'American Idol' recap: 'Opry'-tunity knocks!

Share this article

• Tweet

All About

American Idol

Get the latest photos, news, and more

Megan (Joy) (Corkrey) The contestant with the ever changing name — she giveth Joy, and she taketh it away — was under the weather tonight. In fact, she'd been to the hospital for the flu. You knew this because Megan coughed a lot up there on the Idol stage — except for when she was doing weird things to ''Walking After Midnight.'' You knew this because the judges told us so. And you knew this because they really didn't criticize any part of her squawky caterwauling — not even her ''quirky'' pronunciation of ''miles'' as ''my-ULLLs'' — except for that Wonder Woman Island meets scales of a mermaid frock she had on.

All together now: Free pass!

Which means that one of the last two singers I'll mention here should be going home this week: Even though there's a chance neither of them will.

Scott MacIntyre: I loved how Mr. Travis immediately deemed Martina McBride's ''Wild Angels'' as a potentially bad song choice — I think because dude thought it had girl cooties and therefore was not appropriate for a boy — but unfortunately, he turned out to be right, seeing how many notes Scott missed during his performance. I could recount the 17-minute debate about whether the guy should or should not be sitting behind a piano for future Idol performances — I did, however, love his ''we can move it closer'' notation — but that would suggest he should be on stage and singing on Idol next week and beyond. And I'm not really sure he should. Yeah, Kara, the guy has ''class and poise,'' but this ain't Miss USA.

Michael Sarver: If there's any contestant who can and perhaps should give Scott the gift of one more week in the competition, it's Michael. I could criticize how winded he got with the insanely fast cadences of ''Ain't Goin' Down Till the Sun Comes Up'' (maybe he should have replaced the harmonica player with a medic bearing an oxygen mask) or agree with Simon that his performance was pretty much what you'd see at any bar night in a local country karaoke bar, but what would be the point? Michael is a moderately talented guy with a TV-friendly back story, but he's the one person left in the competition who hasn't got a chance in hell of winning this thing — and he proved it on a night when the theme really played to his strengths. Here's hoping Michael's ''journey'' ends on Wednesday, because let's be honest, we don't want to see what he delivers if he makes it to disco week.

And with that, tonight's scorecard:

Kris Allen: A-
Anoop Desai: B+
Adam Lambert: B+
Allison Iraheta: B+
Matt Giraud: B+
Alexis Grace: B
Danny Gokey: B-
Lil Rounds: B-
Megan (Joy) (Corkrey): C+
Michael Sarver: C
Scott MacIntyre: C-

What did you think of Grand Ole Opry Night? Who will and should go home? And which judge did the best job this evening? Before you comment, go forth and play EW.com's Idol Prediction Challenge. Polls close at 8:59 p.m. EDT, but don't get caught napping; go and vote now!