BONUS PICKS - TOP 24

Now that you have seen the performances, it is time to make some educated picks. You have FOUR bonus picks that are due before the results show on Thursday. They are worth 8, 6, 4 and 2 points. You can assign them to ANY of the contestants. If they are voted off, you will get the bonus point that you assigned to them.
For example, let's pretend that people will get voted off because of their hair. In that case, my picks might look something like this ...

8. Garrett Haley
6. Amanda Overmyer
4. Colton Berry
2. Ramiele Malubay or David Cook

Two guys and two girls will be voted off on Thursday - but you don't have to assign your bonus picks to two girls and two guys - you can do any configuration you want.

So MAKE YOUR PICKS BEFORE 7PM THURSDAY.

For those of you who are still wasting your time reading this post, here is something I like to call ...


RANDOM THOUGHTS FROM THIS WEEK'S PERFORMANCES


Is anyone else starting to think that Paula might have been the speech writer for Caitlin Upton on Miss Teen USA? The whole "the Iraq" thing makes at least as much sense as the gibberish dribbling out of Paula's mouth.

This year's cast is not quite as talented as I thought it was going to be.

Was anyone else reminded of Wayne Kirkpatrick's voice during Garrett's performance? (I love Wayne's voice by the way)

Michael Johns made David Cook look like a bar-band singer from Missouri. No comparison.

I enjoyed Jason Castro's performance but I didn't think his voice was all that great and was honestly a bit weirded out at some of his facial expressions.

What was Chikezie wearing?

Danny Noriega got bad comments from the judges - but it wasn't so bad to me. I guess I was just expecting something horribly offensive - so it was a pleasant surprise.

Alaina Whitaker (whom I will now call Carrie Underage) was surprisingly good and confident while Kristy Lee Cook was surprisingly not.

Alexandrea was very entertaining and I think she did a great job - but her voice was not good enough. She can't belt out the high notes.

Amanda Overmyer was the best of the night for the girls in my opinion.

Amy Davis was horrible.

The way my Mrs. Commissioner watched Luke Menard - I could tell that he is the male answer to Antonella Barba. That means it is only a matter of time before we hear about his sex tape.

Every time Paula said that Robbie Carrico was "authentic" I wanted to stab her in the eye with one of those corn on the cob holders. Simon said he didn't believe it. Robbie followed that up by saying "This is me" while pointing to the chains hanging down from both sides of his jeans. What is that supposed to prove? That you buy your clothes online from Hot Topic?

I kept turning to Jill throughout the girls performance saying that Syesha was going to "bring it". She didn't. She was definitely charismatic, but she was missing all of the big notes. Last year Melinda hit EVERY note.

Kady Malloy should never try to sing vocal runs ever again.

Joanne was no LaKisha.

Does it make me a crotchety old man if I agree with almost everything Simon says?

Brooke White is as nice as her earrings are big. Unfortunately there is a lot of ground between her and the really good performers.

I was surprised by what the judges said about Carly. I didn't think it was THAT good and I thought the song she picked was awful. Also, for a few seconds of that performance I thought I was looking at Steve Perry.