Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The stage was bigger.

The field of contestants was smaller.

And American Idol got down to the business of letting viewers select a new star Tuesday night as the show’s final round began.

The biggest surprise of the night came with the final performer, and it wasn’t a pleasant surprise.

The rundown …

Best of the Bunch

Two performances stood out, by a wide margin, from performers who took a completely different approach to Beatles week. David Cook turned “Eleanor Rigby” into a rocker, built to a big finish and proved he just might be the most talented guy in the competition. Brooke White opted not to change “Let It Be,” sat behind a piano barefoot and turned in a beautiful, heartfelt rendition of the classic. Easily the best performance of the night among the gals.

Deserves To Go Home

Ramiele Malubay bored viewers to tears with a sparkless version of “In My Life.” Where’s the magic gone, Ramiele? But Kristy Lee Cook turned in the turkey of the night, when she tried to turn “Eight Days a Week” into a country song. Ouch, that was bad.

Please Keep Him

Chikezie has been close to elimination at least twice, and admitted in a Tuesday night interview that he thought he was going home last week. Then he got on stage and turned in the most unusual, enthusiast version of “She’s a Woman” you’ll ever see. The vocals weren’t great, but he gets an A+ for the performance.

Baffled by the judges

Jason Castro got better reviews than he deserved for “If I Fell.” Sounded like he’d been taking lessons in off-key singing from Luke Mennard. And Simon Cowell was apparently the only one listening when Amanda Overmyer did her usual Janis Joplin turn, this time on “You Can’t Do That.” It didn’t work and, as Simon pointed out, you could only make out about 30 percent of the words.

Best line of the night from the judges

Came when Simon critiqued Kristy Lee, comparing her vocals to “Dolly Parton on helium.” Yee-haw!

Surprise of the night

Go ahead. Boo. David Archuleta, stellar so far in the competition, absolutely stank when he tried to go up-tempo with “We Can Work It Out.” He’s lucky that lousy performance came so early in the finals, when there are less popular singers to send packing. I’d be shocked if young David doesn’t rebound big time next week.

Prediction for Wednesday

Bye, bye, Kristy Lee. Perhaps someone can buy you a pair of jeans with a few less holes as a going-away present.