Idol Chatter & Voice Views

What was up with the American Idol judges playing musical chairs Wednesday night?

Early on in the show, I noticed Kara DioGuardi sitting in the far left spot that Randy Jackson normally occupies. Randy had moved to Kara’s spot, sitting next to Simon.

If the they sit in those positions on performance night, Kara would judge each contestant first; Randy would go third, right before Simon.

And Simon might stop telling Kara her commentary is silly, something has has done each of the last two weeks.

Hmm … just wondering.

Of course, the judges were all back in their usual seats at the end of Wednesday’s show.

Guess we’ll have to wait until Tuesday to see if the judges have rearranged themselves yet again.

Two bright spots last night …

* We got to hear musical performances from Orianthi, Ke$ha and David Cook (the best of the three, if I’m grading), which is much preferred to the typical Idol group number silliness.

* We learned that the judges’ save is back for season nine. Adds a touch of suspense to the results show. Except maybe not when the three heads on the chopping block are Paige Miles, Tim Urban and Lacey Brown.

Get real, Ellen. You would have argued to use a judges’ save on one of them?

Now, on to the results show recap:

Deserved her fate: Lucky Lacey Brown’s luck finally ran out. Look, she wasn’t the worst Tuesday night. (Read on for that distinction.) But it’s been one sleepy pitch-filled performance after another for the gal from Amarillo, Texas. No way she was winning this competition. Of course, she saved perhaps her best vocal on the show for her farewell song. That seems to happen a lot on Idol.

Very, very lucky: Tim Urban, of course. Oh, yeah, he looked surprised when Ryan sent him back to safety Wednesday night, leaving Paige Miles and Lacey on Idol’s proverbial hot seat. Of course, Vote for the Worst will take the credit for saving Tim. The site has selected Tim as its poster boy. Thanks guys. What will Tim deliver next. Hard rock on Barry Manilow night?

Stock rising: Aaron Kelly and Didi Benami both revived their Idol hopes this week. Aaron had not enjoyed a shining moment on Idol until that pitch-perfect version of “Angie” Tuesday night. Now the teen from Sonestown, Pa., is back in the game. Didi finally lived up to the expectations she set with “Terrified.”

Stock sinking: Remember the way your 401(k) took a nose dive during the recession. That’s Andrew Garcia right now. And he shows absolutely no sign of knowing how to correct his course. That’s two straight weeks he should have been in danger of leaving.

On the bubble: After her best performance to date, Paige Miles found herself in the bottom two. That might mean America was paying attention when she butchered “Smile” two weeks ago and Kelly Clarkson’s “Walk Away” the week before that. When Simon said one of the contestants in the bottom three might have been worth saving, was he talking about Paige? Really, Simon?

Coming tomorrow evening: An exit interview with Lacey Brown, who apparently might want to sing country music now.

And, if you missed it: Here’s a link to a week one photo gallery. Wow, nice makeover for Siobhan Magnus, huh? But, in hindsight, Katie Stevens really wore that for a performance of a Rolling Stones song?