Ladies and Gentlemen – Brenda is back.

Last year’s most successful picker has found her spot back at the top of the leaderboard. I’m excited, and yet, suspicious. I’ll have to make a trip out to San Diego soon to test her DVR for temporal tampering.

Next on the list are Greg, Lori and Stacie each with 7 points and one correct pick for the week: Andrew Garcia. Stacie (our former top picker) noted in her email: “Great show last night! This is getting hard!!!  I thought Lambert did a good job as a  judge, but it seems like they are having a hard time getting amazing famous people to come on the show….As for the worst two….that would have to be Andrew and Aaron.”

They may have been the worst, but America apparently wanted to keep Aaron around a little longer.

Tied for third place we have Amanda, Amber, Eric, Jen, Johanna, Kristen, Rich and Stephanie. Amber, like most of us, also picked Andrew and Aaron to take a hike: “My picks to go home are the always dreadful Andrew Garcia and sweet, but lost Aaron Kelly.  He looked terrified!!”

Next up, we have Beau, G and Jon with 5 points each, and Kori with 4.

As for the best performer of the week and Lambert-as-mentor reviews, I have some fun quotes from the emails, enjoy!

Stephanie: Surprisingly, I like Adam Lambert more now than I did when he was on the show. He seemed much more genuine and really tried to help the contestants. He definitely wasn’t afraid to give them advice – which I think they needed, and unfortunately some of the contestants didn’t listen… too bad for them!

Jon: I though Adam was great….I like him a lot. He should have won last
year. I liked Bowersox and Lee the best.

Rich: Lambert is a wanker, he repeated the same crap over and over.  He was coached to be a coach.  Between Miley and him they are looking desperate for mentors…As far as best, I wasn’t thrilled with any of them.  Lambert and Daughtry used to give me chills sometimes, these guys all suck ass.

Kori: I think Lee did the best, closely followed by Crystal. Those two are in a different league in my mind. I thought Adam Lambert did great!  He gave a lot of really good advice….much better than Miley Cyrus!!

G: I liked Lambert’s intro letting them know he was just a the beginning of his career, but knew where they were in the competition and I think he pin-pointed them as far as where they need to step it up…

Amber: It was hard to pick a best of the night because I felt they were all a bit underwhelming, but I’d have to give that to Lee, I’ll need a cough drop once I’m done singing, Dewyze.  He botched the lyrics but his performance seemed to be the only one to really reach the all important “current” status. And even though I think its way too soon to have Adam as a ‘mentor,’ he did a pretty good job.  He was honest with the contestants and when they followed his advice, it seemed to work out for the best.

See you guys next week!

Everybody earned at least 1 point this week. Only five of us, however, correctly picked Didi Benami as the American Idol contestant who would be booted this week. Well done Brenda, G, Kori, Kristen and Rich! You guys are now in spitting distance of Stacie’s first place spot! Well, all of you except for G. Picking Didi last week didn’t work out so well, did it?

Our fearless leader, Stacie, was going back and forth this week between Didi and Katie. When she told me her pick, I noted: “If you’re right, you’ll be way in the lead!!! Good luck!!!” To which she responded, “Haha I’m not sure. A part of me thinks Didi but I just hated Katie’s outfit…I couldn’t watch her lol!”

Picking the loser based on wardrobe? Interesting strategy. Not one I would have adopted, but then again, Katie was in the bottom three!

Everyone else in the pool picked Tim to go home, and we were rewarded with 1 adorable point each. Speaking of adorable, Amber wrote in her email: “My pick to go home this week is Tim Urban – as adorable (drink!) as he is, i think it’s his time to go.”

So Tim Urban is still in the competition. Stupid Vote for the Worst website. I don’t want to believe that they have any effect on the Idol results, but looking at contestants like Tim and even Sanjaya from two years ago, I have to wonder…

See you all next week!

So that’s 2 points for Amanda, Amber, Brenda, Eric, Greg, Jen, Johanna, Jon, Kori, Kristen, Lori, Rich, Stacie and Stephanie. Let’s see….did I miss anyone?

Oh yeah! What the heck Beau and G? Beau picked Tim Urban (probably off the top of his head due to not watching) and G picked Didi…but why?

Our returning champion, Staice, is in first place again this week with 4 total points. She noted in her email: “Paige Miles goooooooo  home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is my vote fo’ sure!”

Of course, my favorite email this week came from Amber: “Wow!  So many terrible performances to choose from!  I think a fun drinking game is to down a beer every time a performance is just horrible in every way – you’ll be drunk in no time!!

But my pick to go home this week is Paige Miles (best comment ever – “at least you didn’t fall down.”)”

The craziest part for me was when they showed Richard and how he got to the island. When he met up with Jacob for the first time I………oh………wait. That’s Lost. =)

See you all next week!