American Idol - My Way, Your Way, Anything Goes Tonight

We're getting close to the end of American Idol, the Top 3 played three different songs this week. The first was a judges pick, the second the contestants, the third by the producers. In terms of results...mostly dull with a few bits here or there to maintain interest. It's been a weird season for AI, they stacked the deck with professional singers and yielded a few magic moments early on (Ramiele Maluby's Dusty Springfield song, Jason Castro's "Hallelujah" and David Cook's "Hello") before nearly all the contestants ran out of gas mid season. The Top 3 are survivors more than winners, Archuleta's square consistency, Cook's alt ballads and Mercado's alternating between sexed up stage performances and hyperactive wailing.

Mommy's All Right, Daddy's All Right-David Archuleta reportedly couldn't have his "yes he is / no he's not" stage dad with him in rehearsals this week so little Davy was on his own. Paula chose the Billy Joel minor classic "And So It Goes" and Archuleta sang it well. Arch's own pick, Chris Brown's "With You", was another story as it was awkward and forced. The Producers chose Dan Fogelberg's Adult Contemporary classic "Longer" which was right up Arch's alley, though hearing Simon Cowell rip the late singer/songwriter's signature tune a new one was appalling.

She Wanna Sex You Up- Mercado said she loosened up this week but all I saw was overconfident smugness plastered on her pretty face. Randy Jackson gave her Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You" (my favorite Keys song) and Mercado violated my basic rule of sad songs-do not smile your way through the song. Her choice was the jazzy staple "Fever" which allowed Mercado to do her shimmy across the stage like a performance at Smokey Joe's Casino in Reno. The Producers didn't do Mercado any favors either, saddling her with a lame piece from the cartoon Happy Feet. Mercado tried to bounce her way past and just fell short.

Dare You To Move - David Cook was a little more awake this week as Simon Cowell threw a curve ball with Roberta Flack's "First Time I Ever Saw Your Face". Cook came through with a good acoustic rock arrangement that started slow but built up to a good finish. His pick was Switchfoot's "Dare You To Move" but Cook botched the arrangement and got really shouty as Cowell likes to put it. For the third song, The Producers gave Cook Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing." Cook was good but the arrangement piled on an extended guitar solo at the end that collided with Cook and the chorus making the song overcrowded with instruments.

In terms of pure performance, it's hard to chose who will be eliminated tomorrow night because they were pretty equal. But for a while the public's expected a David vs David duel in the final and that seems likely. Even The Producers seem to want Mercado out, I mean Happy Feet? Why not give her the Sesame Street theme too while you're at it?