After the ads, Candace says she was nervous last week until she got started, so she needs to work on that. She's doing "Ordinary People" by John Legend, and indeed tonight she's so confident that there's no hint of try-hard in her performance whatsoever. It's just solid and confident and good and especially impressive during the bridge and the obligatory run of notes at the end. Keith, Randy, and Mariah get to their feet for her, and Keith talks about the quality of the singers tonight, including her. All Nicki has to offer is a salute. Randy says she sang notes that shouldn't even fit into a chord, and says they might need a wild card or something after tonight, given how many good singers there were tonight. Mariah just thanks her for the performance.

Ryan runs short clips of tonight's performances, with voting instructions on the screen for each one. Not that I don't appreciate the reminder of how bad Zoanette was; if it weren't for her, I'd suggest just going ahead and filling the top ten with everyone we heard tonight and just sending the guys home. It's obvious that everybody involved has a hard-on for another female winner after a long drought anyway, and that seems like the best way to accomplish it. After the clips, Ryan is onstage with all ten of them talking about how this is one of the most talented shows ever, which I'm sure he says several times a year. He gives the appropriate shout-outs and opens the voting before reminding us to tune in tomorrow night to hear the guys. Right, as if.

M. Giant is a Minneapolis- based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter, or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.