KELLIE PICKLER AND TAYLOR HICKS (Season 5)

The Contestant I Should Be Emotionally Connecting With but Can't Award Dozens of EW.com readers have been posting about Kellie Pickler ever since the plucky blonde delivered a tart ''Since U Been Gone'' during her Greensboro audition. Call me a cynic, but it made me feel funny hearing her spill her hard-luck tale of being abandoned by her mom, and missing her imprisoned dad, before I'd heard a single note pass her lips. And tonight, as her ''Hopelessly Devoted'' wobbled like Jell-O, I suspect some of her fan support did the same....

Unlikeliest Sex Symbols Gray-haired Taylor Hicks, who delivered a wicked ''First Cut Is the Deepest,'' may look like he's about to seize when he sings, but I've got a notion he'll end up inspiring his fair share of Google image searchers. Likewise for Mandisa Hundley, whose ''Dim All the Lights'' is the kind of performance that could give zaftig girls a much-needed PR boost. — Michael Slezak, Feb. 8, 2006

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