American Idol - The Second Group of Twelve

While last week's show was a whole lotta bad sandwiched between some pretty good stuff, yesterday started off bad and picked up speed toward the end. There was lots of "You picked the wrong song" and "It was pitchy" from the judges (BTW, they did, and it was). Here's what I think...

KEEPING PARENTS IN THEIR PLACE - Thank heaven they went back to having parents in the audience rather than backstage on the couch! This is where they should be: sitting with everyone else, watching their little darling perform. It's a good thing.

PLEASE DON'T BEG! Lots of them do it, but Jeanine Vailes, AKA The Girl with the Beautiful Legs, took it to new levels. Not only did she promise to do better and pick better songs, she said something like "Please keep me... I'm 28... I've been doing this for 14 years... I'm so old!" Somehow, saying that no one has liked your singing for 14 years doesn't seem like a big selling point. More like it reeks of desperation.

BE GENTLE, NORMUND - I like Nick Mitchell/Normund Gentle. Nick is a cutie and Normund is a crack up. He gave one of the night's most entertaining performances singing that Dream Girls song. BUT, as much as I like him, I don't believe this is the right venue for him. If all is right with the world, last night was his last AI performance. Maybe he should try America's Got Talent next year. It worked for Terry Fator.

A WORD ABOUT VOTING - The first contestant, Jasmine Murray, said she voted for her fellow contestants. "I tried my hardest to vote for every single person." HUH? Well, that's just silly. If you vote for each person, you've just cancelled yourself out.

Last week, I nailed the top three. I think this week is going to be harder, but here's how I'd like to see it go down:
Top Male - Adam Lambert - His rendition of Satisfaction was awesome. Definitely satisfied me.
Top Female - Allison Iraheta - The 16-year-old sang Alone by Heart. She reminds me of David Archuletta - raw singing talent, but not so good with interviews. She can work on that.
Third overall - Megan Joy Corkrey - The girl with the tattooed arm made me forget how many zillions of times we've heard Put Your Records On.

And look for Matt Giraud to be the choice for the Wild Card show. The judges want to hear more from this guy. So do I.

Your turn. What are your thoughts or predictions?