Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The two contestants with American Idol connections are still alive on Platinum Hit — the show where the voice doesn’t matter nearly as much as the song-writing. And where host Jewel and judge Kara DioGuardi will dish out more critiques in a minute of screen time than we got from all three Idol judges in all of April and May.

The show booted Blessing Offer, 22, of Hamden, Conn., in the episode aired Monday night. Blessing lost his sight at age 9 and started pouring his energy into music instead of sports.

But apparently not into dance music, because he pretty much declined to participate in his team’s week two assignment — creating a hot dance track — except to raise a mild objection when he thought the lyrics were becoming a tad too risque.

When his team’s song — “Make It Easy” — was declared the loser, someone had to go. It came down to Blessing or Karen Waldrup, a 24-year-old from Nashville.

A country musician who confessed her nervousness about the genre of the week, Karen somehow wrote a hook that was declared one of the three best in the dance song challenge. But when it came time to turn that hook into a full song, it quickly became clear she isn’t destined to be the next Gaga. Foisting country music themes — like wanting to cook for her man — wasn’t going to work on a dance track.

Had that line made it into the final song, Karen might have been sacrificed.

Instead, Blessing got the boot.

“You can’t just opt out of a song-writing session,” Jewel scolded.

Karen said the song missed the mark lyrically. Guest judge Donna Summer called it “mundane.”

Such harsh criticism probably would have reduced some of the Season 10 Idols to a puddle of tears. Karen and Blessing held up pretty well.

But Jackie Tohn (Idol semifinalist, Season Eight) did get teary-eyed when the judges tore into the changes she helped make to a dance tune called “My Ridiculous.”

Fear not, Jackie fans. She survived. She’s one of the remaining 10 singer-songwriters competing for the show’s grand prize of $100,000, a recording contract and a songwriting contract.

So is Scotty Granger, who identified himself as a creative director for Idol Season 6 champ Jordin Sparks. For the second straight week, Scotty wrote a hook the judges picked as one of the best.

Last week, his team turned that hook into the week’s worst song. This week, a new team produced “Paint This Club Amazing,” declared by the judges to be the week’s best song.

Scotty’s team included the two villains of this piece — Nick “No One’s as Good as Me” Nittoli and Sonyae “Middle Name Diva” Elise. And guess what? Before they became teammates, Nick professed his hatred of Sonyae. Such tension.

Anyway, Sonyae was a bit more bearable in week two. Perhaps she was taken aback by Nick’s hatred. Perhaps she decided to tone down the diva after being the very last contestant picked to be a member of any song-writing team.

(Oh, yeah, “Platinum Hit” cares not about hurt feelings. Contestants who don’t write a winning hook have to stand in line, waiting to be picked for one of three teams. So it becomes pretty clear who’s popular and who isn’t.)

Nick? He’s determined to be the contestant you’ll want to root against. Besides insulting Sonyae, he sulked when his hook wasn’t picked as one of the best. And he suggested “Make It Easy,” the rival team’s song, be renamed “Cigarette Break” for its ability to clear the dance floor. Ouch.

But he also contributed to the winning song for the second straight week, so we’ll probably be rooting against Nick for several episodes to come.

Editor’s note: Episode three of Platinum Hit air Monday at 10 p.m. on Bravo.