IDOL LIVE predix: Top 20 Results

Things are beginning to become a little more clear now that we're into the second week of live performance episodes for Idol's ninth season. Even though the majority of the latest batch of performances have still been bad, there have been a few surprisingly good showings as well.

This week's picks to leave are a little more clear cut than they were last week. Unless some former fan favorites lose their footings or recent recipients of praise from the judges don't mesh with the voting audience, people won't be left scratching their heads come tomorrow morning. Therefore, I have reasoned that the following four contestants will be departing tonight.

The next two guys to be eliminated are:

>John Park and Todrick Hall

I had John going home last week, but it is finally his time because he just couldn't pick the right song, and because he went in the dreaded (and some would say cursed) second spot, it's pretty a fact that he will be gone. It's not that his performance of John Mayer's "Gravity" was technically bad, but it was just lifeless, so the judges were in fact correct in their assessment of his offering. As for Todrick, he really will suffer from consistently bad critiques and shockingly poor song choices. I mean, c'mon, Tina Turner? Really? No common sense whatever. Todrick's bad attitude is not helping him, and the show's porudcers are probably itching to send him packing due to his growing reputation as a scammer thanks to his Oz the Musical scandal.

The next two girls to be eliminated are:

>Lacey Brown and Paige Miles

Lacey improved over her performance last week, but she's at the point where there aren't really any more expendable contestants. She seems to be skating by, and the fact that she performed third won't help her cause. Paige, on the other hand, will be a semi-shock tonight, as most people will expect Haeley Vaughn to leave. But Haeley has a few things on her side - she's got a great personality and she sang a song that all the little tween voters love. Plus she's young and likeable, so even though she probably delivered the weakest vocal performance, she will kept around for at least one more week. Paige actually did pretty well last night, but she's just not sticking out from her competition. Plus, audiences really don't like it when contestants sing songs originally sung by alums.

Hopefully I'm wrong about Paige. But I hope (and think) I'm right on everyone else this week. After one week of competition, my record is 1-3 in predicting eliminations, so I really need to step it up soon.