'Idol:' Country roads

This whole judges'-save situation is looking a little heartless. Suddenly, the bottom-ranked contestant has tremendous pressure to perform well on a song that gave her trouble in the first place. And the judges are kinda-sorta watching and kinda-sorta flirting and kinda-sorta talking to each other. And at the end of all that, Simon once again gets to say, "Sorry, not good enough." (Which is better than "That was indulgent rubbish," but not by much.)

I thought Alexis did a better "Jolene" tonight than she did in last night's show, maybe because this time around she was feeling real emotion: Suddenly, the desperation came through in her voice. And she handled the disappointment with poise, though she also seemed a little ticked off. I think this was unexpected for her, and that she doesn't consult DialIdol. I'm sorry to see her go -- especially because she would have been terrific on next week's Motown show -- but given the strengths of some of the other contestants, I doubt she was a serious contender for the title. Amazingly, there now are only three women left, one of them is actually a girl, and one of them is over-coddled, hip-swaying, pronunciation-challenged Megan. I really think that if her number comes up, the judges will save her, and that will make me angry.

In fact, let's play this parlor game. Here's my guess at how the judges would approach their veto power:

Saved under any circumstance: Danny, Adam, Megan
Possibly saved, depending on the judges' mood: Scott, Matt, Allison, Lil
If you're gone, you're gone: Anoop, Kris, Michael

Agree? Disagree? Let me know...and start guessing which Motown song Adam is going to take on next week...