That said, I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t see her in the finale. Weà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll see.

I don’t either, pj, because it’s glaringly obvious they want a teenager – and probably one of the young guys. I hate that on so many levels. Why not have a spin-off competition called “Teen Idol” and make the minimum age of “American Idol” be at least that of a legal adult? JMO.

I also don’t think she came clean last night by admitting she was signed. She made it sound like the label folded. She neglected to mention they put $2 million into her project and she sold less than 400 copies.

That said, I don’t see her in the finale. We’ll see.

ETA: Great recap, MJ. Oh, and you’re not alone. I like AlexANdrea quite a bit. She’s my fave girl so far. Loved what she did with the song and her stage presence. Thought her outfit was cute and age appropriate as well.

Randy was Carly’s manager

Randy was NOT Carly’s manager. He worked in the A&R department at MCA when she was signed there.

Do stations get to pick which songs they play the morning after, or is that a canned deal they get directly from AI? The DJ got to spend the weekend with Tony Cowell and his girlfriend, so I could well believe thereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pay-for-pimpage at Americaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s radio stations.

What an interesting thought Margaux….I don’t know. It wouldn’t surprise me, really, if it was a “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” kind of deal with AI and the radio stations…but I also distinctly remember a local station of mine playing Sanjaya last year for laughs…as if there would be any other reason. So I would like to think they pick their own songs…

But who knows.

If not, it looks like they’re predicting the following to go home : Amy, Joanne, Chikezie and Garrett.

And BTW haven’t we seen the likes of Chikezie in the past ? Anybody remember Ricky “Hercules” Smith of Season 2 ?

To my ears, it sounded no better on the radio than it did on TV last night — pinched and screechy in the high registers. But the DJ and the call-in contestants all loved it and thought she was the best by far.

If that’s an indication, America is falling for the pimp.

Do stations get to pick which songs they play the morning after, or is that a canned deal they get directly from AI? The DJ got to spend the weekend with Tony Cowell and his girlfriend, so I could well believe there’s pay-for-pimpage at America’s radio stations.

mj: hehe to Alex Andrea, *itch! I think she just wanted people to remember her name, since she is not being pimped!

Kirsten, you donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think Amy will go home?

No. Normally, I would. She sang terribly. She wasn’t memorable. I don’t remember any pre-Idol buzz about her at all. A trifecta of doom. I even had her and Kady as my initial picks for being booted.

But I cheated. Before I posted, I snuck a peak at VFTW and saw that they had selected Amy as their pick. Now, I don’t think that VFTW can get you the win (not enough worsters, yet), but I think that a small number of power dialers on Top 12 night can save you. Last year there were 32 million votes for 24 contestants. That’s an average of 1.33 million per contestant, but I’m betting that the vast majority of those votes go to the top 6 each night. The remaining 6 probably get only about 100-200K votes with only small differences (in the 10s of Ks) between them. 100 people voting 200 times can easily make the difference at this stage in the game.

I think VFTW can save her for one week. I don’t think she will survive much longer unless she pulls a rabbit out of her hat. Although, sometimes you get some sympathy points for being really bad. Being “meh” is about the worst you can be. Often the people who go home the first night are just those that were forgetable.