It wound up being the Ides of March for Brandon, who was the first person eliminated from American Idol. The fact that he is gone is not too surprising, but the people who were in the bottom three with him not only spoke volumes about how what the audience was thinking, but also gave us a couple of patterns to look for in the upcoming weeks.

But before we get to the trends of the future, lets look at a trend that's now history...

Brandon Rogers - Weren't you ever taught in music class that if you don't know the lines, the best thing to do is fake it? Apparently not. Ironically, although that may have been the nail in the coffin, that's not why you're leaving. Your reaction to your performance may have been the most charisma we have seen out of you (which so far has been negligible), and you haven't been able to impress in any of your 4 musical outings. That's why you're going, and the trend of not having a male African-American singer go on the American Idol Tour (which is reserved for the Top 10) continues.

So what trends do we see this season so far?

1. It's a woman's world: Everyone said that the women have plastered the guys this season, and the voters backed it up by putting three guys in the bottom three. With once again none of the guys turning in anything stellar this week, they should all be worrying about the voting next week. Phil Stacey's group knows that he's in trouble, so they will be voting en masse to keep him in. That (and the fact that he actually turned in a decent performance) should keep him safe next week, but Chris Sligh or Chris Richardson or both of them will be seeing the Bottom Three for the first time if they don't step up their game.

By the way, I did call that Brandon was the person leaving - and I was right. Dial Haterade: 1-0 (and 10-3 Overall). Dial Idol (who didn't even have Brandon in their bottom three): 0-1 (and 4-9 Overall)

2. Simon Cowell can breath easier and Howard Stern is overrated: Both Howard Stern and Simon Cowell made strong statements this week - Stern putting up a campaign to have people vote for Sanjaya Malakar and Cowell declaring that he will quit the show if Malakar wins American Idol. I don't think Cowell has anything to worry about - no one in the bottom three after week 1 has won the show (though Kimberly Locke came the closest in Idol 2 by finishing in third). Stern does get points for trying something new to get attention to himself, because based on the fact that Sirius isn't going to get back anything remotely close to the 500 million that they spent on Stern, he needs all of the attention he can get.

By the way, there were three voting campaigns for Sanjaya - and he STILL came in second to last. Sanjaya better be packing those bags.

3. Genre classification. Let's see who sings what sort of genre. This will help determine who will be in trouble the next week.

Lakisha - R and B
Melinda - R and B
Stephanie - R and B
Jordin - R and B / Pop
Gina - Rock
Haley - Pop

Chris R. - Country / Adult Contemporary
Blake - Alternative / Pop
Phil S. - Adult Contemporary
Chris S. - Alternative / Pop
Sanjaya - Hawaiian/Martian/Pop

Now 4 R and B singers may be a lot to you (and they are), but the audience has shown that they can support 4 R and B singers for a while, as Idol 3 had 4 R and B singers (Fantasia Barino, LaToya London, Jennifer Hudson, and George Huff) until the Final 7. Add to it that the women have been decimating the guys in terms of performances, and they should all be safe for a while, but it wouldn't surprise me if Stephanie, the weakest of the four, shows up in the bottom three.

Who else is safe? Gina (which probably isn't so surprising) and...Haley (which probably will raise some eyebrows). Why? In addition to Haley pouring her guts out on stage, she is the only female popper and 'hottie' left. If Haley's singing can match her looks, she has final 4 potential. Gina, as the only rocker in the house, can also breath easy for the next 2-3 weeks.

Blake, who also has final 4 potential, gets the male hottie award, but he has to start selecting some mainstream music. The audience has shown that they like adult contemporary (see Aiken, Clay), but there's not enough audience for two A.C. artists, which explains why Phil Stacey is in the bottom. The fact that Phil's fans know they have to vote this week could spell trouble for Richardson, who is also in A.C., but what could bail him out is that he has also sung country and can be diverse. Chris Sligh's choices of song have been ghastly, and this past week's effort was a mess. I sense that he wasn't in the bottom three because you could only have 3 people down there. Whichever of these four singers decides to diversify out (to either pop, country or rock) and decides to actually select music that most of America has heard of (and sing it well, of course) will be the safest in the next 2 weeks, where I expect the male bloodbath to continue.

As for Sanjaya - hey, you had a good run. Getting into the Final 12 is nothing to sneeze at. The fact is that you're not going to get better, you're not going to get any of Brandon's vote (I expect that to go to his R and B brethren) and more importantly, on a night when they knew you had to get votes, the audience stuck you second to last. The role of precocious male 17 year old who got further than he should have was set the year before by Kevin Covais - and he finished in 11th. That seems to be just about accurate for you.

Safe - Lakisha, Melinda, Jordin, Gina
Sort of Safe - Haley, Blake, Chris R.
Trouble - Stephanie, Phil, Chris S., Sanjaya

G.