Fox network can save you.

Who’s riding this bronco? As it turns out, it’s one thin, dapper, soft-spoken Brit by the name of Miles Siggins. Having emerged from the U.K. punk scene, launched the Stussy line and worked to dress some of the giants of music before joining “American Idol” in its second season, Siggins still finds himself somewhat unprepared for the intensity of the microscope he lives under today, as the show’s chief stylist.

Asked about the above leather pants incident, he took a deep breath and emitted a rueful chuckle.
“They weren’t leather pants, believe it or not,” he said. “They were like kind of a shiny wool .... I didn’t think they were going to be quite as shiny on camera. And when I saw them in dress rehearsal, I was like, oh, my God, Simon [Cowell] is going to flog me.”

Over the past few months, there has been no shortage of rumors about Jason Castro. Did he mouth the words “don’t vote” after his performance last week?  Did he forget the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man” on purpose?  Of course not.  And during a conference call with the media this morning, the fallen Idol was quick to clear up any misconceptions about his behavior on "American Idol." The lyric from “Mr. Tambourine Man” is “something that’s like written on your soul,” marveled Jason, “and somehow it slipped my mind.”

When the contestants began to perform two songs each week instead of one, things got rough for Jason.  “My mind was just split, and I couldn’t deliver either-or,” he admitted, citing his lack of experience as one reason why learning two songs a week was so difficult. “I just started playing guitar my freshman year of college and started singing shortly thereafter. I’d never even learn a song all the way through.”  Needless to say, if learning one song "all the way through" was too much for Jason, learning two songs every week was near impossible. “I couldn’t fall in love with [two songs in one week]," he added. "You need time for that.”

And although in the end Jason’s inexperience may have been his undoing, it was also the thing that made him so endearing.  “I am kinda as raw as it gets, and I haven’t done much of anything singing-wise, and maybe that’s good on TV,” mused Jason. “I dunno.”

So was Jason as relieved as he looked when he finally got eliminated Wednesday night?  “I was as happy last night as I was when I found out I’d made the top 24,” Jason confessed, adding, “How am I gonna do three songs when I cant even do two right?”

When the conversation inevitably turned to Paula Abdul accidentally judging a song that Jason had not yet sang, Jason was amused. Whereas many in the blogosphere were convinced that the judges had it in for Jason and that Paula’s mistake affected Jason's second performance, Jason shot down that theory. “That was kinda funny,” he chuckled, recalling the incident. “I was just kinda confused. … I don’t know. It was an honest mistake. And I don’t think it really affected my next performance.” 

And just so you know, if Jason had stayed next week, he would have sung “Blue Eyes” by the Cary Brothers. “That one would have been good,” he proclaimed with a laugh, adding, “I don’t know about the other two.”

But even though he won't get to perform “Blue Eyes,” Jason doesn’t seem too upset. “I just miss home,” he confessed.  “I kinda miss working in the summers with my dad. … We design and build custom swimming pools. … I’d survey lots and clean pools and stuff.”

And when this overnight celebrity tells you that he misses cleaning “pools and stuff,” you can’t help but love him. Jason has managed to stay incomprehensibly grounded throughout the competition, largely thanks to his disinterest in what reporters like yours truly have to say about him. “I really don’t read anything, like everything y’all are probably 'bout to write,” he confessed with a chuckle.   

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And now, at last, the final lap. In the Idoldome on Wednesday night, where the faithful gathered for the ritual execution of Jason Castro, the room seemed dominated by an unstable mixture of euphoria and exhaustion as we enter the last phases before the anointing at the Nokia in a mere two weeks' time.   

From what promised just three months ago to be the most sure and predictable of seasons, a final three has emerged that not a pundit alive would have prophesied.  That from the ashes of the promised Johns-Smithson-Archuleta clash should have emerged this group would have been unthinkable when the Top 24 appeared.  David Cook began this season seen as a derivative lightweight Daughtry, called charmless by Judge Cowell, given to sulking at negative reviews and snapping at the judges, he seemed destined for the briefest of also-ran candidacies. Syesha Mercado was a pretty face with a traditional style bound to disappear beneath the more contemporary and quirky pyrotechnics from Smithson, Amanda Overmyer, Brooke White, Ramiele Maluby and even, back when, Alaina Whitaker and Alexandrea Lushington. 

But here they are preparing for what promises to be, once we can get over the fact that it was not at all what we expected, a very strong final three.  Perhaps not quite on a level with Season Four’s Underwood/Bice/Solomon showdown, but on a par with Clarkson/Guarini/McKibbin and pound for pound, for my money, a mile ahead of Studdard/Aiken/Gracin, Barrino/DiGarmo/Trias, Hicks/McPhee/Yamin and inarguably more interesting than Sparks/Lewis/Doolittle.

The season’s greatest shock has to be the completely unforeseen endurance of Syesha Mercado.  Perpetual denizen of the bottom three, she dodged bullet after bullet, only really coming to life in the last few weeks and proving that a strong close  is everything.  Singing in an old-fashioned style of the type that for so long completely dominated "Idol," fading into a host of more contemporary performers, including one prodigy genetically engineered to drag  the show into its age of grace, Syesha seemed to have arrived at the Idoldome a couple years too late.  But to again quote the author William Gibson: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”  It would seem that what has worked for "Idol" voters for so many years still, in fact, works.

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “American Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted "Idol" strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute.  A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Bob Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

SPOILER ALERT: 'American Idol': Syesha Mercado ousted as the field is down to two

Leading to what will probably be the most closely fought final in the its history, "American Idol" winnowed its field to two after ousting jazzy singer Syesha Mercado on the Wednesday results show.

Mercado had struggled through much of the season -- occupying a seemingly permanent berth in the bottom tier -- before finally surging in the final weeks and outlasting all her 12 fellow female contestants. In the last month, she seemed to find her voice, however, performing jazzy, Broadway-esque songs that accentuated her light touch. 

However, in this week's final-three performance show, she struggled to keep pace with alternative rocker David Cook and 17-year-old sensation David Archuleta. In particular, her rendition of the sultry standard "Fever" left the judges cold. Simon Cowell even termed it bad cabaret.

Mercado was ousted in a week in which more than 56 million votes were cast to choose the finalists. The show also featured tear-jerking video packages of the remaining contestants' journeys home, where they all were met by massive crowds.

With two finalists each drawing on massive popular support, next week's finals could be the closest race for the crown in the show's history. Archuleta has become a 'tween phenomenon this season, with his soulful renditions of ballads and giggling, youthful manner. Cook has surged in the last six weeks, rising from the lower ranks of most predictions and winning over fans with his dramatic alternative-rock takes on popular songs.

Check back later for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield

Photo: Fox

Just two months ago, 12 strangers stepped onto this stage, bearing the weight of a multigazillion-dollar entertainment powerhouse on their collective shoulders. Eight weeks later, the crowd Tuesday in the Idoldome was no longer swooning for mere firmaments in the franchise’s galaxy, but as the fans of three individuals who have sung through fire and earned their places among "Idol" immortals. 

Ultimately, what was quantified by this column as the most talented season in "Idol" history, has produced a Final Three worthy of the name, and three individuals worthy to stand with the Final Three of any season. Along the way, giants have fallen; the losses of Michael Johns and of the greatest performer in "Idol" history (also the most electrifying), Carly Smithson, still sting. And the lights still shine bright from the supporting cast -- Chikezie Eze, Ramiele Malubay, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, David Hernandez, Brooke White and Amanda Overmyer, still with two months' hindsight, not a forgettable talent amongst them.

But ultimately from this chaos of unknown talents, three singers, David Cook, Syesha Mercado and The Chosen One, David Archuleta, emerged from the thickets hardened, weary but determined, the youthful bloom of Hollywood Week long gone, but in its place the calm that comes only from hard-won experience (except for Archuleta, who seems as nervous and giggly as the day he stepped on this stage.) 

The pressures of life in the "Idol" contestant ranks at these exalted heights are incomparable. This week alone, the survivors were forced to master and make their own three songs (two of which were foisted upon them) while dealing with wardrobe, photo shoots, gala trips home, studio sessions, Ford commercials –- all of which comes at the end of two months of nonstop labor in a bubble isolated from their family, friends and home. And while all performances were not perhaps equal on Tuesday night, all rose to this challenge and performed, at worst, decently.

In the climactic moments of what should have been a thrill-inducing semifinal, the three most dutiful finalists ever to dominate "American Idol" fulfilled homeroom teacher Ryan Seacrest's opening descriptions so perfectly, one suspected the producers had slipped in animatronic replacements for the nervous wrecks we've seen the last couple of weeks.

Not that Seacrest's tags were that creative. He called David Archuleta "a high school student," Syesha Mercado "an actress," and David Cook "a bartender" -- that last one got a mortified guffaw from the Missouri rocker. But in a show devoted to song choices from the judges, the producers and the contestants themselves, the singers' most memorable performances mined the truth behind these simple labels.

Taking on Chris Brown's languidly anthemic "With You" as his personal song selection, Archuleta wobbled his hips like a duckling learning to mate and grinned with the glee of someone surprising himself. It was his least comfortable performance in weeks, full of vocal stumbles, and he did seem silly uttering the phrase "my boo" (It's an Afro-Caribbean term, popular in hip-hop songs, and our Mormon favorite is just not fly enough to pull it off.) But the song's awkward movements gave us something more important than his other two spot-on ballads could offer: a glimpse at a Pinocchio letting himself become a real boy, made of something other than beautifully polished wood.

That quick glimpse into the heart of goofy Archie -- who actually sees the girls screaming at his feet, and wants to touch their outstretched hands, and even steal a glance at one or two -- exposed a side different than this baby trouper projects when he's playing the balladeer. Chastised by the judges, Archuleta retreated behind his grown-up mask for his next number, a rigorously sincere version of Dan Fogelberg's wedding song, "Longer."

When “American Idol” sneezes, American culture catches pneumonia. Across the Internet, beside the water coolers, on magazine covers and morning news chat shows, every inch of each week’s show is subjected to scrutiny worthy of an International Atomic Energy Agency spot inspection team. Every misstep comes under the remorseless spotlight of America’s pundit army.

And of all the iffy decisions each contestant makes, none –- not picking a terrible song, forgetting a lyric or flubbing an interview segment –- is as likely to earn a singer the collective wrath of the nation as a bad fashion choice. “Pitchy” singing can be forgiven. Skeletons from one’s past are gladly shoved back in the closet. But if you are a 17-year-old singer with a reputation more wholesome than Betty Crocker's, as David Archuleta's is, and you step on stage in leather pants, neither God nor man nor the Fox network can save you.

Who’s riding this bronco? As it turns out, it’s one thin, dapper, soft-spoken Brit by the name of Miles Siggins. Having emerged from the U.K. punk scene, launched the Stussy line and worked to dress some of the giants of music before joining “American Idol” in its second season, Siggins still finds himself somewhat unprepared for the intensity of the microscope he lives under today, as the show’s chief stylist.

Asked about the above leather pants incident, he took a deep breath and emitted a rueful chuckle.
“They weren’t leather pants, believe it or not,” he said. “They were like kind of a shiny wool .... I didn’t think they were going to be quite as shiny on camera. And when I saw them in dress rehearsal, I was like, oh, my God, Simon [Cowell] is going to flog me.”

Over the past few months, there has been no shortage of rumors about Jason Castro. Did he mouth the words “don’t vote” after his performance last week?  Did he forget the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man” on purpose?  Of course not.  And during a conference call with the media this morning, the fallen Idol was quick to clear up any misconceptions about his behavior on "American Idol." The lyric from “Mr. Tambourine Man” is “something that’s like written on your soul,” marveled Jason, “and somehow it slipped my mind.”

When the contestants began to perform two songs each week instead of one, things got rough for Jason.  “My mind was just split, and I couldn’t deliver either-or,” he admitted, citing his lack of experience as one reason why learning two songs a week was so difficult. “I just started playing guitar my freshman year of college and started singing shortly thereafter. I’d never even learn a song all the way through.”  Needless to say, if learning one song "all the way through" was too much for Jason, learning two songs every week was near impossible. “I couldn’t fall in love with [two songs in one week]," he added. "You need time for that.”

And although in the end Jason’s inexperience may have been his undoing, it was also the thing that made him so endearing.  “I am kinda as raw as it gets, and I haven’t done much of anything singing-wise, and maybe that’s good on TV,” mused Jason. “I dunno.”

So was Jason as relieved as he looked when he finally got eliminated Wednesday night?  “I was as happy last night as I was when I found out I’d made the top 24,” Jason confessed, adding, “How am I gonna do three songs when I cant even do two right?”

When the conversation inevitably turned to Paula Abdul accidentally judging a song that Jason had not yet sang, Jason was amused. Whereas many in the blogosphere were convinced that the judges had it in for Jason and that Paula’s mistake affected Jason's second performance, Jason shot down that theory. “That was kinda funny,” he chuckled, recalling the incident. “I was just kinda confused. … I don’t know. It was an honest mistake. And I don’t think it really affected my next performance.” 

And just so you know, if Jason had stayed next week, he would have sung “Blue Eyes” by the Cary Brothers. “That one would have been good,” he proclaimed with a laugh, adding, “I don’t know about the other two.”

But even though he won't get to perform “Blue Eyes,” Jason doesn’t seem too upset. “I just miss home,” he confessed.  “I kinda miss working in the summers with my dad. … We design and build custom swimming pools. … I’d survey lots and clean pools and stuff.”

And when this overnight celebrity tells you that he misses cleaning “pools and stuff,” you can’t help but love him. Jason has managed to stay incomprehensibly grounded throughout the competition, largely thanks to his disinterest in what reporters like yours truly have to say about him. “I really don’t read anything, like everything y’all are probably 'bout to write,” he confessed with a chuckle.   

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And now, at last, the final lap. In the Idoldome on Wednesday night, where the faithful gathered for the ritual execution of Jason Castro, the room seemed dominated by an unstable mixture of euphoria and exhaustion as we enter the last phases before the anointing at the Nokia in a mere two weeks' time.   

From what promised just three months ago to be the most sure and predictable of seasons, a final three has emerged that not a pundit alive would have prophesied.  That from the ashes of the promised Johns-Smithson-Archuleta clash should have emerged this group would have been unthinkable when the Top 24 appeared.  David Cook began this season seen as a derivative lightweight Daughtry, called charmless by Judge Cowell, given to sulking at negative reviews and snapping at the judges, he seemed destined for the briefest of also-ran candidacies. Syesha Mercado was a pretty face with a traditional style bound to disappear beneath the more contemporary and quirky pyrotechnics from Smithson, Amanda Overmyer, Brooke White, Ramiele Maluby and even, back when, Alaina Whitaker and Alexandrea Lushington. 

But here they are preparing for what promises to be, once we can get over the fact that it was not at all what we expected, a very strong final three.  Perhaps not quite on a level with Season Four’s Underwood/Bice/Solomon showdown, but on a par with Clarkson/Guarini/McKibbin and pound for pound, for my money, a mile ahead of Studdard/Aiken/Gracin, Barrino/DiGarmo/Trias, Hicks/McPhee/Yamin and inarguably more interesting than Sparks/Lewis/Doolittle.

The season’s greatest shock has to be the completely unforeseen endurance of Syesha Mercado.  Perpetual denizen of the bottom three, she dodged bullet after bullet, only really coming to life in the last few weeks and proving that a strong close  is everything.  Singing in an old-fashioned style of the type that for so long completely dominated "Idol," fading into a host of more contemporary performers, including one prodigy genetically engineered to drag  the show into its age of grace, Syesha seemed to have arrived at the Idoldome a couple years too late.  But to again quote the author William Gibson: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”  It would seem that what has worked for "Idol" voters for so many years still, in fact, works.

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “American Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted "Idol" strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute.  A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Bob Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Tracker: Many roads to the Final Three

Just two months ago, 12 strangers stepped onto this stage, bearing the weight of a multigazillion-dollar entertainment powerhouse on their collective shoulders. Eight weeks later, the crowd Tuesday in the Idoldome was no longer swooning for mere firmaments in the franchise’s galaxy, but as the fans of three individuals who have sung through fire and earned their places among "Idol" immortals. 

Ultimately, what was quantified by this column as the most talented season in "Idol" history, has produced a Final Three worthy of the name, and three individuals worthy to stand with the Final Three of any season. Along the way, giants have fallen; the losses of Michael Johns and of the greatest performer in "Idol" history (also the most electrifying), Carly Smithson, still sting. And the lights still shine bright from the supporting cast -- Chikezie Eze, Ramiele Malubay, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, David Hernandez, Brooke White and Amanda Overmyer, still with two months' hindsight, not a forgettable talent amongst them.

But ultimately from this chaos of unknown talents, three singers, David Cook, Syesha Mercado and The Chosen One, David Archuleta, emerged from the thickets hardened, weary but determined, the youthful bloom of Hollywood Week long gone, but in its place the calm that comes only from hard-won experience (except for Archuleta, who seems as nervous and giggly as the day he stepped on this stage.) 

The pressures of life in the "Idol" contestant ranks at these exalted heights are incomparable. This week alone, the survivors were forced to master and make their own three songs (two of which were foisted upon them) while dealing with wardrobe, photo shoots, gala trips home, studio sessions, Ford commercials –- all of which comes at the end of two months of nonstop labor in a bubble isolated from their family, friends and home. And while all performances were not perhaps equal on Tuesday night, all rose to this challenge and performed, at worst, decently.

In the climactic moments of what should have been a thrill-inducing semifinal, the three most dutiful finalists ever to dominate "American Idol" fulfilled homeroom teacher Ryan Seacrest's opening descriptions so perfectly, one suspected the producers had slipped in animatronic replacements for the nervous wrecks we've seen the last couple of weeks.

Not that Seacrest's tags were that creative. He called David Archuleta "a high school student," Syesha Mercado "an actress," and David Cook "a bartender" -- that last one got a mortified guffaw from the Missouri rocker. But in a show devoted to song choices from the judges, the producers and the contestants themselves, the singers' most memorable performances mined the truth behind these simple labels.

Taking on Chris Brown's languidly anthemic "With You" as his personal song selection, Archuleta wobbled his hips like a duckling learning to mate and grinned with the glee of someone surprising himself. It was his least comfortable performance in weeks, full of vocal stumbles, and he did seem silly uttering the phrase "my boo" (It's an Afro-Caribbean term, popular in hip-hop songs, and our Mormon favorite is just not fly enough to pull it off.) But the song's awkward movements gave us something more important than his other two spot-on ballads could offer: a glimpse at a Pinocchio letting himself become a real boy, made of something other than beautifully polished wood.

That quick glimpse into the heart of goofy Archie -- who actually sees the girls screaming at his feet, and wants to touch their outstretched hands, and even steal a glance at one or two -- exposed a side different than this baby trouper projects when he's playing the balladeer. Chastised by the judges, Archuleta retreated behind his grown-up mask for his next number, a rigorously sincere version of Dan Fogelberg's wedding song, "Longer."

When “American Idol” sneezes, American culture catches pneumonia. Across the Internet, beside the water coolers, on magazine covers and morning news chat shows, every inch of each week’s show is subjected to scrutiny worthy of an International Atomic Energy Agency spot inspection team. Every misstep comes under the remorseless spotlight of America’s pundit army.

And of all the iffy decisions each contestant makes, none –- not picking a terrible song, forgetting a lyric or flubbing an interview segment –- is as likely to earn a singer the collective wrath of the nation as a bad fashion choice. “Pitchy” singing can be forgiven. Skeletons from one’s past are gladly shoved back in the closet. But if you are a 17-year-old singer with a reputation more wholesome than Betty Crocker's, as David Archuleta's is, and you step on stage in leather pants, neither God nor man nor the Fox network can save you.

Who’s riding this bronco? As it turns out, it’s one thin, dapper, soft-spoken Brit by the name of Miles Siggins. Having emerged from the U.K. punk scene, launched the Stussy line and worked to dress some of the giants of music before joining “American Idol” in its second season, Siggins still finds himself somewhat unprepared for the intensity of the microscope he lives under today, as the show’s chief stylist.

Asked about the above leather pants incident, he took a deep breath and emitted a rueful chuckle.
“They weren’t leather pants, believe it or not,” he said. “They were like kind of a shiny wool .... I didn’t think they were going to be quite as shiny on camera. And when I saw them in dress rehearsal, I was like, oh, my God, Simon [Cowell] is going to flog me.”

Over the past few months, there has been no shortage of rumors about Jason Castro. Did he mouth the words “don’t vote” after his performance last week?  Did he forget the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man” on purpose?  Of course not.  And during a conference call with the media this morning, the fallen Idol was quick to clear up any misconceptions about his behavior on "American Idol." The lyric from “Mr. Tambourine Man” is “something that’s like written on your soul,” marveled Jason, “and somehow it slipped my mind.”

When the contestants began to perform two songs each week instead of one, things got rough for Jason.  “My mind was just split, and I couldn’t deliver either-or,” he admitted, citing his lack of experience as one reason why learning two songs a week was so difficult. “I just started playing guitar my freshman year of college and started singing shortly thereafter. I’d never even learn a song all the way through.”  Needless to say, if learning one song "all the way through" was too much for Jason, learning two songs every week was near impossible. “I couldn’t fall in love with [two songs in one week]," he added. "You need time for that.”

And although in the end Jason’s inexperience may have been his undoing, it was also the thing that made him so endearing.  “I am kinda as raw as it gets, and I haven’t done much of anything singing-wise, and maybe that’s good on TV,” mused Jason. “I dunno.”

So was Jason as relieved as he looked when he finally got eliminated Wednesday night?  “I was as happy last night as I was when I found out I’d made the top 24,” Jason confessed, adding, “How am I gonna do three songs when I cant even do two right?”

When the conversation inevitably turned to Paula Abdul accidentally judging a song that Jason had not yet sang, Jason was amused. Whereas many in the blogosphere were convinced that the judges had it in for Jason and that Paula’s mistake affected Jason's second performance, Jason shot down that theory. “That was kinda funny,” he chuckled, recalling the incident. “I was just kinda confused. … I don’t know. It was an honest mistake. And I don’t think it really affected my next performance.” 

And just so you know, if Jason had stayed next week, he would have sung “Blue Eyes” by the Cary Brothers. “That one would have been good,” he proclaimed with a laugh, adding, “I don’t know about the other two.”

But even though he won't get to perform “Blue Eyes,” Jason doesn’t seem too upset. “I just miss home,” he confessed.  “I kinda miss working in the summers with my dad. … We design and build custom swimming pools. … I’d survey lots and clean pools and stuff.”

And when this overnight celebrity tells you that he misses cleaning “pools and stuff,” you can’t help but love him. Jason has managed to stay incomprehensibly grounded throughout the competition, largely thanks to his disinterest in what reporters like yours truly have to say about him. “I really don’t read anything, like everything y’all are probably 'bout to write,” he confessed with a chuckle.   

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And now, at last, the final lap. In the Idoldome on Wednesday night, where the faithful gathered for the ritual execution of Jason Castro, the room seemed dominated by an unstable mixture of euphoria and exhaustion as we enter the last phases before the anointing at the Nokia in a mere two weeks' time.   

From what promised just three months ago to be the most sure and predictable of seasons, a final three has emerged that not a pundit alive would have prophesied.  That from the ashes of the promised Johns-Smithson-Archuleta clash should have emerged this group would have been unthinkable when the Top 24 appeared.  David Cook began this season seen as a derivative lightweight Daughtry, called charmless by Judge Cowell, given to sulking at negative reviews and snapping at the judges, he seemed destined for the briefest of also-ran candidacies. Syesha Mercado was a pretty face with a traditional style bound to disappear beneath the more contemporary and quirky pyrotechnics from Smithson, Amanda Overmyer, Brooke White, Ramiele Maluby and even, back when, Alaina Whitaker and Alexandrea Lushington. 

But here they are preparing for what promises to be, once we can get over the fact that it was not at all what we expected, a very strong final three.  Perhaps not quite on a level with Season Four’s Underwood/Bice/Solomon showdown, but on a par with Clarkson/Guarini/McKibbin and pound for pound, for my money, a mile ahead of Studdard/Aiken/Gracin, Barrino/DiGarmo/Trias, Hicks/McPhee/Yamin and inarguably more interesting than Sparks/Lewis/Doolittle.

The season’s greatest shock has to be the completely unforeseen endurance of Syesha Mercado.  Perpetual denizen of the bottom three, she dodged bullet after bullet, only really coming to life in the last few weeks and proving that a strong close  is everything.  Singing in an old-fashioned style of the type that for so long completely dominated "Idol," fading into a host of more contemporary performers, including one prodigy genetically engineered to drag  the show into its age of grace, Syesha seemed to have arrived at the Idoldome a couple years too late.  But to again quote the author William Gibson: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”  It would seem that what has worked for "Idol" voters for so many years still, in fact, works.

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “American Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted "Idol" strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute.  A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Bob Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Banter: Who are they really?

In the climactic moments of what should have been a thrill-inducing semifinal, the three most dutiful finalists ever to dominate "American Idol" fulfilled homeroom teacher Ryan Seacrest's opening descriptions so perfectly, one suspected the producers had slipped in animatronic replacements for the nervous wrecks we've seen the last couple of weeks.

Not that Seacrest's tags were that creative. He called David Archuleta "a high school student," Syesha Mercado "an actress," and David Cook "a bartender" -- that last one got a mortified guffaw from the Missouri rocker. But in a show devoted to song choices from the judges, the producers and the contestants themselves, the singers' most memorable performances mined the truth behind these simple labels.

Taking on Chris Brown's languidly anthemic "With You" as his personal song selection, Archuleta wobbled his hips like a duckling learning to mate and grinned with the glee of someone surprising himself. It was his least comfortable performance in weeks, full of vocal stumbles, and he did seem silly uttering the phrase "my boo" (It's an Afro-Caribbean term, popular in hip-hop songs, and our Mormon favorite is just not fly enough to pull it off.) But the song's awkward movements gave us something more important than his other two spot-on ballads could offer: a glimpse at a Pinocchio letting himself become a real boy, made of something other than beautifully polished wood.

That quick glimpse into the heart of goofy Archie -- who actually sees the girls screaming at his feet, and wants to touch their outstretched hands, and even steal a glance at one or two -- exposed a side different than this baby trouper projects when he's playing the balladeer. Chastised by the judges, Archuleta retreated behind his grown-up mask for his next number, a rigorously sincere version of Dan Fogelberg's wedding song, "Longer."

When “American Idol” sneezes, American culture catches pneumonia. Across the Internet, beside the water coolers, on magazine covers and morning news chat shows, every inch of each week’s show is subjected to scrutiny worthy of an International Atomic Energy Agency spot inspection team. Every misstep comes under the remorseless spotlight of America’s pundit army.

And of all the iffy decisions each contestant makes, none –- not picking a terrible song, forgetting a lyric or flubbing an interview segment –- is as likely to earn a singer the collective wrath of the nation as a bad fashion choice. “Pitchy” singing can be forgiven. Skeletons from one’s past are gladly shoved back in the closet. But if you are a 17-year-old singer with a reputation more wholesome than Betty Crocker's, as David Archuleta's is, and you step on stage in leather pants, neither God nor man nor the Fox network can save you.

Who’s riding this bronco? As it turns out, it’s one thin, dapper, soft-spoken Brit by the name of Miles Siggins. Having emerged from the U.K. punk scene, launched the Stussy line and worked to dress some of the giants of music before joining “American Idol” in its second season, Siggins still finds himself somewhat unprepared for the intensity of the microscope he lives under today, as the show’s chief stylist.

Asked about the above leather pants incident, he took a deep breath and emitted a rueful chuckle.
“They weren’t leather pants, believe it or not,” he said. “They were like kind of a shiny wool .... I didn’t think they were going to be quite as shiny on camera. And when I saw them in dress rehearsal, I was like, oh, my God, Simon [Cowell] is going to flog me.”

Over the past few months, there has been no shortage of rumors about Jason Castro. Did he mouth the words “don’t vote” after his performance last week?  Did he forget the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man” on purpose?  Of course not.  And during a conference call with the media this morning, the fallen Idol was quick to clear up any misconceptions about his behavior on "American Idol." The lyric from “Mr. Tambourine Man” is “something that’s like written on your soul,” marveled Jason, “and somehow it slipped my mind.”

When the contestants began to perform two songs each week instead of one, things got rough for Jason.  “My mind was just split, and I couldn’t deliver either-or,” he admitted, citing his lack of experience as one reason why learning two songs a week was so difficult. “I just started playing guitar my freshman year of college and started singing shortly thereafter. I’d never even learn a song all the way through.”  Needless to say, if learning one song "all the way through" was too much for Jason, learning two songs every week was near impossible. “I couldn’t fall in love with [two songs in one week]," he added. "You need time for that.”

And although in the end Jason’s inexperience may have been his undoing, it was also the thing that made him so endearing.  “I am kinda as raw as it gets, and I haven’t done much of anything singing-wise, and maybe that’s good on TV,” mused Jason. “I dunno.”

So was Jason as relieved as he looked when he finally got eliminated Wednesday night?  “I was as happy last night as I was when I found out I’d made the top 24,” Jason confessed, adding, “How am I gonna do three songs when I cant even do two right?”

When the conversation inevitably turned to Paula Abdul accidentally judging a song that Jason had not yet sang, Jason was amused. Whereas many in the blogosphere were convinced that the judges had it in for Jason and that Paula’s mistake affected Jason's second performance, Jason shot down that theory. “That was kinda funny,” he chuckled, recalling the incident. “I was just kinda confused. … I don’t know. It was an honest mistake. And I don’t think it really affected my next performance.” 

And just so you know, if Jason had stayed next week, he would have sung “Blue Eyes” by the Cary Brothers. “That one would have been good,” he proclaimed with a laugh, adding, “I don’t know about the other two.”

But even though he won't get to perform “Blue Eyes,” Jason doesn’t seem too upset. “I just miss home,” he confessed.  “I kinda miss working in the summers with my dad. … We design and build custom swimming pools. … I’d survey lots and clean pools and stuff.”

And when this overnight celebrity tells you that he misses cleaning “pools and stuff,” you can’t help but love him. Jason has managed to stay incomprehensibly grounded throughout the competition, largely thanks to his disinterest in what reporters like yours truly have to say about him. “I really don’t read anything, like everything y’all are probably 'bout to write,” he confessed with a chuckle.   

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And now, at last, the final lap. In the Idoldome on Wednesday night, where the faithful gathered for the ritual execution of Jason Castro, the room seemed dominated by an unstable mixture of euphoria and exhaustion as we enter the last phases before the anointing at the Nokia in a mere two weeks' time.   

From what promised just three months ago to be the most sure and predictable of seasons, a final three has emerged that not a pundit alive would have prophesied.  That from the ashes of the promised Johns-Smithson-Archuleta clash should have emerged this group would have been unthinkable when the Top 24 appeared.  David Cook began this season seen as a derivative lightweight Daughtry, called charmless by Judge Cowell, given to sulking at negative reviews and snapping at the judges, he seemed destined for the briefest of also-ran candidacies. Syesha Mercado was a pretty face with a traditional style bound to disappear beneath the more contemporary and quirky pyrotechnics from Smithson, Amanda Overmyer, Brooke White, Ramiele Maluby and even, back when, Alaina Whitaker and Alexandrea Lushington. 

But here they are preparing for what promises to be, once we can get over the fact that it was not at all what we expected, a very strong final three.  Perhaps not quite on a level with Season Four’s Underwood/Bice/Solomon showdown, but on a par with Clarkson/Guarini/McKibbin and pound for pound, for my money, a mile ahead of Studdard/Aiken/Gracin, Barrino/DiGarmo/Trias, Hicks/McPhee/Yamin and inarguably more interesting than Sparks/Lewis/Doolittle.

The season’s greatest shock has to be the completely unforeseen endurance of Syesha Mercado.  Perpetual denizen of the bottom three, she dodged bullet after bullet, only really coming to life in the last few weeks and proving that a strong close  is everything.  Singing in an old-fashioned style of the type that for so long completely dominated "Idol," fading into a host of more contemporary performers, including one prodigy genetically engineered to drag  the show into its age of grace, Syesha seemed to have arrived at the Idoldome a couple years too late.  But to again quote the author William Gibson: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”  It would seem that what has worked for "Idol" voters for so many years still, in fact, works.

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “American Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted "Idol" strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute.  A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Bob Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

American Idol Tracker: Miles Siggins, 'Idol's' fashion police

When “American Idol” sneezes, American culture catches pneumonia. Across the Internet, beside the water coolers, on magazine covers and morning news chat shows, every inch of each week’s show is subjected to scrutiny worthy of an International Atomic Energy Agency spot inspection team. Every misstep comes under the remorseless spotlight of America’s pundit army.

And of all the iffy decisions each contestant makes, none –- not picking a terrible song, forgetting a lyric or flubbing an interview segment –- is as likely to earn a singer the collective wrath of the nation as a bad fashion choice. “Pitchy” singing can be forgiven. Skeletons from one’s past are gladly shoved back in the closet. But if you are a 17-year-old singer with a reputation more wholesome than Betty Crocker's, as David Archuleta's is, and you step on stage in leather pants, neither God nor man nor the Fox network can save you.

Who’s riding this bronco? As it turns out, it’s one thin, dapper, soft-spoken Brit by the name of Miles Siggins. Having emerged from the U.K. punk scene, launched the Stussy line and worked to dress some of the giants of music before joining “American Idol” in its second season, Siggins still finds himself somewhat unprepared for the intensity of the microscope he lives under today, as the show’s chief stylist.

Asked about the above leather pants incident, he took a deep breath and emitted a rueful chuckle.
“They weren’t leather pants, believe it or not,” he said. “They were like kind of a shiny wool .... I didn’t think they were going to be quite as shiny on camera. And when I saw them in dress rehearsal, I was like, oh, my God, Simon [Cowell] is going to flog me.”

Over the past few months, there has been no shortage of rumors about Jason Castro. Did he mouth the words “don’t vote” after his performance last week?  Did he forget the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man” on purpose?  Of course not.  And during a conference call with the media this morning, the fallen Idol was quick to clear up any misconceptions about his behavior on "American Idol." The lyric from “Mr. Tambourine Man” is “something that’s like written on your soul,” marveled Jason, “and somehow it slipped my mind.”

When the contestants began to perform two songs each week instead of one, things got rough for Jason.  “My mind was just split, and I couldn’t deliver either-or,” he admitted, citing his lack of experience as one reason why learning two songs a week was so difficult. “I just started playing guitar my freshman year of college and started singing shortly thereafter. I’d never even learn a song all the way through.”  Needless to say, if learning one song "all the way through" was too much for Jason, learning two songs every week was near impossible. “I couldn’t fall in love with [two songs in one week]," he added. "You need time for that.”

And although in the end Jason’s inexperience may have been his undoing, it was also the thing that made him so endearing.  “I am kinda as raw as it gets, and I haven’t done much of anything singing-wise, and maybe that’s good on TV,” mused Jason. “I dunno.”

So was Jason as relieved as he looked when he finally got eliminated Wednesday night?  “I was as happy last night as I was when I found out I’d made the top 24,” Jason confessed, adding, “How am I gonna do three songs when I cant even do two right?”

When the conversation inevitably turned to Paula Abdul accidentally judging a song that Jason had not yet sang, Jason was amused. Whereas many in the blogosphere were convinced that the judges had it in for Jason and that Paula’s mistake affected Jason's second performance, Jason shot down that theory. “That was kinda funny,” he chuckled, recalling the incident. “I was just kinda confused. … I don’t know. It was an honest mistake. And I don’t think it really affected my next performance.” 

And just so you know, if Jason had stayed next week, he would have sung “Blue Eyes” by the Cary Brothers. “That one would have been good,” he proclaimed with a laugh, adding, “I don’t know about the other two.”

But even though he won't get to perform “Blue Eyes,” Jason doesn’t seem too upset. “I just miss home,” he confessed.  “I kinda miss working in the summers with my dad. … We design and build custom swimming pools. … I’d survey lots and clean pools and stuff.”

And when this overnight celebrity tells you that he misses cleaning “pools and stuff,” you can’t help but love him. Jason has managed to stay incomprehensibly grounded throughout the competition, largely thanks to his disinterest in what reporters like yours truly have to say about him. “I really don’t read anything, like everything y’all are probably 'bout to write,” he confessed with a chuckle.   

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And now, at last, the final lap. In the Idoldome on Wednesday night, where the faithful gathered for the ritual execution of Jason Castro, the room seemed dominated by an unstable mixture of euphoria and exhaustion as we enter the last phases before the anointing at the Nokia in a mere two weeks' time.   

From what promised just three months ago to be the most sure and predictable of seasons, a final three has emerged that not a pundit alive would have prophesied.  That from the ashes of the promised Johns-Smithson-Archuleta clash should have emerged this group would have been unthinkable when the Top 24 appeared.  David Cook began this season seen as a derivative lightweight Daughtry, called charmless by Judge Cowell, given to sulking at negative reviews and snapping at the judges, he seemed destined for the briefest of also-ran candidacies. Syesha Mercado was a pretty face with a traditional style bound to disappear beneath the more contemporary and quirky pyrotechnics from Smithson, Amanda Overmyer, Brooke White, Ramiele Maluby and even, back when, Alaina Whitaker and Alexandrea Lushington. 

But here they are preparing for what promises to be, once we can get over the fact that it was not at all what we expected, a very strong final three.  Perhaps not quite on a level with Season Four’s Underwood/Bice/Solomon showdown, but on a par with Clarkson/Guarini/McKibbin and pound for pound, for my money, a mile ahead of Studdard/Aiken/Gracin, Barrino/DiGarmo/Trias, Hicks/McPhee/Yamin and inarguably more interesting than Sparks/Lewis/Doolittle.

The season’s greatest shock has to be the completely unforeseen endurance of Syesha Mercado.  Perpetual denizen of the bottom three, she dodged bullet after bullet, only really coming to life in the last few weeks and proving that a strong close  is everything.  Singing in an old-fashioned style of the type that for so long completely dominated "Idol," fading into a host of more contemporary performers, including one prodigy genetically engineered to drag  the show into its age of grace, Syesha seemed to have arrived at the Idoldome a couple years too late.  But to again quote the author William Gibson: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”  It would seem that what has worked for "Idol" voters for so many years still, in fact, works.

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “American Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted "Idol" strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute.  A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Bob Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

‘American Idol’: Fallen Idol Jason Castro says goodbye

Over the past few months, there has been no shortage of rumors about Jason Castro. Did he mouth the words “don’t vote” after his performance last week?  Did he forget the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man” on purpose?  Of course not.  And during a conference call with the media this morning, the fallen Idol was quick to clear up any misconceptions about his behavior on "American Idol." The lyric from “Mr. Tambourine Man” is “something that’s like written on your soul,” marveled Jason, “and somehow it slipped my mind.”

When the contestants began to perform two songs each week instead of one, things got rough for Jason.  “My mind was just split, and I couldn’t deliver either-or,” he admitted, citing his lack of experience as one reason why learning two songs a week was so difficult. “I just started playing guitar my freshman year of college and started singing shortly thereafter. I’d never even learn a song all the way through.”  Needless to say, if learning one song "all the way through" was too much for Jason, learning two songs every week was near impossible. “I couldn’t fall in love with [two songs in one week]," he added. "You need time for that.”

And although in the end Jason’s inexperience may have been his undoing, it was also the thing that made him so endearing.  “I am kinda as raw as it gets, and I haven’t done much of anything singing-wise, and maybe that’s good on TV,” mused Jason. “I dunno.”

So was Jason as relieved as he looked when he finally got eliminated Wednesday night?  “I was as happy last night as I was when I found out I’d made the top 24,” Jason confessed, adding, “How am I gonna do three songs when I cant even do two right?”

When the conversation inevitably turned to Paula Abdul accidentally judging a song that Jason had not yet sang, Jason was amused. Whereas many in the blogosphere were convinced that the judges had it in for Jason and that Paula’s mistake affected Jason's second performance, Jason shot down that theory. “That was kinda funny,” he chuckled, recalling the incident. “I was just kinda confused. … I don’t know. It was an honest mistake. And I don’t think it really affected my next performance.” 

And just so you know, if Jason had stayed next week, he would have sung “Blue Eyes” by the Cary Brothers. “That one would have been good,” he proclaimed with a laugh, adding, “I don’t know about the other two.”

But even though he won't get to perform “Blue Eyes,” Jason doesn’t seem too upset. “I just miss home,” he confessed.  “I kinda miss working in the summers with my dad. … We design and build custom swimming pools. … I’d survey lots and clean pools and stuff.”

And when this overnight celebrity tells you that he misses cleaning “pools and stuff,” you can’t help but love him. Jason has managed to stay incomprehensibly grounded throughout the competition, largely thanks to his disinterest in what reporters like yours truly have to say about him. “I really don’t read anything, like everything y’all are probably 'bout to write,” he confessed with a chuckle.   

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And now, at last, the final lap. In the Idoldome on Wednesday night, where the faithful gathered for the ritual execution of Jason Castro, the room seemed dominated by an unstable mixture of euphoria and exhaustion as we enter the last phases before the anointing at the Nokia in a mere two weeks' time.   

From what promised just three months ago to be the most sure and predictable of seasons, a final three has emerged that not a pundit alive would have prophesied.  That from the ashes of the promised Johns-Smithson-Archuleta clash should have emerged this group would have been unthinkable when the Top 24 appeared.  David Cook began this season seen as a derivative lightweight Daughtry, called charmless by Judge Cowell, given to sulking at negative reviews and snapping at the judges, he seemed destined for the briefest of also-ran candidacies. Syesha Mercado was a pretty face with a traditional style bound to disappear beneath the more contemporary and quirky pyrotechnics from Smithson, Amanda Overmyer, Brooke White, Ramiele Maluby and even, back when, Alaina Whitaker and Alexandrea Lushington. 

But here they are preparing for what promises to be, once we can get over the fact that it was not at all what we expected, a very strong final three.  Perhaps not quite on a level with Season Four’s Underwood/Bice/Solomon showdown, but on a par with Clarkson/Guarini/McKibbin and pound for pound, for my money, a mile ahead of Studdard/Aiken/Gracin, Barrino/DiGarmo/Trias, Hicks/McPhee/Yamin and inarguably more interesting than Sparks/Lewis/Doolittle.

The season’s greatest shock has to be the completely unforeseen endurance of Syesha Mercado.  Perpetual denizen of the bottom three, she dodged bullet after bullet, only really coming to life in the last few weeks and proving that a strong close  is everything.  Singing in an old-fashioned style of the type that for so long completely dominated "Idol," fading into a host of more contemporary performers, including one prodigy genetically engineered to drag  the show into its age of grace, Syesha seemed to have arrived at the Idoldome a couple years too late.  But to again quote the author William Gibson: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”  It would seem that what has worked for "Idol" voters for so many years still, in fact, works.

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “American Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted "Idol" strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute.  A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Bob Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Tracker: After Jason Castro, le deluge

And now, at last, the final lap. In the Idoldome on Wednesday night, where the faithful gathered for the ritual execution of Jason Castro, the room seemed dominated by an unstable mixture of euphoria and exhaustion as we enter the last phases before the anointing at the Nokia in a mere two weeks' time.   

From what promised just three months ago to be the most sure and predictable of seasons, a final three has emerged that not a pundit alive would have prophesied.  That from the ashes of the promised Johns-Smithson-Archuleta clash should have emerged this group would have been unthinkable when the Top 24 appeared.  David Cook began this season seen as a derivative lightweight Daughtry, called charmless by Judge Cowell, given to sulking at negative reviews and snapping at the judges, he seemed destined for the briefest of also-ran candidacies. Syesha Mercado was a pretty face with a traditional style bound to disappear beneath the more contemporary and quirky pyrotechnics from Smithson, Amanda Overmyer, Brooke White, Ramiele Maluby and even, back when, Alaina Whitaker and Alexandrea Lushington. 

But here they are preparing for what promises to be, once we can get over the fact that it was not at all what we expected, a very strong final three.  Perhaps not quite on a level with Season Four’s Underwood/Bice/Solomon showdown, but on a par with Clarkson/Guarini/McKibbin and pound for pound, for my money, a mile ahead of Studdard/Aiken/Gracin, Barrino/DiGarmo/Trias, Hicks/McPhee/Yamin and inarguably more interesting than Sparks/Lewis/Doolittle.

The season’s greatest shock has to be the completely unforeseen endurance of Syesha Mercado.  Perpetual denizen of the bottom three, she dodged bullet after bullet, only really coming to life in the last few weeks and proving that a strong close  is everything.  Singing in an old-fashioned style of the type that for so long completely dominated "Idol," fading into a host of more contemporary performers, including one prodigy genetically engineered to drag  the show into its age of grace, Syesha seemed to have arrived at the Idoldome a couple years too late.  But to again quote the author William Gibson: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”  It would seem that what has worked for "Idol" voters for so many years still, in fact, works.

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “American Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted "Idol" strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute.  A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Bob Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' banter: Jason Castro rides off with the fun parade

We’ve hit a strange spot in this year’s “American Idol” saga, a sort of creeping lull that bodes of something sinister. It’s the moment on the battlefield when four soldiers are sharing a cigarette, and kaboom! A grenade goes off. The mood, I think, isn’t just a matter of real favorites departing, now that the finale is almost here.

The question hangs in the air: is “Idol” working? Or do dropping ratings and the strange enervation of the show’s Final Four contenders suggest that it has lost the potential to tap into pop’s fundamental pheromone, cited again and again by exhausted "Idol" strivers as a goal: simple, fleeting fun?

Jason Castro had more fun than any other contestant has managed in weeks, doing his hippie dance as he romped through “I Shot the Sheriff” after being eliminated. Good for him for reprising a song the judges clearly thought was inappropriate -- a song he obviously loved, and actually sang fairly competently, whatever the panel says.

Think about “I Shot the Sheriff” for a minute.  A huge crossover hit for Eric Clapton in 1974, the song definitely sounded more Bob Marley-esque in Castro’s hands. Its lyric is about killing a police officer; its rhythms evoke the off-kilter, skanky reggae of the late Jamaican master’s most revolutionary songs. This choice was way edgier than David Cook’s post-Stone Temple Pilots reworkings of R&B.

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Tracker: Idol journey ends for Jason Castro

The surprising and unlikely “American Idol” journey of Jason Castro ended Wednesday night in a week that saw nearly 51 million votes cast on television’s most popular show.

Falling just short of the final three, the soulful dreadlocked crooner at first seemed far outside the typical Idol mold,  but he quickly won over a large and hardcore following with an endearingly  sweet, laidback personality and a talent for offbeat comments. When asked what his biggest challenge was Wednesday, the Texan with the piercing eyes replied, “just the brain being dead.”

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado remain and will compete for the crown in the Fox network’s signature annual contest that has already launched lucrative singing careers for former unknowns Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Earlier in his Idol stint, Castro scored big with his renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Over the Rainbow” among others. But in recent weeks he seemed to struggle as the contest entered more challenging heights, leading him to admit Wednesday that he felt his musical inexperience was showing.

Ultimately, felled by his poorly received version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” Castro proudly stood by his choice Wednesday. When the Idol band began starting up his other Tuesday number, Castro interrupted them and insisted on saying farewell to the show with the Marley tune.

Check back later tonight for a full report from the scene at the Idoldome.

-- Richard Rushfield
(photo courtesy of Fox)

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Tracker: A glimpse at destiny denied

Tuesday on the "Ellen" show, the guest performers offered a peek at what might have been and a glimpse at the first stage appearance, out of captivity, of the next great sensations "American Idol" will have unleashed upon the world.

Standing on a snow-flecked outdoor stage in downtown Chicago where Ellen was filming her 10th-anniversary week, Michael Johns, the Duende from Down Under, took the mike alongside the most electrifying, likely greatest performer in "American Idol" history, the sensational Carly Smithson, to sing U2's "One" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" backed by Rickey Minor and the "American Idol" band. (You can watch the video here).

It is impossible to watch this video, see the incredible stage charisma and singing powers these two possess and not feel sadness, not wonder what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night might have been if these two were a part of it. 

Since Carly's ouster, I have received more e-mails on the subject -- 98% percent outraged -- than I have on any other topic I have written about in my career.  Two weeks later, the grief and anger still bubble over and the e-mail still pours in, and I still relate to those sentiments entirely.  Indeed, when Carly visited the Idoldome Tuesday night the crowd erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation on her pre-show entrance.

But in the end, it is hard to feel too much anger at the show which brought Carly and Michael into our lives to start with.  We grownups may have to accept that we are second-class citizens behind the speed dialing tweens in "Idol" nation.  But one cannot argue with the will of the people. Or one can, and one certainly would like to impose a dictatorship over the "Idol" process -- but one must recognize, grudgingly, that there are perhaps larger principles at stake.

And the bigger picture, as the "Ellen" video shows, three months after we first met Carly and Michael, that they are both prepared for much bigger things.  Having come forth from "Idol," they now shall take on the world.  But first, the finals, the tour...

- Richard Rushfield

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Tracker: Rock 'n' Roll night live from the mosh pit

In the course of  chronicling the full immensity of the most important show in entertainment history, this column has strived to take its readers deep inside the machine and the psyches that produce it.  From the editing bays to the makeup room to the Idoldome bleachers,  I have tried to provide fleeting glimpses into a few of the many mansions that make up house of "Idol."

Ultimately, however, if one truly wishes to get to the essential nature of a beast, one must take a long and lonely walk through a dark snowy wood in that beast’s footsteps. On Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, this columnist ventured deeper into the core of "Idol" than any have dared penetrate before.  On Tuesday night, I became, provisionally, the first journalist in entertainment history to watch "American Idol" live from the mosh pit.

Although many of my colleagues in the "Idol" press bleachers chortled at my desire to leave the comfort of my seat and dive into the teen masses crushed before the stage, and as much as my faltering back and flat feet advised that this mosh pit truly was no country for old men, I knew that the only path to understanding the breathing, pulsing heart of "American Idol" lay through that pit. 

For months I have sat 10 rows high in the Idoldome stands and looked down on the bobbing blond heads lining the front of the stage, shrieking The Chosen One, David Archuleta, along his path to greatness.  Of all the tweaks to the "Idol" format this season, the addition of the mosh pit has seemed to have the most far-reaching effect.  Replacing the front wings of seats –- often reserved for celeb visitors –- with a standing room crushed against the stage seemingly reserved for the most young and jubilant has guaranteed that even the most tepid performances would have a bit of rock concert air, with screaming fans leaning into every word. The success this year of the instrument-bound contestants undoubtedly was made possible by their legions in the pit.

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Banter: Failing rock and roll

The insularity of the world of "American Idol" would be fascinating, if it weren't so bleakly disheartening.

Tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edition let the remaining contestants cherry-pick through half a century of pop music history, and what did we get?                            

Rocker David Cook opens the show with "Hungry Like the Wolf." How many hundred songs from the greatest artists in pop history would you have to fast forward through before you got to this vacuous Duran Duran hit?

Jason Castro may have bombed with his hapless performances, but at least he picked two songs worth singing -- Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."

David Archuleta reveled in his own private Utah teenage in discussing why he picked "Love Me Tender," sharing with his adoring audience that "I wasn't that familiar with the song," so he surfed the websites to audition different versions before settling on an arrangement that conjured up not the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the Empress of over-baked '80s R&B and pop, Whitney Houston.                  

Still, none of them came remotely close to Syesha Mercado's blazing egocentrism in explaining her motivation for singing Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come."

She proudly described the research she'd done, which revealed to her the song's connection to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s

The song came out during "a pivotal time" in 1965, and Cooke's song was a fitting choice because this is a pivotal moment too -- in Mercado's life now that she made "Idol's" Final 4.

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Tracker: Share your first impressions

Rock 'n roll came to the Idoldome Tuesday night.  For the judges, it was a time for David Archuleta to shine, David Cook to hit and miss, Syesha to shock and bawl and Jason Castro to pack his bags.

Tonight I watched from stage left in the mosh pit, the first reporter in Idol history to venture into that hallowed sanctuary.   In a few hours, I'll post my full report but for now, please share your thoughts in the comments section.  Did the Top Four rock your world?  Let us hear!

-- Richard Rushfield

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' odds-maker says it’s sayonara Syesha Mercado

Nobody wants to miss out on the fun of “American Idol,” least of all the Vegas odds-makers.  That’s why Johnny Avello, director of the Race and Sports Book at Wynn Las Vegas, has come out with his own predictions for the fates of the top four. 

According to Avello, David Archuleta is leading the race, with odds of 6 to 5, David Cook is trailing Archuleta, with 3-to-2 odds, and Jason Castro follows, with 10 to 1 odds. The last woman standing, Syesha Mercado, has the weakest chance of winning, with odds of 12 to 1.

Avello is proud of his “Idol” predictions thus far. He’s been at it since the first season, and he’s never far off. “The only real surprise was Taylor Hicks,” confessed Avello.   

As for this season, Avello said, “if there’s a surprise for me, it’s David [Cook] so far. I had him down in the ninth spot.”

Hooked on horse racing since age 5 and naturally gifted with numbers, making odds came easily to Avello. When he’s not toiling over the fates of the two Davids, Avello is making odds for sporting events, award shows, horse races and other reality shows, such as “Survivor.” He even chats with Us Weekly about the odds that various Hollywood couples will get hitched.

For Avello, watching “Idol” is all in a day’s work, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan. “My favorite is David Archuleta,” declared Avello.  “He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always on key and his arrangements are good.”

Who knew Archuleta was scoring with the Vegas odds-maker demographic?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

‘American Idol’: Brooke White’s debut album returns to the Internet

“I had shopped Brooke to practically every label in town and no bites,” confessed fallen Idol Brooke White’s former manager, Tim Simms, in a phone interview today. “No one thought you could shop the good girl.”  As of today, however, Brooke White fans will be able to “shop the good girl” –- literally.  Brooke’s debut album, “Songs From the Attic,” which she co-wrote and recorded with Tim, has now been re-released on Brookewhite.com.

Over the course of their four years working and recording together, Tim has been everything to Brooke: producer, manager, guitar player, roadie and more.  “Its just a great, very, very unorthodox, professional” relationship, explained Tim, who remained in close communication with Brooke and her family throughout the competition. “It’s a great story,” he mused. “It’s like, movie of the week.”

When Tim says “movie of the week,” he is referring not to Brooke’s proclivity for waterworks but to their long, hard struggle for success. Tim first caught wind of Brooke when she was 19, through a friend who was teaching Brooke’s artist development class at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.

“Tim, you’ve gotta hear this girl,” said the teacher. “She's got that ‘it’ factor.” Tim wasn’t so sure. “I hear that all the time,” he thought. 

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

‘American Idol’: Fallen Idol Brooke White says goodbye

“I never thought I had a nice voice,” admitted fallen Idol Brooke White in a conference call with the media this morning. “It wasn’t pretty. It was just this low, raspy thing.”  On “American Idol,” and during the call this morning, Brooke was open about her ongoing struggle with self-confidence.  “This show brings everything to the surface that’s been an issue for you,” mused Brooke, adding that she was forced to work through her insecurities “in a very public way.” 

But despite her admitted “comparison issues,” Brooke is set on making it as a singer songwriter, in the proud tradition of her American idols, Carole King and Carly Simon. 

Brooke actually got a chance to talk to Carly Simon this morning and couldn’t stop gushing about their conversation. “She was incredibly supportive, really generous in her comments,” Brooke emoted. 

And since Brooke was eliminated on the week of the gaffe heard round the world, the questions inevitably turned to Paula Abdul.  Not surprisingly, Brooke didn’t dish much dirt on the subject. She did, however, actually break out laughing when asked whether the contestants comforted Jason Castro backstage before he returned to sing his second song. “Jason’s a very laid-back guy,” chuckled Brooke. “He was OK.”

And speaking of laid-back guys, Brooke couldn’t say enough great things about her “very laid-back” husband. “I’ve been really lucky to find a guy who could hang with me through this,” explained Brooke, who also confirmed that her hubby had opted not to cut his hair until Brooke got the boot. Brooke asked her husband, who was in the room at the time of the call, when he would be cutting his hair. “Whenever you get around to it,” he replied, in typical laid-back fashion. 

And as for her tearful farewell last night, Brooke sounded regretful but certainly not surprised. “I hoped so much that I could have been stronger,” she said with a sigh, “but I’m an emotional girl,and I’m passionate.” But even though she was emotional about her ouster, Brooke was far from shocked.  “I woke up Wednesday morning and I knew,” she declared. “ ‘Brooke, you’re going home.’ ”

-- Stephanie Lysaght

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Tracker: Brooke White's long good-bye comes to an end

And so on a trail of tears, she left us. Perhaps the most emotionally demonstrative contestant in "American Idol" history, Brooke White at last had a reason for her tears, exiting at the close of a topsy-turvy Neil Diamond week.

In most seasons, Oscar or "Idol," "it's an honor just to be nominated" is not even a string of empty words but a phrase that can only be used ironically. But White’s trajectory proves that, this season, a slot in the Top 12 did, in fact, mean something. While White was never a likely contender for the finals, no one can say she did not bring something distinctive to the show: a compelling, husky voice; competent performing skills; largely good taste in song picks; and a breakthrough for the singer/songwriter category that has never previously had much luck on "Idol." And in the Idoldome on Wednesday night, while there seemed to be a general sense that this was about the right time for her to go, there was also genuine affection and appreciation for what she brought to the stage.

Contrast White's story with those of previous-year contestants, the 12 of just last year, for instance, most of whom have faded from memory, and it is inescapable how much stronger this group has been.  When we reflect back upon Chikezie, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmyer and David Hernandez, there is no one who you can say has been mere wallpaper. Even much maligned country singer Kristy Lee Cook, back in the Idoldome tonight, carved out a pleasant niche within her genre.  Compared to this, when one looks back upon the names of last season’s mid-list, it is hard to remember how in the world most of them made it to the Top 12 in the first place.

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Banter: Time to say good-bye to Jason Castro

Millions of Americans are sad tonight.  Brooke White made it hard to not be sad, but I never liked her, and I'm sticking to my mild, self-satisfied buzz.

I am not sad that White is gone from "Idol." She will be fine. She had the best exit song ever with "I Am... I Said," an awesome Neil Diamond ballad that seemed tailor-made for her unmoored state, and she got through it despite one of her trademark attempts to restart. She wept in a telegenically brokenhearted way, then turned her back on the camera's prying gaze -- her classiest move in weeks.

It would have been even more perfectly poignant had Brooke's cherubic hubby jumped onstage and cuddled her, setting the course for their future Family Channel reality show. But all she got was a pat from the Paula Abdul-anointed next Idol, David Cook, which she pushed away.

In her mind, I'll bet, White has already moved on. She had a modest independent recording career before "Idol," and she'll jump to a bigger pond now. Soon enough, she'll be a fixture in online photo galleries of angelically-coiffed, wholesome ingénues, settling somewhere between Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat.

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol': Shine on, you crazy Diamond

Sometimes the greatest insights about the night before come with breakfast. This morning, my hubby and fellow pop scribe, Eric Weisbard, pointed out that the maturity I'd written about in my Idol Banter last night isn't just a matter of tone.

In fact, he noted, Diamond was the guy who helped bring easy listening into the adult-contemporary era, and that means the lyrics to many of his finest songs are, if not Snoop-level dirty, at least a bit risqué. And we all know that risqué doesn't fly on "Idol."

Here's a list of Diamond's Greatest Semi-Nasty Hits and the subject matter to which they fairly explicitly allude:

"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Red, Red Wine": inebriation

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers": the problems that ensue when one partner is not sexually fulfilled (Neil sings...."When it's good for you, babe, you're feeling all right," and Barbra Streisand replies, "Well you just roll over and turn out the light."

"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon":  deflowering girls

"Holly Holy" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show": dubious religious messages a la "Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Crunchy Granola Suite": the obvious Jason Castro choice alludes to growing and ingesting marijuana

"Play Me": free love

Oh, Neil. If only the Idols could.

-- Ann Powers

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Tracker: A chaotic Neil Diamond night

The Idoldome was a colder, emptier place Tuesday night than it had been a mere week ago, when the most electrifying singer in "American Idol" history, Carly Smithson, still walked among us.  In the life of every "Idol" partisan, sooner or later this day must come when one must look defeat dead in the eye and search for new reasons to keep faith in the system. 

In the end, democracy cannot be just a way to force one’s own candidate into office; the means must be more important than our individual ends and, bitter though it may be, the will of the electorate must be embraced.  Were it not for American Idol, one must recall, we would have never known Carly Smithson at all. However, taking my seat in the Carly-less Idoldome, I recounted the words of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in his Elegy of Fortinbras, when he wrote, putting words in the mouth of Hamlet’s sole survivor,

“Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial”

In the event, cold apple in my hand astride my narrow chair in the upper tiers, it proved to be an interesting night for moving on and seeking closure, doing so on the night of what Simon Cowell called “the strangest show we’ve ever done.”  I am not sure how much of this came across on television, but in the Idoldome events were, even by the roaring circus atmosphere of the tapings, fairly frenetic, or as Simon termed it, “chaotic.”

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.

'American Idol' Banter: Neil Diamond in the rough

I never thought I would have occasion to feel sorry for Neil Diamond, but "American Idol" always seems to introduce me to new and uninvited emotions. Tuesday's show, devoted to the songbook of the estimable Tin Pan Alley rocker, did him a great injustice -- and it didn't do much for the tremulous Top Five Idols, either.

Maybe they're still processing the slaying of Carly last week, or perhaps they'd gotten into whatever made Paula render judgment on Jason Castro's second song before he sang it -- but with one exception, all five contenders seemed a little, well, glazed.

That exception was Syesha Mercado, who used her lovely sense of calm on the Lionel Richie-esque ballad "Hello Again" (Diamond's song predates Richie's "Hello" by three years, by the way) and delivered the jangly 1967 song "Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" as if her mama were Motown royal Martha Reeves.

Syesha's turning out to be as intelligent a performer as David Cook, though it hurts her that her strong spot is where standards meet jazz, since "Idol" generally promotes the idea that pop history begins in the 1980s. To me, Simon's pronouncement that she might be in trouble seemed as loopy as Paula's missteps (the wiggiest judge also called Syesha "Brooke"); but I've also come to accept that, this season especially, America doesn't always vote with its ears.