It’s been a big week for Idol. One of the current contestants has dominated the headlines in what may turn out to be the biggest Idol scandal yet, while a former also-ran grabbed the national spotlight. Ryan Seacrest opened the show with a congratulatory spot on Jennifer Hudson who placed sixth in season 3. On Sunday, Jennifer won an Academy Award for her role as “Effie Melody White” in the movie Dreamgirls. A little dig here; while Idol congratulated Jennifer, it should be noted she made no such mention of the reality show in her acceptance speech.

Last week the guys performances were abysmal and I can honestly say that going into tonight there wasn’t much hope for them so it’s a nice surprise that most of them took note of the real arse whipping the girls gave them and stepped it up this week. Yes, the guys can sing, and after this weeks performance managed to plug a few holes in an otherwise sinking ship. It’s dedication week, so that means lots of ballads, let’s take a look at how the guys faired.

Phil Stacy is first on deck. Phil sang “Missing You” after dedicating his performance to the Southeast Navy Band. Randy thought it was hot and Paula said she could hear Phil on the radio right now. Simon on the other hand thought Phil had a completely unoriginal voice. I said last week, there’s just something about Phil that bugs me, well I figured it out. It’s the bald head, it doesn’t work. It worked for Chris Daughtry but it doesn’t work for Phil. I find it too distracting because it’s odd. I’d probably like Phil more if I heard him on the radio. The performance was just ok for me.

Jared Cotter is up second. Jared dedicates his song “Let’s Get It On” to his mom & dad. During the performance Jared made this weird face move with his hand, which Randy just loved. Paula told Jared he was a really good looking guy (careful there). Simon said “It did remind me though of the Love Boat. I’m kind of imagining if they had a cabaret singer on the Love Boat, I think we would have seen something similar to that, because it was a bit corny in parts”. Ok, I’m not going with the corny part, it was decent, much better than last week, wasn’t great as it didn’t blow me away, but it was good.

AJ Tabaldo dedicated his performance of “Feeling Good” to his mom & dad. Randy told AJ it was much better than last week. Paula said she liked seeing AJ expand into different areas and Simon thought it was “nearly very good”. AJ needed this, while it didn’t do anything for me, it was still much better than last week. He needed to step it up and he did.

Sanjaya Malakar performed “Stepping Out” which he dedicated to his grandfather. Randy said it was like a bad high school talent show. Paula said Sanjaya should pick songs that celebrate his youth. Simon said “It was like some ghastly lunch, where after lunch your parents have asked the children to dress up and sing”. (Must be a British thing). Yes, this was awful, ghastly, horrid, use whatever term you like; and that was when you could hear Sanjaya. This isn’t good for him, I actually think he was worse this week than he was last week which itself wasn’t all that good.

Chris Sligh dedicates his song to his wife who is in the audience (smoozing for points I think). Chris sang “Trouble” a song performed by Taylor Hicks last year. Randy said it showed Chris has a big voice. Paula said she liked Chris too and Simon said the reason Chris was put through to this round was because he was a very good singer and said this night Chris was a very good singer. Yeah, ok, I definitely like Chris’s arrangement better than I did Taylor’s. It wasn’t “blow me away” good but again, compared to last week, this is what Chris needed to get back on track. Good show.

Nick Pedro performs “You Give Me Fever” which he dedicates to his girlfriend. Randy said it was just kind of nice and Paula loved his tone. Simon thought Nick lacked the Charisma to perform this kind of song. Again, better than last week although I’m not sure it was enough to keep Nick from being in the bottom group again.

Blake Lewis sang “Virtual Insanity” which he dedicated to his parents. Randy said he really liked Blake and Paula told him he made a smart choice but Simon thought the whole thing was unoriginal and like a copycat performance. This is one of the few time I disagree with Simon. While this wasn’t a performance that made me say “I think Blake could win” I enjoyed the hell out of it, easily my favorite of the night. I’m just surprised by Blake, he’s putting it out there and taking some chances. The whole beat boxing, scatting thing could be a major turn off but he used it just right and just enough that it was effective and I thought original.

Brandon Rogers dedicated his performance of “Time After Time” to his grandmother. Randy thought it was boring, Paula though said she could feel Blake’s heart in the song. Simon said “You have got to come out here Brandon when you’re as talented as you are and do what four or five of these girls did last week and make a wow impact”. Yawn, this was boring, weird, comical. I hated it. This didn’t earn Blake any brownie points, it was a vain attempt, one he completely failed at. Bad choice all around.

Chris Richardson sang “Geek In The Pink” which he dedicated to his grandmother. Randy told Chris he was in it to win and Paula wanted to know if his grandmother knew what “Geek In The Pink” was. Simon thought it was the best performance so far. At first I was like “Geek in the what”? Never heard it, so I’m figuring Chris is going to bomb. Nope, not this time. It was surprisingly very good, yet like Blake, not an “oh he can win” type performance. Not sure which one I like better but this was cool. Chris was another one that needed a strong performance, good job.

Sundance Head dedicated a soulful rendition of “Mustang Sally” to his son. Randy said “Welcome back, Sundance” and Paula was surprised by Sundance’s range. Simon was glad to have Sundance back. It was pretty good, nothing spectacular unless of course you want to compare it to his performance last week. He stepped up, delivered and got back on track, so now he can move forward in the competition.

Again, this was a much better outing for the guys than last week. Several that needed to deliver solid performances did that, yet there still isn’t one that’s stepped up and said “Beat Me!”. Who’s going home? That’s a little hard to predict this week. Again, based on performance Sanjaya should be out. He should have been gone last week but with another bad performance he definitely should be done this week. Unfortunately, I think he’s gained enough pre-competition popularity that fans will manage to keep him around much longer than he needs to be. I think Brandon Rogers also bombed this week and he should probably be the other one going home.  Nick and Chris are both on the low end of the popularity scale. I think Chris probably did himself the biggest favor so I’m going to go with Brandon Rogers and Nick Pedro being the two that get the axe this week.