"God Bless the Child" on Idol?

Yes I meant Thia, my fingers get crossed when I type now and then. IMO she had one of the best performances I may have ever seen on Idol, yes there were bigger, bolder performances but the way she sang that was just magical. The softness, control, pitch...just amazing!

Judges are not judging - they simply like everything (Simon is being missed). Perhaps producers believe in better ratings without criticism. Horrible acoustics (too much of reverberation) was today aided by so much compression that all performances sounded flat (and I listen on main speakers). Oh, and "God bless the child" was overcooked.

Accoustics and compression? This is American Idol not Audiophile Idol lol, cant we ever just be normal?

"Audiophile Idol"? - not even close to decent sound. Sound quality of many shows, including music awards got really bad in recent years.

Most of the remaining singers have some real and marketable talent I think.

I think I read this year they are steering more towards providing the singers the professional constructive guidance and other assistance they need as amateurs at this stage of their career and steering away from the judges and random celebs, like Miley Cyrus as coach last year, having major influence, which was ridiculous.

Last night, each performer rehearsed with professional record producers from Interscope records, I believe, which made more sense at this phase than offering up someone like Peter Noone for example as a "coach".

Still, I think ST and JL in particular can offer up some more constructive criticism than has been on display so far. Maybe they will settle into that role better as they acclimate themselves to the new role. We'll see....