As you may have noticed, I stopped blogging about "Idol"'s seventh season, oh, two weeks ago. The simple truth is I was bored by it and had very, very little to say. I actually skipped an audition episode or two, which is literally the first time in five years that I missed an episode of "Idol." And that's sad for, like, a billion different reasons.So yeah, so far S7 has generally sucked. Going into Hollywood week there were maybe, MAYBE five people I could even remember, much less care about. But it's Hollywood week! My most favorite part of the

At this point I think the show is just screwing with me. Semifinals have traditionally been an opportunity to really get to know the prospective Top 12; they get carte blanche when it comes to song choice and we get lots of puff packages introducing us to their "stories" (or, really, carefully constructed character pitches). Not so this year. For reasons that completely elude me, the producers have forced theme nights onto semifinals, so this is 60's week. And rather than�legitimate introductions, we get yet more recapping of stuff we've seen. Dammit, show! I was really looking forward to this

Cycle 10 is here! Can you believe we've had 10 whole seasons of "Top Model"? That means we've met nearly 150 deluded young women who seriously think their post-teen, regular-sized bodies are going to find work on the runways of Paris. Oh, the memories.Unfortunately the CW continued its frustrating practice of airing the semifinal episode separately - in the good old days we'd get a two-hour extravaganza in which the girls were selected, and then the first challenge would follow immediately. It's so hard to get a read on any of these girls from semifinals. But I can say this

Man, that was rough. I knew going into semifinals that the guys were stronger than the girls this year - something that almost never happens, so I have to wonder if it isn't deliberate on the part of the producers. But I wasn't expecting the shiteous evening of "singing" we were subjected to last night. I enjoyed two, maybe three of the performances altogether. Out of 12. Contestant after contestant trotted out the "I'm sick" excuse, but that holds no water with me. This is your chance to impress America, girls, and most of you blew it. Kristy Lee Cook,

After a couple rough numbers in the beginning, things got pretty good. We're almost certainly going to have six very strong male singers in the Top 12, and I don't think that has ever happened on this show. There's almost always a joke contestant or two that get through. It was 70s night, which makes me wonder if we'll conclude this hellish triptych with 80s night next week. By burning off these three themes, what will they do for the rest of the season? Polka night? Novelty song night? An evening with Pat Boone? The mind reels.Also, the judges were