I agree with your bottom 3 and also that Kimberly will go. I threw Josh a couple of sympathy votes last night because I do not think he should go yet.

My rankings for this week:

1) Carmen
2) Ruben
3) Kimberly L.
4) Clay
5) Rickey
6) Trenyce
7) Kimberly C.
8) Josh

In general I didn't think any of the performances were particularly good, mainly due to the song choices and genre. I really do not know why someone like Clay didn't just take a Neil Diamond song.

Ruben is still my choice, but I think he has sort of been phoning it in lately. His performances in the trials and semi-finals were way better than what he has been giving the last few weeks. He needs to step up and really distance himself from the rest.

Simon has to be pulling for Carmen at this point because she clearly has the best chance to make some people very rich.

Bummer about Corey...

I think its unfair that they booted Corey and not Trenyce. What? A fellony theft charge means nothing. Besides, they should have just let him continue. It's not like he had even a slight change of winning.

After watching the Wednesday result show, I feel ripped off! Although, considering how poorly the bottom 3 reflected the actual quality of the performances, I should be happy no one got the boot this week.

Josh clearly blew it last night. There is no excuse for him not being in the bottom 3 - even if he gets a reprieve for butchering an unfamiliar genre. I was also very unimpressed with Rickey's performance. He is having a VERY difficult time breaking from the soul/ballad thing.

I think Mark has a point about Carmen. Early in the competition, Simon often stressed that a candidate needs to LOOK and SOUND like an American Idol. I think he is quaking over the realization that the next Idol might be a skinny dork or a guy big enough to have his own area code. I don't consider that a bad thing. I believe being a musician should be all about talent and love of music, and should be very little about how sexy someone looks in a music video.