No More Dreading Idol

From EW:

BETTER SEEN, NOT HEARD You can Drescher up, but you can't take her

I'll be the first to admit that Tuesday night's edition of American Idol was far from Nadia Turner's finest moment. But while the fauxhawk-sporting (--I prefer FroHawk--) singer's ''Time After Time'' was weak, did America just forget about her smokin' versions of ''Try a Little Tenderness'' and ''Power of Love''? How else to explain Nadia's presence in this week's bottom two?

I'm not alone in my disbelief, either. While almost no one on our message boards raved about Nadia's take on the Cyndi Lauper ballad, few predicted she'd come thisclose to elimination this early, and her biggest supporters, in fact, seemed undaunted going into the results show. ''Nadia is already a star,'' wrote Joe. ''She has great stage presence, and can sing any type of song they ask her to do.'' Perhaps that brand of confidence kept Nadia's fan base from voting for her vigorously — so let it be a lesson learned.

Then again, perhaps Nadia's surprising brush with elimination is simply a sign that this year's closely matched group of contestants (there's no woeful John Stevens or EJay Day to kick around, after all) cannot afford a single misstep. ''I think this year, the choices will be extremely hard,'' wrote Meg. ''Most of the remaining Idol contestants are reasonably talented and deserve to be recognized.''

Whether or not that group includes Anthony Fedorov (who rounded out the bottom three) depends on who you ask. Some EW.com readers adore his fresh-scrubbed approach, while others find him intolerable. One poster named Bearsmom had a little practical advice to help him score greater fan support: ''Anthony has a good voice, but he needs to ditch the glasses and do something funky with his hair.''

One thing pretty much all of you agreed on, though, was that this week it was time for brassy teenager Mikalah Gordon to stop making terrible noises into a microphone. For once, you got your wish. Mikalah's exit performance of ''Love Will Lead You Back'' didn't sound nearly as awful as her Tuesday-night version, but she's clearly out of her league against Jessica Sierra, Bo Bice, and yes, even Constantine Maroulis.

Speaking of Smeagol, a lot of you took offense with my criticism of his rendition of ''I Think I Love You,'' and after listening to him again on Wednesday — how lame was the whole recap show, anyway? — I still don't get why people like him. But that's the beauty of Idol: We all open our ears each week and hear completely different things. In this case, though, I'm happier to have snippy Simon in my corner than Constantine's loopy booster, Paula Abdul.

What did you think of the results show? Did Nadia and Anthony deserve to be in the bottom three? Who is your pick for the next departure? And should Paula start considering medication?