I think we've reached the point in the season where I need to start lowering my expectations. It's not that last night's "Idol" was terrible - the lows weren't as low as last week's Group 1, that's for sure. But the highs also weren't as high. It was just a leaden, largely unentertaining slog through two hours of mostly amateurish singing. Was anybody else as bored as I was?

Jasmine Murray is only 17, and chose "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles. The sound levels were all mixed up when she started, and the beginning was way too low for her, while the end was too high. (Why do these kids do this? Surely they must know these songs are not in their range, and yet they insist on picking them. Maddening.) She had no idea what she was doing, and it ended up sounding like barely passable karaoke. There's something about Jasmine's voice that naturally sounds a little flat, so the whole thing was discordant. She's in trouble.

Matt Giraud had big buzz coming into last night, and left with virtually no chance of moving forward. He chose "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay, an epic song totally out of his whispy-voiced, melisma-filled wheelhouse. His vibrato was terrible, and he was frequently sharp. It was not appealing to listen to at all. The falsetto notes were cringe-inducing, and his flourishes were poorly placed. He drained all the drama out of the song by mid-point, and made some of the ugliest singing faces I've ever seen. If he makes it through I'll be furious; that was shamefully bad.

Jeanine Vailes. "This Love" by Maroon 5. Here's what I have in my notes while watching Jeanine: "FIND THE PITCH, BITCH!" The beginning of the song was ROUGH, although she got better the longer it went on. Her freestyle moaning toward the end was...not good. It's just forgettable, and the one thing a Who? contestant like Jeanine could not afford was to be forgettable. The judges savaged her. I thought she was better than the two before her.

Nick Mitchell came out as Normund Mitchell and "sang" "And I Am Telling You" from "Dreamgirls." I don't know what to do here. How do you judge this? He wasn't even really singing for the most part, just shouting in rhythm - and even THAT was nasally all up in the nasal. This is farce. This is not singing. I don't understand how the other contestants are even competing against this. It's like he's on a completely different show. After his embarrassing "performance," the judges fell all over themselves (except Simon, who hated him) about how "entertaining" it was. But seriously? Nick's not even funny, or entertaining. Go see a real drag queen. This was like amateur hour at the stand-up club, and even that's giving him too much credit. Seacrest is funnier than Nick. I hate this whole thing more than a dozen Tatianas.

Alison Iraheta is 16 and completely awful at interviews. I can't decide if she's really shy/teenage awkward or perhaps a little dim. She so badly needs a makeover. THE. HAIR. She chose Heart's "Alone," a bold choice considering how completely Cunderwood owned that song back in S4. Alison's voice is very raw, and she put everything she had into the performance. It was a little screechy and growly, a little flat at times. But really, it wasn't bad. She put it all out there, and I can respect that. The judges blew huge quantities of smoke up her ass, but truly, she probably was the most engaging girl of the night.

Kris Allen I don't remember seeing at all prior to last night. He's very cute; like Hal Sparks' younger, less annoying brother. And he chose "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson. And...WTF? There are random song choices, and then there is "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson. Who even remembers that song exists, much less decides to sing it for a national talent show? Mind. Boggling. Kris had a rough start - another song that was too low! - but he was quite good when he got to the higher parts. That said, this still isn't a great vocal showcase song. Who chooses "Man in the Mirror?" That is deeply troubling to me.

Megan Corkrey. I HATED this girl in her initial audition. She comes off as iconoclastic weird girl that you can't put in a package, man. And honestly I think most of it is bullshit. She chose "Put Your Record On." I...hate that song, so it's a perfect song choice for her. Thing is: she did pretty well with it. Megan puts on this totally different voice when she sings. It's hyper-articulated and filled with these weird vocal tics, but it's not terrible. What is terrible is her performance. She kept making these awkward movements that were beyond distracting; my friend thought she was having a stroke. She can actually sing. I just wish she'd stop being such a spazz.

Matt Breitzke chose "If You Could Only See" by Tonic, which did nothing to disabuse me of the notion that he's just a really good bar singer. He's not a star. His dancing moves were terrible, and while he sung the song competently, he put absolutely nothing into it. It was so boring that I mentally checked out for a few minutes and started planning my lunch for the next day. There was no power, no passion to it whatsoever. And him getting lippy with Simon does not help in my book. There's confident, and then there's cocky, and he was coming off the latter. I'm hopeful that Sarver will have pulled the blue collar vote, because Matt really doesn't deserve to advance any further. He's redundant at best, and filler at worst, and could very well take a seat from Kris Allen or someone else with a legitimate shot.

Jesse Langseth got big points for choosing "Bette Davis Eyes." Love the song, love Kim Carnes, but it started off really karaoke. It got better as she went along and Jesse became more comfortable, although her moves were extremely awkward. Girl can sing, but I'm not sure she has any shot in this competition. I actually thought Randy made a lot of sense in his criticism of the song choice. Shocking! Jesse is trying too hard. And I think she's vaguely off-putting.

Kai Kalama chose "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" and brought nothing special to it aside from his Sideshow Bob hair. He sang it well, although Simon was right on when he said it was something you'd hear at a wedding. Certainly it sounded old-fashioned. His poodle hair is terrible; he'd look so much better with a close-cropped ‘do. I think he's in trouble with that forgettable performance.

Mishavonna Henson selected Train's "Drops of Jupiter." It wasn't not terrible, but again, not memorable. Her falsetto is not great, but at least she had gusto. Her tone can get harsh when she pushes too hard, and she got a little off-key toward the end. I just didn't see anything special about her in that performance.

Adam Lambert wears a lot of make-up. He picked "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones, and started by David Cook-ing it, all slow and broody. Then the tempo picked up and he went full-on cheesy. The judges called it a love-it-or-hate-it performance, and man, dif I hate it. He esd so manic and lame and squealy! There was nothing sexy about this performance, and "Satisfaction" is all about sex. He can sing, but it was just so overdone. I love that Randy called him "the most current artist we've ever seen" and then mentioned Steven Tyler from Aerosmith. Very topical!

My predictions: Adam probably has it for the boys, even though I like him less every time I see him perform. Kris and maybe Matt are still in the running, and I don't know what to think about the wild card that is Nick/Normund. For the girls, Alison should get the nod, with only Megan giving her a run for it. The rest of those girls are pretty much toast.