9 Lives Left

(Click on the chart to view standings)

To see everyone's picks and a full standings breakdown, click here.

Another week of IDOL has come and gone and taken roughneck, Michael Sarver with it. Sarver's departure was overdue according to most of you but not for Amy A. who lost one of her top 4 and fell out of first place giving us a new leader by the name of Melissa Clement.

All in all I'd have to call Motown week a bit of a disappointment, but that's coming from a guy who holds Motown music as some of the best ever written. For me, it's hard for anyone to do justice to these songs - especially when compared to Mike Siciliano's fully-choreographed serenades in the offices of lakings.com.

The night's biggest disappointment (besides Megan Joy not being voted off) had to be Lil. The judges were right, it should have been her night. With so many great songs to choose from, "Heatwave" was a weak choice. After two luke-warm performances, Lil's breakout performance in the top 36 is starting to feel like a fluke.

Another favorite, Danny Gokey was good, but how do you blow off arrangement advice from Smokey Robinson?! Danny got off easy because the show was running late but I would have love to see him get called out for that with Smokey sitting in the front row.

There were some bright spots in week 3 though. Even the harshest Adam Lampbert critics among us (wait, is that just me?) were impressed by his stripped-down take on "Tracks of My Tears". I don't exactly see how that fits with his manic performances of weeks past, and I'd still call him the most overrated contestant in American Idol history (yeah, that's right) ... but it was good dog, it was good.

Tops for the night though was Allison Iraheta, who picked a tough song in "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" and knocked it out of the box. I'm usually pretty tough on the 16 year olds, but this girl can blow!

In the pool, Melissa takes over the lead in both earned and potential points but Amy A. is still in the hunt. The Hunts occupy 2nd place at the moment but picking Alexis to win will be their downfall. As the field narrows it's getting tougher and tougher to make a comeback but some people in the middle of the pack still have great potential. (Hint: the numbers in red are what really matters and they can only go down!)

Mums the word on this week's theme but the Idols will have their work cut out for them. The Swami says: "I hate to say it, but Scott MacIntyre's time is drawing to a close."