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The first Results show of the Finals promises to send 2 of the Top 13 home. At the end of the performance show, Ryan hinted that a new rule could "alter the face of the competition" and asked Simon if the public was going to like the change. Simon answered that it involved the judges and the public may not like it. Ryan responded that the new rule could "change the theme and concept of the show". Pretty heavy suggestions there, causing us all to speculate on just what this change would be. Since the change was to involve the judges, the most obvious possibility was that they would choose who was eliminated out of the usual bottom 3. If this were to be the new rule, I would be royally pissed off. No wonder Ryan asked if the public would like the change. Such a rule would cause chaos amongst the Idol faithful. It has been stated over and over even by Simon that it is up to America and the voters. To change that now would be a bad, bad thing. While the judges clearly think they know more than the voting public, the viewers are the ones who buy records. And the judges play favorites in a way that is so obvious, it would be too controversial.

Suffice to say, I was glad that this was not how it actually is. The judges now have the power to SAVE just ONE person just ONE time. They do NOT have the power to eliminate a singer who was not the lowest votegetter. If they want to save the person who is supposed to exit, they can if they all agree (must be unanimous). That person stays and no one goes home. So the most controversial and unacceptable part of their power just isn't there.

Ryan made this big deal about how certain people went home arguably before their time like Tamyra Gray, Jennifer Hudson, Chris Daughtry & Michael Johns. With their new rule, these people could have been saved by the judges to get another opportunity to sing the following week and hopefully stay in the competition. Some bad examples there Ryan cause the judges can only use this power up until the Top 5, and both Tamyra and Chris were eliminated from the Top 4 so -- not sure how this would have helped them. And -- you used the example of Chris Daughtry twice, suggesting to Simon that with this new rule, he could have been saved to possibly go on to win. No, Ryan; it would have been too late. Can't believe they used this example as it's blatantly wrong. In any case, the judges will have to state if they want to use it or not each week up until Top 5 or until they decide unanimously to save someone. If they save a person and no one goes home and 2 go home the following week, that saved individual would have to leap up 2 places to stay more than just one time. Frankly, I'm not sure how helpful this will be but we shall see.

This week, we had a less-horrible-than-usual group song with the just-as-horrible-as-usual "dancing". Kanye West did something that didn't hold my interest and Kelly Clarkson sang her latest single and it didn't suck at all. I always love seeing our very first Idol come back to sing.

They broke up the eliminations into 2 parts, one going in the first half and one in the second half of the show. In the first elimination, Jasmine and Megan were brought out to the center of the floor, with Jasmine being announced as the bottom dweller in votes. Now, Ryan never said that Megan was in the bottom (bottom what? - 4 I suppose) so we don't know if she was or not. Maybe they wanted to scare her fans into voting more next week to keep her in for the tour. But Jasmine sang her song again while the judges watched, presumably to make up their minds whether to save her or not. And they did not. So with our new rule, the eliminated person gets the bad news twice! Nice improvement there.

The second pair brought out for our perusal were Anoop and Jorge. Again, Ryan did not say they were the bottom group, only that one was leaving, which was Jorge. Jorge sang his song again and I don't think the judges even pretended to talk this over. When asked if Jorge was to be saved, Simon abruptly said "no". Nice final jab there, Slimon.

There was no suspense in the eliminations this week as I thought the right 2 went home. Even the entire bottom 4 (if it was the bottom) held no surprises. The most interesting part of the evening was learning about the "surprise change" to the show and seeing how it will play out in future weeks.

Next week's elimination will be important because the dumpee will not get to tour. Who will it be? Let's see on Tuesday who can handle Grand Ole Opry songs and who can't. Who am I most concerned about? Adam Lambert. Don't see any country bones in that body. I'm hoping for a ballad - or that he surprises me (and he is fully capable of that). I can really see some standout performances happening from some singers other than "frontrunners", perhaps from Kris or Michael. It should be another interesting week.

As a side note: In Tuesday's Top 13 competition, Kris wore a green plaid shirt and it looks suspiciously like the one Adam wore in his preperformance bio. Did these boys go shopping together?

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