'American Idol': The Semi-Final Countdown

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The Possible Train Wrecks Okay, you know this list begins and ends with Danny Noriega. I mean, I have to give three snaps up to the judges for not being afraid to cast a young male contestant who could probably outpoint, outpose, and outsashay RuPaul in a battle of the boy divas. But to my ears, Danny's big voice has a lack of maturity and control that is probably not going to translate well to Idol's big stage. As for fellow semifinalist Robbie Carrico, why does Ryan Seacrest keep introducing the guy as a ''rocker''? Long hair, a beard, and a knit cap does not necessarily indicate the return of Kurt Cobain.

I'm also not getting the judges' love for quavery-voiced Brooke White. To date, she's sung what's sounded like a total of four notes, and even worse, tonight we got to see her admit to ''stalling'' — or as I'd call it, ''messing up'' — as she played the piano on Carole King's ''Beautiful'' during Hollywood Week. Sure, Brooke seems like a sweetheart with that big, broad smile of hers; I just know deep down it's all going to end with the child-care provider sobbing into a wall, just as she did before her final judgment tonight. Hey! Nobody puts the babies' nanny in the corner!

Oh, and while we're talking tears, I suppose this is as good a time as any to discuss the elimination of Josiah Leming, which you could pretty much see coming the minute the kid declared, ''I think they're gonna put me through.'' Although I imagine all the crying and the tremulousness and the faux British accent would've worked my last nerve had Josiah made it to the top 24, it all somehow felt a little too cruel the way the judges kept him around after his wobbly ''Stand by Me'' on Tuesday, only to cut him tonight. It's as if the show's producers had decided they would just squeeze and squeeze and squeeze until they'd gotten the last bits of pulp and backstory and drama out of Josiah, and then had casually tossed his spent rind to the side. Then again, in a competition where a shoulder squeeze and a ''Work hard, okay, buddy?'' from Ryan Seacrest counts as a parting gift, maybe an early exit wasn't the worst thing that could happen to an emotionally frazzled teenager.

What do you think of the top 24? Who are your surefire picks for the top 12? Were there any contestants you were rooting for (like, say, Colton Swon) who didn't make the cut? Did anyone else find the final pairings (Colton Berry beating Kyle Ensley and Joanne Borgella beating Cardin McKinney) to be sort of anticlimactic? And was anyone else surprised Fox didn't find a sponsor for the sandwich Ryan Seacrest was eating during that woeful advertisement for Jumper that opened tonight's show?