'American Idol' Keeps Things Interesting as Top 10 Turns Top 9

It was an interesting day on "American Idol" Thursday as the Top 10 turned Top 9.

Normally on elimination nights, it’s the big vote off that’s supposed to leave us shocked. In this case there was nothing surprising about who went home, but plenty of jaw-dropping elements in just about every other part of the show, starting right at the very beginning with the group song.

Singing a Motown medley, the contestants seemed more like they were choreographed to defy critics of lip-synching than to show off their own skills. At one point, every contestant was in the middle of the stage — nowhere near the microphones — in a blatant attempt to demonstrate that they weren’t pretending to sing live.

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But isn’t that the whole idea? We all know Britney lip-synchs, but even she keeps that useless mini-mic strapped to her chin. It’s part of the show. If you’re not going to keep up that part of the act, why move your lips at all?

The whole lip-synching fiasco did make the group song that much more interesting to watch though, kind of like how I was glued to the television during Ruben Studdard’s performance, not because of his song, but because I was on pins and needles waiting to see if he was going to knock down the microphone stand. So close!

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But even the allure of falling props couldn’t save Megan Corkery’s performance this week, which makes me wonder what it is this girl needs to do to get into the bottom three. She sang horribly on Wednesday, she certainly didn’t perform any better and, despite being beautiful, she kind of looked Chiquita Banana. Still, not only does she not get voted off, but she doesn’t even come close.

All the while, Matt Giraud, who has a great voice, plays a mean piano, picked a great song and sang it well was stuck in the reject seats with Michael Sarver and Scott MacIntyre.

Hopefully, considering Megan sang a Stevie Wonder song, after seeing Stevie Wonder perform today, people will finally realize how bad Megan is by comparison. Otherwise maybe Matt should put on a fake accent, call himself by his middle name and start vying for the Votefortheworst.com vote because it seems to be working out for ‘Joy.’

Still at least the right person did go home tonight in the end, and despite being a great guy it was definitely Michael Sarver’s time to go. The only thing surprising about his exit was how long it took the judges to tell him they weren’t going to save him.

Realistically, it seemed like Michael had come to terms with the idea of going home long before Ryan could lead him to believe otherwise. I bet he was more bummed that he missed riding the private gilded jet to Detroit than he was about leaving "American Idol" as a Top 10 contestant.

In the end, I’m the only one who needs a pity part in all of this, as "Idol’s" reluctance to announce next week’s theme leaves me incapable of making an educated early vote-off prediction. With that said I’m going to go out on a limb and calling it for Megan Corkery. So what if she wasn’t even in the bottom three? Come on America, let’s keep things interesting.