Idol Chatter & Voice Views

There will be plenty of competition for your Idol attention on TV tonight.

Simon and Paula and an all-important episode of The X Factor will be on tonight at 8 p.m. when at least some of the final 16 contestants should be revealed.

Who will advance? Check out my predictions here.

But if you’re not into The X Factor — and judging by the ratings, lots of Idol fans aren’t — you’ll have a chance to catch up with two former Idols tonight.

Kellie Pickler makes her acting debut on the CW’s 90210.  In one interview I read, Kellie said the role would really be acting, because her zip code growing up was a long way away from 90210.

The role, however, won’t be much of a stretch.

Kellie plays Sally, a country singer and cousin to one of the regular cast members (Justin Deeley).  She visits from out of town, southern accent in tow, and enters a charity talent competition to raise money for an experimental cancer treatment.

That doesn’t sparks the competitive spirit in another cast regular, Naomi (Annalynne McCord), who also enters, determined to outdo Sally.

The show airs at 8 p.m.  In the promo clip I’ve attached to the bottom of this blog, Sally says she’ll have to “figure out something to sing.”  She winds up singing her new single, “Tought.”

Then there’s this interesting twist.  On a night when Simon and Paula have an all-important episode, the original Idol, Kelly Clarkson, will appear on a competing network.

Kelly will sing her new single, “Mr. Know It All,” and “Walk Away” on the Dancing with the Stars results show tonight at 9 p.m.

Kelly, of course, is just a week away from the release of her fifth album, so I imagine we’ll be seeing a lot of her over the next couple of weeks.

She’s also filming a VH1 Unplugged concert next week in New York. That will air on VH1 at 11 p.m. Nov. 18, according to Entertainment Weekly, which says the performance will air online the day before at VH1.com.

Meanwhile, Kelly is leaking her own material, song by song.  She posted “You Love Me” to her website Monday.  She just posted another song, “Dark Side,” to YouTube.

Want more Idol’s on TV?

On Wednesday, Scotty McCreery gets to combine his two loves — baseball and singing — when he sings the national anthem before the first game of the World Series in St. Louis.

Game 1 with the Texas Rangers has a 9:05 p.m. start time.  With Scotty singing the anthem before the opener, I bet you can guess which network is televising the series.

Now, the promised promo clip from tonight’s episode of “90210.”