Round of 7: Country Night - April 17

Gordon: Country Music. Simon Cowell thinks it sucks. One of the 7 singers in Idol will agree with him in around an hour. I am Gordon Pepper and welcome to another Idol Roundtable. Joining us is the Candian Handicapper extraordinaire, Don Harpwood
Don: Yo!
Gordon: Also joining us is Grandma Pepper.
Grandma Pepper: Hi Fellas! Let's see how it goes with their country music song choices.
Gordon: We do our usual Safe, Trouble, Out with...

PHIL STACEY

Grandma Pepper: Really good opener. Okay for now.
Don: Should be good enough to finally pull him out of the bottom 3. Safe.
Jason: 'When The Black Top Ends' by Keith Urban. Showed a lot of passion and heart tonight. Bought himself another week. SAFE.
Gordon: I think he did a good job. I just don't see him getting more votes than 3 other people. Trouble.

JORDIN SPARKS

Grandma Pepper: She did it. She made Martina McBride proud. Way Safe.
Don: Definitely safe.
Jason: Not only was it the performance of the night...I think it was the performance of the year so far. This is what AI is all about. A true star making performance. SAFE. I think that this is what makes a resume for the winning Idol. I think that she not only cemented herself this week, she cemented a path to the finals

SANJAYA MALAKAR

Grandma Pepper: I'm with Simon. Utterly Horrendous. Bottom three for sure. TROUBLE
Jason: Now, when I watched this I thought 2 things...a) how horrible he is and b) how amazing Angela Hacker was when she did a different Bonnie Raitt song on Nashville Star. Passion by Angela--poison by Sanjaya. OUT!
Don: While I think his fans may continue to keep him in, I also think he's in Trouble this time.
Gordon: I think he's worse than trouble. He came in last in a Vote-For-The-Worst vote. That says OUT

LAKISHA JONES

Grandma Pepper: I do not think that country-gospel was a good choice for Idol. I didn't like her song choice. Watch it. TROUBLE
Don: I did not like her performance. I get the feeling that we may have an upset here. Out.
Jason: - A two-fold mistake...a) not doing the song justice and b) screaming your lungs out 1/2 way through the song. TROUBLE.
Gordon: I think that she deserves to be in the bottom three - but I think the gap between the women and men is too great for now - Safe.

CHRIS RICHARDSON

Grandma Pepper: Not a good performance. I think he is going home tonight. OUT.
Don: Trouble. After his performance, I thought one thing: "Meh."
Jason: - 'Mayberry' by Rascal Flatts. A mess on all fronts. I don't see the Chaos Theory holding up here. TROUBLE.
Gordon: It was awful. But I don't think he was awful enough for his fan base to stop voting for him and I see the Chaos Theory Holding up. Safe

MELINDA DOOLITTLE

Don: Safe.
Grandma Pepper: Can there be any doubt about Melinda? Safe
Jason: - This was fun, sassy and she nailed the song. SAFE.
Gordon: She's safe. Great job.

BLAKE LEWIS

Grandma Pepper: For me, just ok, but he's safe
Don: I'm a bit worried about him this week, but I think he'll be safe.
Jason: - He would be in trouble any other week, but he is saved by three awful performances. SAFE.
Gordon: I think that tonight is weird. Any of 5 people could be in trouble, and I'm going to go for the surprise. TROUBLE

Gordon: And we are...LIVE! We start with Simon apologizing if he thought that he was disrespecting the people on Virginia Tech. We then get to Simon going after Chris, Sanjaya and Lakisha about in the recap. Ryan goes out into the street again. The general public's opinion, though, is that the guys don't have it and Sanjaya needs to go
Don: I wouldn't mind seeing Sanjaya finally leaving...
Gordon: We get the group medley of the singers singing 'I'm All Right'. They all sang very well in the medley. Now where in the world was this yesterday?
Don: Good question.
Grandma Pepper: I liked the medley
Don: Ditto.
Gordon: And now... a mesaage from Chairman Chico Alexander

Alright. I'm ready to judge, but instead of judging singer by singer, I'm going to just judge the group as a whole, because you know, this is the dread round of 7. Okay. First of all ... round of 7, when things historically go bad...PLUS the fact that the majority of the singers didn't stand out insomuch as Jordin and Melinda did...equals what I said last week... when this happens, get ready for chaos (TM). Jordin and Melinda... they're golden. Which leaves the trouble pool to five. Could make a case for Chris being saved due to his appearance in the bottom three last week, which leaves four. Phil... is actually in his element. DialIdol predicts his safety. That leaves only three... and it takes three to make a bottom three...So in a bit of should and will. Should: Chris, LaKisha, Sanjaya. Will... Blake, LaKisha, Sanjaya. Of those three... well, let me say first and foremost that I wouldn't be surprised if any one of the five were to end up going home. But Chico's final judgment.. Redoble, por favor... Trouble: Blake, LaKisha. Out: Sanjaya.

Gordon: Idol Gives Back - April 25th. That's...next week. This week's Idol Challenge winner - Christina Keaton This week's question - Which finalist this year was 'The Rocker'. Duh. A. Brandon Rogers. B. Stephanie Edwards. C. Gina Glocksen. D. Duane Johnson. We get a clip of what the Idolists listen to. Melinda gets her Jesus on, Blake goes Alternative. Jordin says Fergie, Phil goes Willie Nelson, Chris says Peter Noone (blah) Lakisha goes Yolanda Adams,
and...we don't hear what Sanjaya thinks. This week's idol performance...Fergie??!!?
Don: I thought this was Country week...
Gordon: Well, this is sort of country, but I was hoping for some Martina McBride. She sounds good though
Don: True.
Grandma Pepper: I thought she was great. I liked her song
Gordon: Just to show that good music is good music, regardless of the age range
Gordon: Ford commercial time. We play who took the briefcase? Sanjaya took it - but he gets caught by everyone else.
Don: Inside the briefcase: car keys.
Gordon: And we hear a blurb on Idol Gives Back
Don: Sounds awesome.
Gordon: 7 people. 2 groups of 3. Sanjaya goes to the right. Phil goes to the left. Jordin joins... Phil. Lakisha joins...Sanjaya. Blake joins Lakisha. Chris goes to Phil and Jordin. Melinda is...safe, and is told to go to the group that is the 'safe' group. Melinda decides to not bother and sits down in the middle of the stage. Ryan tells her to her left. Phil, Jordin, Chris and
Melinda are all safe. The judges are stunned that Blake is in the bottom three. I'm
not that stunned. Neither is Chico. What happened, Donut?
Don: Oh. Um, I don't know...
Grandma Pepper: Yay, Martina!
Gordon: Martina's daughter says that everyone is good and Ryan calls her Paula. Martina, meanwhile, throws the show into break.
Don: Nice performance by Martina,
Gordon: Safe is...Blake. So either Don's choics is out...or my choice is out. Over 38 million votes.....Sanjaya....is out!. And there is excessive applause. We have a huge long hug in the center of the stage. Sanjaya is crying, and it only shows you that he is human too. Lakisha was crying as well. I know a lot of people are gonna say this... FINALLY!
Don: Honestly, I'm actually glad to be wrong about who's going home this week.
Grandma Pepper: He's gone, but he won't be forgotten...at least for the next couple of months
Gordon: Sanjaya says to give them something to talk about besides hair. Welllll...maybe you shouldn't have pressed it. Let's press that leaderboard.

Trouble: Blake, LaKisha. Out: Sanjaya.

Jason: 21
Chico: 21
Don: 20
Gordon: 20
Grandma Pepper: 18

Gordon: And that's another week of Idol. Join us in 7 days for more results fun.