Up until the final performance show, Scooter McCorny was destined to bask in Wednesday night’s confetti shower, thanks in no small part to the judges‘ incessant pimping.  Enter a near-perfect performance by Lauren Alaina on Tuesday, and things don’t seem so cut-and-dried.

With our two honky-tonk teens neck and neck, this contest may just come down to who has the bigger high school -- the backwoods baritone or the boot-scootin’ belter.

It’s amazing that they made it this far at all, despite having some of the most memorable first auditions of the year.  As Jimmy Iovine mentioned last week, the country vote is a very powerful one.  While that has been clearly illustrated this season, it’s surprising that they didn’t cancel one another out by splitting the votes of country fans.  Instead it seems...

Well, despite the laugh-a-minute fun of hellfire and eternal damnation, Saturday’s impending Rapture does offer one downside for us sinners. With squeaky clean Lauren and Scotty undoubtedly ascending to that big honky tonk in the sky, it pretty much takes all the suspense out of which sultry singer will be crowned the next “American Idol.”

(That is, of course, if the Big Guy doesn’t take Lauren’s fashion sins into account.)

Seriously, though, with the finale only a week away, it is anyone’s guess as to who will take home the coveted title. Randy handed out “in it to win it’s” the way Schwarzenegger hands out houses to baby-mamas, while mentor Jimmy Iovine said that he’s “in love with all of them.”

With the judges displaying considerable restraint in the favoritism department, guess we...

Jesus, jeers and Journey -- those are the bullet points for this week’s performance show. And I can’t forget the fourth “J” -- jfavoritism. (The “J” is silent.) Could the judges be any more blatant about who they are (and aren’t) pushing? 

Despite James’ double diagnosis of Asperger’s and Tourette’s, it is Haley who has emerged as the underdog this season, partly do to the panel’s rough treatment of her. Her voice has the least dime-a-dozen quality to it, yet the judges continues to play mind games with her week after week.

This week bordered on cruel.

Perhaps it’s because the producers can’t figure out what part of the industry she’d fit into if she were to actually win. After several ho-hum winners, the franchise could really use an undeniable...

As you know, it has been a historic week for both the nation and the world. I’m referring, of course, to the release of Jennifer Lopez’s seventh studio album, “LOVE?” 

After all, in war or peace, "sexy" is always relevant.

As for the contestants themselves, it’s a big week for them too. In fact, Ryan called last night “one of the most important nights of the season,” reminding us that our very own historical moment is just three weeks away, when we will crown our new American Idol. Perhaps just as historical was the fact that, for the second week in a row, the ever-present will.i.am was nowhere to be found. Taking over mentoring duties instead was Sheryl Crow.

This week’s vague theme offered the contestants two chances to prove that they’re “in it to win it, dawg.” By...