American Idol - The First Dropouts

Three of the four contestants who left last night were in the bottom four as ranked by DialIdol. The slight surprise was Nicole Tranquillo, who was ranked sixth from the bottom. During the show it was announced that Sunjaya Malakar was in the top three vote getters for the men. DialIdol has him at number two. So the lesson is that the DialIdol predictions cannot be taken literally, which they themselves recognize. But in general terms, that site is able to distinguish among those at the higher or lower end of the contestant pile.

Those still at the bottom of the list can redeem themselves with great performances next week, and the reverse is also possible. So the rankings may change. The only two whose fates cannot change next week are Sundance and Antonella. They are demonstrably so bad that significant improvement is not possible. They will continue, for a few weeks, to be protected by the cynical voters following the Vote For The Worst ploy. However, as the field shrinks, more and more people will vote independently for their favorites and the proportion of cynical voters will be reduced to meaninglessness.

Announced last night were the celebrity guests for this season. These kids will have the honor of being coached by Tony Bennett and the laughable spectacle of receiving advice from Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits. How many versions of "Mrs. Brown", or "I'm Henry VIII" can we stand? Smiling and looking cute is Noone's only real claim to fame.