Idol Chatter & Voice Views

By now, we all know the opinions of the American Idol judges are pretty much worthless.

So let’s check out what some Idol watchers who aren’t afraid of expressing opinions had to say about the Top 3 show Wednesday night.

Longtime Idol watcher Michael Slezak over at TVLine.com thinks Haley and Scotty will and should advance to the finals. He’s a self-admitted Haley fan, and thinks she had two of the night’s three strongest performances, with the other going to Scotty.

Rodney Ho at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, who has also been doing this a while, thinks Haley and Scotty will advance, though he says Lauren is his favorite of the three. His picks for the best three performances last night: Haley’s “What Is,” followed by Lauren’s “I Hope You Dance,” followed by Lauren’s “If I Die Young.”

MTV.com says Haley and Scotty deserve to be in the finale. Eric Ditzian gave excellent ratings to two performances last night: Haley for “What Is” and Scotty for “Kiss Me or Not.”

Amy Reiter at The Los Angeles Times seems to think Scotty and Haley belong in the finale, giving round one on Wednesday to Haley, round two to Lauren and saying round three was a Lauren/Haley split.

MJ Santilli of mjsbigblog predicts a Scotty-Haley finale as well.

And, of  course, I wrote the same last night, partly because Haley Reinhart has been outperforming Lauren Alaina on a weekly basis, partly because she’s a far better entertainer and partly because she’s the only one of the ladies who stands a prayer of beating Scotty.

So it’s unanimous then. No need to worry tonight. The outcome is obvious.

Ah, but it’s never that simple on American Idol, where our judges, put on the spot for the first time all season, split their loyalties about as evenly as humanly possible. No surprise there.

And over at DialIdol.com, where they measure the busy signal, here’s the prediction: Scotty makes the finals with no problem. Haley and Lauren? Simply too close to call.

Yep, we’re in for a nail-biter.

Oh, Jimmy Iovine  just helped clear things up with a prediction: There will be a guy in the finale.

Gee, thanks for that, Jimmy.

Looks like most of the other finalists are on hand for tonight’s festivities. And Ryan just announced something like 95 million votes were cast last night.

Nothing like an in-show commercial to start off tonight’s show. Being subjected to this segment is enough to make me not want to see “Super 8.” The only good part of this segment, the mocking of Randy.

I always like watching these clips of the triumphant trips home for the final three. And you might not love Scotty’s style of music, but it’s awfully tough to root against the guy.

I don’t know about you, but I could care less about these throw-away musical performances tonight.

Let’s get on with the results, Idol!

Finally, “here we go,” in the words of Ryan.

After another commercial break.

Scotty McCreery makes the Idol finals!

And Lauren Alaina makes the Idol finals!

A recap on how disappointing this is comes after I watch Haley bid farewell.