Keeping up with Amanda Avila

Back in 2005, many pegged Amanda Avila as a dark horse during the semifinals of the fourth season of Idol. Despite the high hopes, it was not her time, as Amanda finished in the Top 16 with an underwhelming take on Gloria Estefan's "Turn the Beat Around."

The former Vegas showgirl did manage to find some extra screen time on FOX Reality Channel's Reality Remix, which basically was a half hour version of The Soup's "Reality Show Clip Time" segment and was hosted by former MTV veejay Lisa Kennedy Montgomery. On the show, Amanda served as a correspondent until it ended in May 2008.

Amanda found herself being hounded by the paparazzi (actually just a paparazzo) when she was out with Blake Lewis and friends back in October 2007. Watch the cameraman's proud work below:

In addition to her experimentation in TV, Amanda has cut a few tracks of her own, which can be listened to on her official music MySpace page. She seems to be pursuing a career in dance music, as her trance cover of 38 Special's "Second Chance" is definitely something that could be heard in a New York City club. She has also recorded two original songs called "Dirty Love" and "Alright Tonight" that are also in the bland club banging category.

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Keeping up with Alaina Alexander

Season 6's Top 20 semifinalist Alaina Alexander was never able to stand out amongst a crowded field back in 2007, but she is taking her subsequent career one step at a time.

In addition to manning her own official music MySpace page, Alaina also has a YouTube account where she features intimate performances of original songs like "Sunday Afternoon" and "Sunshine."

Alaina has been out performing in more places than just her bedroom. She has appeared at Los Angeles-area club venues to perform with fellow Idol semifinalist Amanda Avila (Season 3) such as the song "Ode to LA."

On the recording front, Alaina has three songs including "Bad Name," "Believe" and "How I Feel," featured on the second volume of Curtain Call - New Songs from Past American Idol Finalists, which is available on iTunes.

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Where are the shockers?

Four more contestants fell short of making the Top 12 last night, but something was different this season compared to seasons past. Why were there no shockers? In season four there was Amanda Avila. In season five there were Ayla Brown and Gedeon McKinney. And in season six there was Sabrina Sloan. But there was nothing comparable this season.

After Blake Lewis fell flat on his new single "How Many Words," Kady "Robot-dancing" Malloy was the first girl eliminated. She truly was one of the more talented remaining contestants, but her inability to chose the right song three weeks in a row led to her downfall.

Next was Luke "Go Go" Menard. Not much to say here except his song choice was more than fitting for tonight's episode.

It was apparent that TPTB tried to create another Ayla/Melissa or Sabrina/Haley scenario by pairing up Kristy Lee "Cage-fighting" Cook with Asia'h "Apostrohpe" Epperson, but not even Simon fell for it this time. When Ryan asked whom he thought was leaving, Simon had no problem proclaiming it would be Asia'h based on her song choice, Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," which historically has led to the exits of contestants that choose to perform the song. It's hard to believe anyone thought Kristy was a goner, and even Asia'h appeared to have accepted her defeat.

Flash ahead to Chikezie "Easy" Eze and Danny "TMTH" Noriega, the last two guys sitting on the couch. Here's another case where both could have had equal shots at going home, but Danny's attitude and sub-par vocals on Tuesday was enough to send him packing, sadly squashing any chance of Sanjaya 2.0 this season. The only question is...how will Ramiele "Cry Me a River" Malubay cope?

We'll have to tune in next week to find out. Who knows, maybe we'll be shocked.

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