American Idol Third Elimination: 16 to the final 12

This is a big week for American Idol. It ends in the naming of the final 12 competitors, to be announced Thursday night. Imagine my despair when my DVR failed me on Tuesday night. That's right. I didn't get to the see the women perform. I did catch the men on Wednesday, but everyone gave such good performances that I am in serious doubt about my picks to go home. So today, I'll refer to my fellow American Idol bloggers to find a consensus on who was best, who was worst, and who will be eliminated.

My favorite American Idol site, Buddy TV, polled its readers' comments and its own experts, coming up with slightly different lists from each source. Everyone agrees, however, that Paige Miles (pictured) will be one of the women going home. The pick for the other woman due to be voted off was split among Katelyn Epperly, Lacey Brown, and Katie Stevens. I hope it's Lacey Brown. Apparently she gave a good performance on Tuesday, but I just don't think she is a relevant performer in the current pop music scene. Neither is Katie Stevens, but I think she has a place in the nostalgia/American Songbook market.

The Wall Street Journal (a blog I hadn't seen before today) picked Paige and Katie Stevens for the off. Idol Blog Live actually did my job and summarized the picks of 10 critics from all around the net. Seven out of 10 bloggers picked Paige and 6 out of 10 picked Katie. It might go without saying, but Vote for the Worst named Paige Miles as worst girl. Sot it looks like Paige Miles and Katie Stevens are going home, although I'm still hoping for Lacey.

As for the boys: Buddy TV readers are split among Todrick Hall, Andrew Garcia, and Aaron Kelly (pictured), but they and the Buddy TV critics agree on Todrick and Aaron. To complicate matters, Vote for Worst picks Tim Urban. The Yahoo music blog, Reality Rocks, also picked Tim Urban to go home and paired him with Andrew Garcia. EW's Pop Watch agreed about Aaron Kelly and Andrew Garcia.

Apart from Aaron Kelly, who gets the most mentions as the loser this week, picking the worst guy seems a hard choice. Based on what I saw last night, I pick Andrew Garcia for the second off. I like his voice, but I think he gave the weakest performance. He seemed strained and uncomfortable. I don't think that Tim Urban and Toderick Hall will last too long in the competition, but it seems like Andrew's turn to go home this week. Aaron, on the other hand, gave a good performance, pretty mature for 16. But someone has to go.

As with the girls' Lacey Brown, who I don't think will last, I love to hate Michael Lynche, who might make it far this year, although I don't see him as the winner. I can't see why the judges all went insane over him last night. He still seems insincere to me, although he is skilled at acting as though he feels his performances, and he does have a good voice. But the contest is not just about vocal ability. His movements seemed as if he worked them out carefully before hand ("on this note I'll stomp, and here I'll turn around") but tried to make them look spontaneous. At one point I caught him looking at the camera out of the corner of his eye, as if to catch his reflection. Maybe he'll grow on me.