Idol Gossip: Uh...er...Line, please?

Doubtless thou shalt nevermore cast doubt upon my peerless powers of prognostication in the wake of last night's American Idol results show. Did I not fearlessly forecast that Sanjaya was safe this week and one of those who flubbed their lyrics on Tuesday would depart? Of course, the prediction was so Nostrodamusishly (yes, I realize it's not a "real" word) vague that any one of three people could have been voted off and I could have claimed to have correctly foreseen it. Hopefully, the judges were right about the mysterious epidemic of amnesia being the result of nerves resulting from moving to the bigger stage and larger audience and by next week those who remain will be over it.

Simon repeatedly emphasizes that Idol is a "singing competition," and even spoke of how Chris Richardson's vocal performance was awful if you "...take you out the equation with your charm and personality..." The thing is, Si, that this is television and charm and personality go a long way. If you really want Idol to be only about singing talent, then you should broadcast it on radio, or maybe have the contestants perform behind a blue screen on which is projected silent clips from Sailor Moon cartoons. (?!) I stand by my prediction of the eventual winner, and will until Chris Sligh gets voted off, but if vocal talent were the only thing that determined the winner of Idol, Mandisa or Chris Daughtry would have won last season and this season's finale would be the Melinda and Lakisha show. But I don't think that's going to happen.

However, I think that even if neither of those two win, they will go far in the competition and eventually be bigger stars and have longer careers than whoever does win.