American Idol Taylor started off...

American Idol
Taylorstarted off the show with an underwhelming "Easy." I like his voice, but one more "whoo" might end my goodwill toward him forever. Smooth and soulful Elliott had another fantastic night. I'm not familiar with the jazzy tune he performed, but he handled the offbeat tempo and phrasing effortlessly

I agreed with Simon Cowell about Ace's singing. He looks the part and you can just see the judges counting his eventual ticket and CD sales in their heads, but tonight he was way off; dull, flat and his high notes cracked like cheap china. Did ya catch Brenna practically body-slam the other girls to catch his "beanie"? Gedeon really surprised me, doing a fantastic job on a great Sam Cooke track, but it's interesting that the judges didn't tell him to hop back into the "young" box. 

Was it just me or was the whole Chicken Little thing with Kevin a bit cruel? At least he had a good sense of humor. Oh, and Ryan Seacrest, please don't ever say "gangsta" again. As for Sway, I've already asked nicely for you Idol wannabes to leave Stevie Wonder alone. Maybe after tonight you'll finally listen. I'll throw in a Whitney Houston moratorium as well, unless your name happens to be Mandisa.

Poor Will keeps getting slammed by the judges, but his version of "Lady" wasn't too bad, just a bit heavy on the Broadway-style overenunciation. But the mature lyrics of the song were all kinds of wrong for the kid. Almost as wrong as whatever was going on with Ryan Seacrest after the performance. Did Ryan just fly in from Neverland Ranch or something?

The last three guys all stayed in their comfort zone, with varying results. The menu-confused Bucky had a great time with Garth Brooks, while David Radford should have hit a homer with the crooner classic "The Way You Look Tonight," but he just looked defeated. Chris had the best night of all, bringing down the house like a true rocker and getting a big ol' bear hug from our overly grabby host. Seacrest: out... of control.   Ken McGilvray