Melinda? Was she on ‘Idol’?

But too few of the new faces took Turner's approach, and the combination of lack of familiarity and poor song selection doomed Jared Yates and Sarah Mather as well.

Yates was in the tougher spot, since it seems like the guys have gotten a lot more airtime than the women at this stage. Anthony Fedorov, Scott Savol, Constantine Maroulis, Bo Bice, Mario Vazquez, Anwar Robinson … a full half of the 12 finalists have been featured enough that we practically know their seventh-grade GPA.

The 18-year-old Yates, consciously absent from the list of previously-featured performers, chose to sing “How Could I” by 98 Degrees, and wound up blending in with the other ballads when he really needed to stand out. Out he went.

Mather took more of a chance, but it was a dumb one — picking “Get Ready” by The Temptations. It's a great song, but a song from a band, designed to be sung by a band, and not ideally suited to a soloist.

Her voice is almost as distinctive among the semifinalists as Cardinale's, but the viewers saw her a lot less before Tuesday night, and the lack of exposure in early February combined with an average performance when it counted was too much to overcome.

Mather was the only eliminated contestant to get real solace from the judges, with Simon telling her “it's absolutely not the end of your world” and saying she'd have done well in previous years. Sadly, however, Mather doesn't get to go back in time and go head-to-head with Kelly Clarkson. She got the boot instead.

Only one elimination was really a surprise, and that was Judd Harris.

For suspense purposes, it was a shock because Ryan Seacrest first told his row that everybody could relax, brought six semifinalists on stage and made them sweat — and then told them, two-by-two, that they were all safe before calling Harris out.

But Harris picked a song that seemed to get the audience's attention, a little “Travellin' Band” sandwiched between a couple of ballads that stood out. The judges didn't love him, but didn't slam him either.

Simon told Harris on Monday night that “a lot of girls will vote for you.” Clearly, not enough did.

MORE FROM AMERICAN IDOL

Happy birthday, Simon, the best mean Brit ever

Happy birthday, Simon, the best mean Brit ever ‘Idol Gives Back’ returns to ‘American Idol’ Ellen brings EveryFan sensibility to ‘Idol’ Paula Abdul wishes Ellen luck on ‘Idol’   Add American Idol headlines to your news reader: