Digital Brainwaves

After a night off for a charity concert, this week’s results.

• “Idol Gives Back” recapped.
• The Idol top 8 perform “Shout To The Lord.”
• Celebrity video package, lip-syncing to “I’m A Believer.”
• 31 million votes, highest so far this season.
• Brooke White gets to read her own destiny from Ryan’s card: “America voted; you are safe.”
• The Davids, Cook and Archuleta are marked safe as well. 5 remain, and the bottom three remain empty at the moment.
• Forrest Whittaker reports on conditions in Africa.
• Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown perform “No Air.” Definitely feeling a vibe between these two.
• Ryan presents Jordin three framed records: Two platinum for downloads (”Tattoo” and “No Air”) and one gold for her CD.
• Ford music video: “I Just Want To Celebrate”
• Jason Castro is called to center stage, and is declared safe, as is Kristy Lee Cook. The entire rest of the cast — Michael Johns, Syesha Mercado and Carly Smithson — are in the bottom three.
• Bono in a video for one.org and PRODUCT (RED).
• Videos from all three presidential candidates. No audible crowd response over Clinton, laughs for McCain (”American Idol is a lot like a presidential primary election… except for those living in Michigan and Florida, their votes actually count!”), and — predictably, given the LA audience — cheers for Obama.
• Down to business… Syesha and Carly are declared safe. Michael Johns, surprisingly, has the lowest number of votes.
• Ryan reminds us that, last year, they didn’t eliminate anyone on Idols Gives Back week. This year… Michael goes home. They only get harder from here, as there are really only good singers left.