American Idol: Three Men and Four Babies

Wasn’t it nice of the show to throw in some singing in between the judges’ annoying, witless, pointless bickering?

If the unnecessary addition of a fourth person, the ridiculous and thankfully-nixed entrance walk to the table during the early part of the finals or the out-of-control bickering that has caused the live show to routinely go over its 9 p.m. finish (fans who watch "Fringe" on DVR must be REALLY annoyed) wasn’t enough proof that the judges think the show is about them, then last night was the tipping point.

Show of hands - who would rather watch the three talented finalists (pictured, left) do their thing (last year’s Top 3 night gave us nine performances, instead of this year’s six) instead of seeing Kara lamely try to assert herself over Simon, Randy’s never-ending collection of old-lady cardigans and stream of verbal nonsense or Paula play-fighting with Simon? Oh wait - EVERYONE would rather see Adam, Kris and Danny battle it out for a spot in the finals! I mean, even the hometown video packages got shortchanged last night!

Since I just realized that, by dedicating the first three paragraphs of this column to the judges instead of the contestants, I’m perpetuating the problem, let’s move on to the SINGERS. After all, this is a "singing competition", right?

Let’s get Adam out of the way first, since he’s pretty much guaranteed himself a spot in the finals by being the most electrifying "Idol" contestant, maybe, EVER. That being said, the producers weren’t taking any chances. For what seems like the fourth time this season, Adam sang in the cushy last slot. (I mean, even last week after he sang first, Adam ended up singing last due to his duet with Allison.) On top of that, Simon did everything short of filming a "Vote 4 Adam" campaign commercial during his episode-ending comments, since he’s smart enough to know he’s the only judge anybody listens to anyway.

Funnily enough, I wasn’t feeling Adam as much as I have in week’s past. Don’t get me wrong, he was absolutely on point vocally last night (as always). However, I felt his performance of U2’s "One" was a little too bipolar for my taste (the tender opening did NOT go with the predictable craziness that followed). After that, I found myself listening more to his crazy overeager backup singer during "Crying." It’s too bad, because that was my preferred performance of his, and I REALLY liked the subliminal message to Danny Gokey - "THIS is how you do Aerosmith, son!"

Speaking of Danny, his evening encapsulated his entire Top 13 run. He opened with an up-tempo number ("Dance Little Sister") that made him bust out the spastic dance moves yet did little for him vocally. It was basically a (slightly) more competent rehash of his "PYT"/ "September"/ "Get Ready" performances.

For his second song, he took on "You Are So Beautiful." While I’d stop short of calling this a "vocal masterclass" (as Simon did), I thought it was his second best performance after "Come Rain or Come Shine" during Rat Pack week. It also (once again) did JUST BARELY enough to justify the judges’ relentless support for him. Unfortunately, it was another hopelessly outdated and unhip selection (who does he think he is - Scott McIntyre?!) that gave no indication as to what kind of album he would record once this show is over - unless it was an album of Michael Bolton covers.

Of course, future pop-star viability has never been the main criteria for an "Idol" winner. Otherwise, Kris Allen would be the major shoo-in for the finals (yes, even more so than Adam).

His cover of Kanye West’s "Heartless" was one of the boldest performances I’ve seen on the "Idol" stage - especially given how late it is in the competition and given the fact that he needed something big if he wanted to have ANY chance of beating out Danny for a spot in the finals. I say it was bold because, in my personal opinion, this could have easily turned out to be really stupid.

Instead, it turned out to be brilliant. The lack of Auto-tune and Kris’ clear voice helped me pay attention the lyrics for the first time and Kris even had some of the swagger that Simon always says is allegedly missing. Sure, it was still a little weird, but Kris’ performance was audacious and completely relevant.

Basically, it was everything his take on "Apologize" was NOT. I’m just going to ignore Simon and Kara’s immature tiff and instead focus on the fact that Kris’ performance was little more than a copycat-ish, uninspired rehash of the One Republic hit that ended up being slightly worse than the original. While it was stupid for Kara to suggest that he should’ve performed it with his acoustic guitar (why would he want to have TWO acoustic guitar-driven performances back-to-back?) I do think he’s creative enough that he should’ve thrown in some kind of wrinkle.

Overall - through little fault of the contestants involved in the alleged "singing competition" - Top 3 performance night was a bit of a disappointment

So what’d you think of this episode? Did you like the judges’ choices better than the contestants? (I thought the judges’ choices seemed promising, but ended up being a little off) How predictable has Simon’s "brilliant song choice" joke - pertaining to the song he chose - become? Finally, who should join Adam in the finals? (It SHOULD be Kris - but I think it’ll be Danny.)