The Results - Neil Diamond

What should have been a fun energetic opening medley was tarnished by the mediocre voices singing it. This year's top five finalists aren't the best vocalists American Idol has ever seen so it was hard for them to do justice to the Neil Diamond medley. It could have opened stronger if David Cook had sung the #1 smash from 1970, Cracklin' Rosie in it's entirety rather than allowing Jason Castro to barely whisper the lyrics. It was just another example of how Jason doesn't care to actually learn and rehearse the songs he's singing. The rest of the medley included Neil's other chart-topper, Song Sung Blue from 1972, which also suffered from the weak vocals from the finalists.

While everyone who genuinely loves music can see that it is time for Jason Castro to go home, Ryan called him out to the center of the stage early on to reveal that he is safe. He's definitely coming back for another week of musical abuse so the audience had the whole hour to get over it and start accepting it. Ryan revealed that the Davids are also safe leaving Syesha Mercado and Brooke White as the bottom two.

After revealing all of the standings early it left time for Natasha Bedingfield to perform her latest hit single , Take Me Away. It's exactly the a kind of catchy song that a singer like Brooke White would need in order to compensate for her lack of vocal talent. Natasha did a great job and hopefully it will become a chart topper. Neil Diamond then took center stage to sing a track from his new album coming out next week. After all these years he demonstrated what it takes to have career longevity - you have to love what you're doing, and you can tell that he still does.

The time came to reveal that after being one of the lowest vote getters almost every week, Syesha Mercado has made it through by the skin of her teeth one more time. Brooke White became very emotional when she heard the news that she is going home, yet she still struggled to get through I Am, I Said one last time.

Last year at this time I was very excited about looking ahead to the next week with the best top four ever. Season Six had four very dynamic, talented and unique finalists move forward while here in Season Seven I cannot say the same thing. Jason Castro is going to come back next and wander aimlessly across the stage like he always does. It's very clear that there's no one home because it's obvious that the lights aren't on! He's insulted the guest mentors with his ignorance every week and now he's coasting into the finals. Can he be stopped? Will he be able to turn things around and actually get better? The Davids and Syesha have to work extra hard to make a dent in his dominance over the doofus voters next week if they want to stay alive.