TVSquad

Yet another results show has come around, and Ryan starts things off by asking, "Who will graduate from the Idol school of rock, and who will just get schooled?" You know, Ryan, I'm available if your writers are on strike. Call me.

Anyway, sounds like it was a dramatic week on American Idol - a large column collapsed and in a separate incident, a staffer was injured on a stair mishap. Whew. But the show must go on, and we'll find out tonight whether Allison, Danny, Adam or Kris will be going home. The other three get to go home, too, but for a big hometown parade with cheerleaders and town leaders gushing praise on them.

The premiere of American Idol's new season is tonight; can you stand it? Last year brought us a format change with the addition of instruments; this year, we have a new judge. Controversy has been following Kara DioGuardi since she was named AI's fourth judge. Is she taking Paula's place? Are there catfights? Will she screw up the balance of the show?

To help drum up enthusiasm about the new season and ostensibly to answer some of these questions, FOX set up a conference call with Kara. Unsurprisingly, she stayed as far away from minefields as humanly possible, instead gushing about how wonderful everyone on the show is and how well they all get along, and blah blah blah, puppies and rainbows. Luckily, she also chatted about what she thinks of the newest crop of contestants as well as past Idols.

First, the good news: each of the final three American Idol contestants are guaranteed record deals and a music career. The bad news? I have this awful feeling in my stomach, the way I sometimes feel after eating too many potato chips, that David Cook is going to win the whole thing. That would be a shame.

I know that there are a lot of Cook fans out there, but I'm wondering: have you noticed that he sings just like 88% of the bands you hear on the radio right now? I don't want to call him a poseur, but I'm curious if he has that voice and style because that's how other successful, current singers sing. Don't we already have a Chris Daughtry?*

Welcome back to "AI Aftermath," where we explore Idol's past. Each installment, as one more American Idol hopeful is eliminated from the competition, we take a look back at contestants past who were eliminated at the same point. We'll examine how they did on the show and what they've been up to since their eliminations. In honor of Jason Castro's elimination last week, we'll be looking at other fourth place finishers.

This week: 4th place finishers, featuring featuring Tamyra Gray (Season One), Joshua Gracin (Season Two), LaToya London (Season Three), Anthony Federov (Season Four), Chris Daughtry (Season Five) and LaKisha Jones (Season Six).

The fine folks over at AOL Television put together their "11 Biggest American Idol Cliches," but as the self-proclaimed guru of all things Idol, I figured my legions of fan (yes it's singular on purpose) are clamoring for my take. You have to figure that after nearly eight years on the air any show is going to rack up it's long, long list of annoying things.

And yet, I don't get nearly as annoyed when Jeff Probst yells "Come on in guys. [Team A] getting their first look at the new [Team B]. [Contestant Name] voted out at the last tribal council," even though he does it every single week. "[Team members], you're the last team to arrive. I'm sorry to tell you that you've both been eliminated from The Amazing Race." No big deal. So why do Ryan, Simon and the gang at American Idol drive us so crazy week after week?

Uh-oh. Just keeping it real, you didn't really bring anything of your own to "Feels Like Tonight." In fact, it sounded like like you just took The Asphalts' "Tonight." Okay, it didn't go down like that, but The Asphalts have brought allegations of plagiarism against Daughtry. They even put together a snazzy video that samples both Daughtry's "Feels Like Tonight" and their own "Tonight" so you can judge for yourself.

Unfortunately for Daughtry, Chris apparently climbed in bed with a guy by the name of Dr. Luke who wrote "Feels Like Tonight." This, even though Luke has already settled in a similar case brought against him and Avril Lavigne for her single "Girlfriend," which bore a striking resemblance to a band called the Rubinoos' "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend." You know how sometimes you get a tune stuck in your head and you can't get it out? Apparently Dr. Luke has that problem a lot. Only he writes it down and makes "new" songs out of it.

Way back in the early days of American Idol, and by early days I mean "Season Four," there was a girl who was a little bit country and a long-haired fellow who was a little bit rock and roll. I think we all know who went on to win that season, but that southern rocker was a pretty amazing presence of his own. In fact, they were so strong together in the final, they both released "Inside Your Heaven," the Idol single for that year. And they even swapped spots at number one with the track.

Now Bo's out promoting See the Light, his latest album which is more true to his southern rock roots. But that doesn't mean he's not willing to take a break from his touring schedule to spend some quality time with the kids down at American Idol Camp this summer. The program, which began last year, is for 10-15 year olds and runs in five two-week sessions throughout the summer.

There, kids can go to learn about the music industry and hone their craft as musicians, as well as experiencing all the traditional things that make summer camps fun, just with the added bonus of hanging out with and learning from Idol alumni like Bo. For more on Idol Camp check out the official American Idol Camp website. For more on my chat with Bo Bice, follow me after the jump.

So it looks like Chris Cornell has responded to the "controversy" about David Cook's performance of "Billie Jean" last week on American Idol. While Ryan Seacrest clearly introduced him by indicating he was doing Chris Cornell's version, that introduction doesn't seem to have been enough. The incident is similar to one during Season Five when Chris Daughtry performed Live's arrangement of Johnny Cash's classic "I Walk the Line." Then, as now, the judge's didn't seem to realize that the contestants were singing other artists arrangements of the pieces, instead praising their bravery and originality.

And they weren't the only ones. Even in my review of the episode I clearly stated that it was Chris Cornell's arrangement, and yet I still got comments from people who thought David was trying to pull one over on America by pretending it was his own work. Cornell didn't see the episode as he was returning from abroad, but he was immediately deluged with emails blasting the judges for praising Cook's brave 'arrangement.'

In a press release today, FOX announced that Ellen DeGeneres would again be taking on co-hosting duties with Ryan Seacrest for the 2nd "Idol Gives Back" special, airing Wednesday April 9 7:30 - 10:30 pm ET. Just like last year, Ellen will host from the Kodak Theatre while Ryan covers from the American Idol stage.

The talent roster continues to expand as well. The complete list (so far) now includes Maroon 5, Heart, Gloria Estefan, Boyz II Men and The Clark Brothers along with already announced Bono, Brad Pitt, Reese Witherspoon, Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Fergie, Chris Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, Annie Lennox, John Legend and Snoop Dogg. Most of these will be the pre-recorded "Give, give, give" but I'm looking forward to seeing Boyz II Men back in action.

As you probably know AOL TV is listing the 50 Sexiest Women of TV. This week they added numbers 30-21. Looking at these pictures just brings back memories--Katie Holmes on Dawson's Creek! I almost forgot she started on the small screen before she became the kept woman of that wacko Tom Cruise.

Their list over at AOL inspired me to create my own list--this time of Reality TV stars. Be sure to write who you would add to either AOL TV's list or my own list in the comments.

On Wednesday night, many of us were shocked to see "resident pro" Melinda Doolittle get booted from American Idol. But more shocking than that, many of us swore we heard Ryan Seacrest mistakenly announce her upcoming ouster prematurely.

Here's what happened. After Elliott Yamin performed, and before a commercial break Ryan said, "We've got more music coming up live from Maroon 5. Plus, more emotional results and Melinda Doolittle goes home."

What exactly is 'Chris Daughtry-itis?' Does it involve a fever and a rash? Does it cause baldness? And most importantly, is it curable?

Simon Cowell complained in this week's Entertainment Weekly that the current batch of finalists just don't want to win badly enough. And this laid-back attitude is effecting their "A Game," or creating a lack thereof.

Simon said, "I think that we suffer from Jennifer Hudson- and Chris Daughtry-itis, which is people who didn't win getting great careers and now a lot of the contestants believing it absolutely doesn't matter."

Simon Cowell has never hidden his dislike for Taylor Hicks. And last week he was at it again. He spoke out at this year's 24th Annual Paley Festival at the Directors Guild of America in West Hollywood, saying, "They (Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson) loved him. I couldn't stand him. I didn't get it."

Simon added, "at the end of the day you have to find a bona fide recording artist. Just because you win the show doesn't mean you will sell a lot of records. Chris (Daughtry) is the one who sold the albums, not Taylor." Hicks still hasn't sold one million albums, and many critics doubt he will.

With slow record sales, many critics are predicting that Taylor Hicks will be the first American Idol to fall short of selling one million albums. And that would make him the least successful Idol winner yet.

Meanwhile, last year's fourth place Idol finisher, Chris Daughtry, has already sold 1.7 million copies of his debut album.

Tom Corson, executive vice president of J Records, is optimistic Taylor will turn things around, telling the Associated Press, "It's a work in progress, and, would we have liked to sell a little bit more? Yeah. But (the album is) still gold and on its way to platinum."

Chris Daughtry, American Idol Season Five's hard-rocking fourth runner-up, proves once again, that you don't have to win American Idol in order to have a successful career in music.

This week, Daughtry's self-titled debut album sold 65,000 copies -- just 134 more copies than the Dreamgirls soundtrack -- leaping to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard album charts.

Despite sluggish sales throughout the record industry, Daughtry has sold approximately 1.3 million CDs total in nine week of release.