Idol Pool Standings Week 11

American Idol Viewer's Guide - Top 3!

Tomorrow evening's show and next week's finale always make for two of the best nights of television all year. The Top 3 show is frequently forgotten about, but when you look back on past Top 3 episodes, you quickly realize how chock full of awesomeness they are.

Here are some great memories from past Top 3 episodes:
In Season 4, Bo Bice secured his spot in the finals by singing a capella. In Season 5, we got to see Elliot Yamin's mom in tears during Elliot's hometown parade. Season 6 brought the incredible night and subsequently controversial elimination of Melinda Doolittle. Last year's season 8 saw early favorite Danny Gokey get eliminated in favor of the surprising Kris Allen.

Point being, in the last 5 years, we've either seen some great performances, some surprising results, and/or some memorable events. It gets you really excited for Tuesday!

The show on Tuesday is as much about the contestants' trips home as it is about their performances on the show, so let's take a look at what we should expect tomorrow:

I'm sure Lee won't be losing any votes tomorrow when the producers show him weeping at his horse track concert:

Question - how can you be both a Cubs fan AND a White Sox fan? Still, throwing first pitch at Wrigley is pretty cool.

Here's a video of him crying through performing "The Boxer". He gets the tween crowd screaming when he sings the verse about sleeping with prostitutes in NYC. Stick around for him crying so hard that he can't even play "Hey Jude".:


Adam Lambert's favorite, Crystal Bowersox, had a similar trip home to Toledo as Lee did to Chicago, except for that seemingly nobody went to her parade, that based on crowd shots there were about 1/2 as many people there for her concert as for Lee's, that she got to go to a Toledo Mud Hens game instead of Lee's trip to Wrigley Field, and that she hugged a giant mascot chicken while Lee was just left alone on stage to deal with his own sobs of happiness....oh there was also more in-tune singing. Check out the video here.

Meanwhile, Casey James was escorted into his concert in Ft. Worth by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders where he sang the amazing "Wayfaring Stranger" with his mom in front of 2,000 fans who braved the rain to see him perform. Now, that's the way to do a hometown visit. Check out the video here.

And here he is doing a radio show interview:



As you all know, on the Top 3 episodes each contestant sings two songs. For one song, one of the judges picks a song for one of the contestants, and then for the second song, the contestants get to pick a song of their choice. I'm not going to guess what the contestants have picked for themselves, but I feel like I have a really good idea of what's going on inside the judges' heads. Therefore I predict the judges will pick the following songs for the finalists:

Simon Cowell will pick a song for Lee. Lee is probably the front-runner right now, so Simon will want to look like a genius for picking a song for the leader because he will then be able to pat himself on the back for giving the front runner a slam dunk song. Now, what song will Simon pick for him.....let's see - it has to be something that will make Lee look vulnerable while still showcasing his voice while, at the same time, earn Simon a ton of money.

I know! He owns the rights to Leonard Cohen's much-too-frequently covered "Hallelujah". I'm sure that will be it.



Looking into my "crystal" ball, I predict Ellen will pick a song for Crystal. Why Ellen pick for Crystal? Just a gut feeling.

I'm actually betting Ellen doesn't pick the song but is actually railroaded by the producers into giving Crystal a song....it would have to be something that would show off her range, make her comfortable in that "I don't sing any songs written in the last 15 years" kind of zone, but take her away from her guitar since she'll be relying on it for her own song choice.

I know! How about McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed"? It's right in her wheelhouse vocally, it will allow her to improvise when she wants, it allows her to where a backless dress to show off her back tat, and it will bring McCartney even more royalty fees than he's already received from the last couple seasons.



This means I predict that Kara and Randy will jointly pick a song for Casey. Kara is a little more current than Ellen and Simon, so I imagine it will be by a contemporary artist. It probably should be by someone who is known for playing the guitar. I'm guessing it will be a song that will showcase Casey's sensitive side since his own song choice will probably be a bluesy rocker. I'm also guessing Kara would subconsciously pick a song for Casey with sex on the mind.

I know! What about John Mayer's Daughters?! It's written by a sexy sleazebag, and it'd allow for Casey to simply the guitar while the camera slowly zooms in on his dreamy eyes and incredible hair.



Those are my guesses for Tuesday night.

Enjoy the top 3!