So Ryan introduces us to the new sparkling lights, the new elevated band section, the new mosh pit, and the new sound set. I introduce you to Jason Block as we go through the Anal-ysis of the Top 12. Tonight, the theme is the Lennon-McCartney Songbook. Each of the 12 get one song. It's not just the Beatles. Some of the music from The Rolling Stones and other Rock Bands will be in play. The group has had more #1 writing hits than any other group. We'll see who can take advantage ot the songbook - and who won't.

After hearing Randy yammer about how the songbook, Paula yammer about changing the songs up, Simon yammer about the difficulty level of the song, and Ryan...just yammer, we start the show with Syesha Mercado.

Syesha Mercado starts us up with 'Got To Get You Into My Life'. Need I remind her that the last singer who starts us off was Ashia'h Epperson - and she's no longer on the show. Can Syesha avoid the same fate?

The Good - She picked a nice song to start the show off with. She has a nice 'performance' aspect of the song and she finishes it off with a flourish.

The Bad - She is completely not in tune with the band in the first part of the song, and it sounds like she's the tape backup to an Ashley Simpson concert. She also butchers some of the money notes on the second part of the song. It seems like she's overthinking, and that's not good. She almost pulls a Brandon Rogers and blanks out on the lyrics.

The Jason - A safe, jazz version of this song. Won't help her, but won't hurt her. The risk wasn't that good. But she is safe this week.

The Verdict - I'm not sure about safe. Once again, we have timid, overcautious Syesha, and although that will get her past the round of 24, it will not get her past the round of 12. If Chikezie and Ramiele blow the roof off of their songs, Syesha could have some problems 24 hours from tonight.

Speaking of Chikezie, he thought he was leaving last week. Maybe he should have - he needs to improve tremendously if he needs to survive this week. He goes with 'She's A Woman' and is going to get funky with it.

The Good - MUCH better than last week's performance. He's in tune and rocks out the song. Rocks out the song? Yep. And he sings the snot out of it. Nice rendition.

The Bad - I was getting very very concerned about the song choice. The issue is that with all of those great song choices, he picks one that's not very known, and unless he does what he did on the song, it could have come back to bite him. how many 20-30 year olds know that song?

The Cheesy - What's up with running and bouncing around the stage on Ryan Seacrests's command? That's Cheesy, Chikezie.

The Jason - A bluegrass/rock fusion that was a great risk and it's paid off in a big way. Gordon, you are right. Syesha could be in trouble tonight.

The Verdict - Great performance from Chikezie. If most of the performances are Chikezie-esque, and not Syesha-esque, then Syesha may be upgraded to deep trouble.

Ramiele Malubay dedicated 'In My Life' to the people departed from the song. If she doesn't perform well, she'll be joining them.

The Good - ...I like her hair. It's nice and long. And the black and white dress was nice.

The Bad - What sort of song is that? I'm getting both bored and sleepy, and I may have to replace episodes of Welcome to the Captain with this song as a cure for insomnia. I've never heard it before, and as she's constantly flat throughout the song, I'm not sure I ever want to hear it again.

The Jason - Turns a sweet introspective song into a Mariah Carey ballad. I disagree with the judges. I dont think it was as safe as the judges do.

The Verdict - Randy nailed it on the head. It was a very boring song choice. A very safe and boring selection that you could hear in any Karaoke bar. And in this stage of the game, safe and boring will get you booted. The dedication may have turned into a self-eulogy.

Jason Castro will be singing 'If I Fell', which we're hoping he doesn't do on this stage. Then again, I don't expect him to run around the stage with a guitar, so his coordination should be ok.

The Good - He brings the guitar. He sings good. The guitar sounds good. Everything sounds good. And his interaction with the camera makes his performance much better...

The Bad - ...than he actually sounds. He bails himself out in the second half, because the first half sounds blah. I think he could have selected a much better choice of song. With his vocal range switching up and down, I felt like I was going up and down like the waves on a cruise ship - and it sounded like a cruise ship performance.

The Jason - Nice, stripped down ballad with the string arrangement. Very good use of the guitar. Moves up on my power chart this week.

The Verdict - Not as boring as Ramiele, because he made love to the camera, but a definite step down from last week. He really doesn't need Idol. He can just release an album now and the kids will go running to buy it. And as boring as I think the song is, it's a perfect choice for his voting contingency, so he'll be fine.

Carly Smithson may pop out of her clothes. Yipes. She sings 'Come Together', which could also describe her wardrobe. Will her performance finally come together?

The Good - I love this song, and Carly brings justice to it. She rocks out this song. She reminds me of what Katherine McPhee did with Black Horse and the Cherry Tree - and I mean that in a good way. Like Jason Castro, she emoted to you through the television set.

The Bad - She looked evil. Between her tattoos and her piercing eyeballs, it seemed like she wanted to possess you through your television set. She may want to audition for the role of Samara in The Ring 3. Will people vote for the evil scary woman?

The Jason - Hurt....me. Sexy and fun. She has a little Joplinesqie twist to this. And she is scaring me...in a good way. Best performance of the night so far.

The Verdict - Best performance of the night so far. Carly will definitely pick up some more fan base this week. She sang amazingly well and the best that I've heard her. Amanda Overmyer better represent or she could have massive problems this evening.

David Cook gets to sing Eleanor Rigby and all the lonely people. He says that he needs to leave it on the stage and he needs to rock it out - a B+ effort won't do it tonight - and certainly not after Carly's performance.

The Good - He does the one thing that no one else has done so far - go for an aggressive money note selection and nails it. He's smart to realize that he doesn't need the guitar on this song, as it would have taken away from the performance. He rocks out on the show. And the jacket looks nice.

The Bad - VERY shaky at the beginning of the song. Safe doesn't cut it at this part when you have to stand out on your own, which he almost didn't do. And he did not get the lyrics right at the beginning of the song.

The Jason - Where as last week, his version of "Hello" rocked it, this one is an unmitigated failure. He is in big trouble.

The Verdict - I will disagree with Jason. What hurts him is that he shows up right after Carly, but that second half of the song really bailed him out. Said second half is the best male performance that I've heard in the past few weeks, and as you can hear from the screaming women, the audience agrees. He set the bar for Michael Johns to surpass. If Michael doesn't show up, he could have some issues this evening.

Brooke White leads off the second half of the show with 'Let It Be'. Hopefully, her fan base won't do the same thing with their phone lines.

The Good - The piano returns for the song, and she slightly countrifies the song, making it a combination of country and the Tori Amos rendition of the song. Both of these things work for the better. The strong vocals helped, as did the power in her voice.

The Bad - Watch out for the pacing. Brooke starts to speed up the second half and needs the band to bring her back down to tempo. The back of the dress looks like someone tooks some plastic Dixie cups, dipped the bottom in grape juice, and gave it to some 6 year old to place all over it.

The Jason - This is a safe song choice. This has been done this way a thousand times before. But people have done worse tonight. So I don't see anything bad happening tonight.

The Verdict - Here's why this performance works. She takes the song and dresses it down to a country twang. She makes it a completely different genre (country) than anyone else, and caters to the audience very, very well. Assuming no one else goes country, it's a perfect song selection, and that could put Kristy Lee Cook on notice.

David Hernandez decides to rock it out with 'I Saw Her Standing There'. Hopefully his performance won't leave us standing their with our mouths agape in horror.

The Good - It's a fun, fluffy Taylor Hicks-esque performance. He hits the notes properly and he puts on a good show.

The Bad - Unfortunately, he reminded me more of Phil Stacey running around - and no, it's not a compliment. I do not like this arrangement of the song. Him running around the stage not only reeks of vaudeville, but it also feels like something that you...and please pardon art imitating life here...would probably find in a gay cabaret bar, right after the drag queens remove their tassles and strut off the stage and before the Project Runway finalists unveil their clothing collections.

The Jason - One word...Cheese-tastic. This is a true karaoke cruise ship performance. He could be in the bottom tonight.

The Verdict - When the feedback talks during the judges criticisms, then that's trouble. His performances pales in comparison to the other powerhouse performances. Simon calls him a rabbit caught in the headlights. What happens to the rabbit when he's caught in the headlights? He turns into roadkill.

Amanda Overmyer singe 'You Can't Do That'. There are so many ways we can go with this, but we'll take the high road and hope she can't get booted this week.

The Good - The confident Amanda with a swagger returns, which is a good thing. She puts on a very good performance with that song, and you can hear a Janice Joplin influence to it. And she hits a very nice money note at the end.

The Bad - The song choice, to put it nicely, was terrible. I couldn't understand a lot of what she's singing, and because it's not a popular song, neither will the rest of the audience. And the beads, along with the funky dress, makes it look like she's going to a luau.

The Jason - Remember when Gordon said Amanda would be in trouble if she didn't bring it? Well, consider it NOT brought. In the bottom with David. She is all over the place...and that outfit is TERRIBLE.

The Verdict - This is a strange dichotomy. She actually had a really good performance, but the bad song choice is going to hurt her. Add to the fact that the rockers are more likely to vote for Carly and her excellent performance, and Amanda is going to have problems surviving this week.

Michael Johns sings 'Across the Universe'. Will it be a good song or will he be universally panned?

The Good - He sings the song well - or as well as you're going to get with a song that's vocally limited like that. it sounded nice and sweet and peppy and...

The Bad - ...ho hum. How many times are we going to hear another safe, non vocal-stretching performance from Michael? Safe, bland and milquetoast. Yuck. Boooooo. A special BOOOOO goes to the audience, who apparently have no sense of pacing, as they can't wave their arms back and forth to the rhythm in time. Boooooooooo.

The Jason - This is why David Archuleta has to watch his back. Very good stripped down performance. Not sleepy and boring for me.

The Verdict - ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz. He reminds me of the 'B' student. Good enough to get by, but not being placed into the elite group. I don't think he's going to be eliminated tonight, but with David Cook and Carly and even Amanda going balls to the wall, it wouldn't surprise me if he showed up in the bottom 3.

Kristy Lee Cook decides to go country with '8 Days a Week'. She hopes to impress this week - and she really needs to, because Brooke White earlier set the bar very very high.

The Good - I like the shirt. Very very sparkly. And the hair bounces around. She's technically competent and the pitch is not awful. And at least she took a risk...

The Bad - ...but it clearly did not pay off. What. Was. That? The arrangement is terrible, her vocals are not as strong as Brooke, and the band sounds like they are playing the song on a merry-go-round while guzzling down gallons of Jolt while she is on stage playing with the pigs at the West Chester County Fair.

The Jason - WTF? This is where the risk doesn't pay off. Horrible arrangement and bad, bad, bad. I found my third person in trouble.

The Verdict - Simon's comment of 'Dolly Parton on Helium' isn't too far off. I didn't know whether to laugh or cringe. Not only did she do herself no favors, but she probably sent most of the country vote running and screaming over to Brooke.

We end the show with David Archuleta, , who sings 'We Can Work It Out'. Can he work out last week's not-as-amazing performance?

The Good - A great choice for a number of reasons. It's a youthful happy song, that is a very good change of pace from the slow songs. The second half of a song bails him out.

The Bad - A brutal first half of the song. Complete with lyric mangling, lack of pitch hitting and vocally retreating when you know you made a mistake. And NEVER show that you made a mistake. You have to keep powering through it. And for the third straight week, the person who performed last has stunk up the building.

The Jason - He is human. He forgets lyrics. He can give bad performances. We'll forgive him this week

The Verdict - This is a good reason on why you always sing well and don't hold back on your repertoire. If this was Kristy Lee Cook or Amanda Overmyer, they are gone. But David has had some amazing performances, so he'll survive this mess. Don't make it a habit though.

Final Verdict - As much as I hate to be the Idol machine, this is the best Top 12 show ever. Over half of the performances were really good, and some of the efforts were fantastic. But we're not in a 'Everyone gets a Gold Star' sort of world, so I won't be either.

Who SHOULD be in Trouble - Syesha Mercado, David Archuleta, Ramiele Malubay

Should - but won't be. Mercado, Archuleta and Malubays fan bases are way too strong as of right now. Instead, let's go to the singers who got drilled into the floor by their same genre'd counterparts.

Trouble - Kristy Lee Cook, David Hernandez, Amanda Overmyer

Overmyer had a brutal choice of song, but she'll get to go back to the happy couch, because she had a good enough performance. So who leaves? The country woman who gets an awful performance? Or the stripper who had a brutal week this week and let it get to him on his mediocre performance? I'll go with the person who didn't sing bad enough for people to think he was in trouble, but who didn't sing good enough to get a fan base to vote for him, whereas Kristy Lee Cook's audience knows they have to vote for her I think the scared bunny in the headlights is about to come face to face with a Mack Truck.

Out - David Hernandez

(The Jason - Trouble - Kristi Lee Cook, Amanda Overmeyer, David Hernandez. Amanda Overmeyer - OUT.)

We'll see what happens in 24 hours.