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Idol Watch: Down to a Diddy-Dirty Dozen

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Quick spoilers for last night’s American Idol elimination follow:

Per usual, I watched the elimination round of American Idol on extreme fast-forward—the only way it should be watched—so sadly, I have no insights on what must have been the absolutely stunning preview of Red Riding Hood. A few highlights and thoughts, though:

* I was somewhat surprised to see Ashthon Jones kept around by the judges as a wild card and thus was not especially upset to see her go; she’s likeable and a good stage presence but her voice has always seemed too thin to keep up with the competition.

* Our bottom three this week was entirely female. In general, I guess I’d roughly agree with the consensus I’m seeing that the guys are stronger this season—coming off a three-male-winner streak for Idol—but I’m not sure which among them I’d see as the favorite. And while there are strong singers this season, there are very few, if any, who excite me in the sense that I find myself interested to see what they’ll do next week. The exceptions so far are Casey and Jacob (to an extent) among the guys, as well as Naima—but I’m starting to wonder whether I like the idea of her better than the actual execution I’m seeing on stage.

* If Casey’s a front-runner and fan favorite, though, then Idol has to be concerned about his ongoing health issues; the condition (reportedly ulcerative colitis) that reportedly sent him to the hospital sounds like no small thing, given that he tweeted having gotten some “fresh blood” after a transfusion two weeks ago.

* But a guest appearance from Adam Lambert just underscored for me that, singing competence or no, there’s nobody this season who is yet bringing the kind of excitement to their performances and song interpretations this season that he did. (The other musical guest: Diddy-Dirty Dozen, above.)

It’s still early in the season, though: your thought on the potential of the dirty dozen we have left?