Four weeks remain in the American Idol 2011 competition leaving four more Hopefuls to be eliminated before we crown a new American Idol. While the judges like to say its anyone’s game I think most of us know better than that.

To keep the 90 minutes runtime filled the remaining Top 5 singers will each perform two songs. One will be songs from the 60′s, because that’s hip and relevant, and the other will be modern to help balance out the fifty year old songs. Maybe next week they’ll take on hits from Bach and Mozart! No word on what restrictions will be placed on “modern” songs, but hopefully they do better than letting Scotty sing an 80′s song for the 21st century theme…

Come Thursday night’s American Idol results show we’ll see Jennifer Lopez get out from behind the judges’ table and perform “On the Floor” alongside Pitbull. The non-Idol guest performer will be Lady Antebellum and though FOX says they’ll also be singing “On the Floor” I’m guessing that’s a typo in their press release. Or maybe it’ll be a rap battle! Yeah, probably not.

Ratings took another dip for American Idol this past week. Thursday night’s results show was down 5% in viewers from the previous week. As we get a little closer to the finale I’m still expecting things to pick back up, but maybe I’ll be surprised.

Couple of side notes. First, the American Idol 2011 Tour has been announced and tickets are now on pre-sale. So while most vendors won’t have tickets available until May 13th, I’ve got the hookup for you today. Check out the tour dates, locations, and ticket prices right now. Second, we’re running a free giveaway for a “skin” for your phones and devices along with a chance at two American Idol finale tickets. You can enter to win everyday from now until May 13th, so don’t wait.

So which singer are you most excited to see perform this week on American Idol?

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In case you missed Ryan Seacrest's mentions of it in this week's shows, the dates for this year's American Idol summer tour have been announced! That's your chance to see the Top 11 -- recently booted Casey Abrams, Haley Reinhart, Jacob Lusk, James Durbin, Lauren Alaina, Naima Adedapo, Paul McDonald, Pia Toscano, Scotty McCreery, Stefano Langone and Thia Megia -- perform live.

Raise your hand if you want to go to the American Idol 2011 finale. Raise your other hand if you want a free Idol themed skin for your iPhone, iPod, or any other music player. Now put your hands down. People are starting to stare!

MusicSkins.com is running a contest to send one lucky Idol fan and a companion to the Idol season finale on May 25th, 2011 with a pair of tickets to the big event. The contest has just begun and will run through May 12th with the winner announced by MusicSkins on the 13th. Find the full details here for entry rules and contest restrictions. You can enter multiple times everyday so don’t wait!

To go along with the tickets giveaway MusicSkins has provided us with ten special Idol-themed skins for your device so you can sport either your favorite singer or a slick logo’d vinyl design. We’re giving all of those to our readers (that’s you!) in an easy to enter contest.

You can enter to win an Idol skin 3 ways everyday between now and May 13th:

1. “Like” us on Facebook and leave a message on our Wall
2. Follow us on Twitter and then tweet a message @americanidolnet
3. Sign-up for our newsletter and then leave a comment on this post

It’s that easy and you can repeat those three-steps every single day until the contest ends on May 13th. Then we’ll draw ten random entries and notify the winners. To be eligible you must be 13+ years old and a U.S. resident (shipping cost restriction, nothing personal to our surrounding readers). That’s it so get started.

Full Disclosure: We are receiving no compensation of any sort for running this giveaway. You get the prizes and we get the joy of helping readers get a chance to see the finale! MusicSkins.com is in complete control of the Idol finale tickets giveaway.

This content is copyrighted by AmericanIdolnet.com.

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And other tales!

Paul McDonald and Casey Abrams have both recently been eliminated from American Idol. Did they just not receive enough votes, or is there a grander scheme in play? You might have noticed something else about their final performances, the presence of ... saxophone lady!

There were plenty of gasps Thursday night on “American Idol” when Casey Abrams was eliminated and I’m not sure why. I mean, does anyone remember the first time he was voted off? In 11th place? Yeah. That’s why this is no surprise. Maybe people were just more ready for Jacob Lusk to go instead. I know I was.

I was actually so annoyed by the episode that I couldn’t even react to the elimination. It was, hands down, the worst episode of the season. From the way Ryan “randomly” gave us the results (with no actual Bottom 3), to the worst group number of the season to those ridiculous recorded recaps before everyone’s results were (or weren’t revealed), it was just awful. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible.

Even the filler was at its worst. I mean, the royal wedding? Why would that be a part of this show? I have no idea what event that footage was from, but I do know none of them know the difference between an English accent and the Spanish language.

Following that terrible filler, the Top 6 take on the songs of Carole King in a medley and as I’ve already said, it was horrible. Flat singing, missed cues, bad “dancing.” Do they even rehearse those group numbers? Terrible.

And just when we think they’re going to start giving results, they pull out the Ford music video then a performance by last season’s last eliminated contestant first runner up Crystal Bowersox. Her performance was decent. She still hasn’t washed her hair since last season, but she’s a good performer.

Finally, they’re on the couches! It’s time to get to the results. Right after Casey is done biting his fingernails on NATIONAL TELEVISION. Oh wait, it’s not time yet. It’s time for MORE filler. This time in the form of impromptu questions from fans to the contestants. Great. It becomes more and more obvious that the results show does NOT need to be a whole hour. Thirty minutes would be plenty of time for Thursday nights.

Ryan finally calls Haley Reinhart up and to kill more time, he introduces the first recap from the night before. As if we didn’t all see the previous night’s upside. Filler, filler, filler. Haley is sent to safety. And we can’t even presume she wasn’t in the Bottom 3 because Ryan did the results in such a stupid way.

Next up is Scotty McCreery. He’s not sent to safety yet. Then Ryan does the same thing to Lauren Alaina. Ooooh the suspense. Oh and then Ryan does the same thing to Casey. Oh no! No one is safe tonight! Blah blah. Have I mentioned this was the worst results show ever?

Finally when James Durbin is brought to the stage he is sent to safety. That leaves Jacob. Ryan brings up the others and sends Lauren to safety. So the remaining three (again, we can’t presume they were the Bottom 3) are Scotty, Jacob and Casey).

Then we have to wait while we watch a pre-recorded performance from Bruno Mars.

Finally it’s time to find out who received the least amount of votes. Jacob was sent to safety. That leaves Scotty and Casey and we know how that plays out. Scotty is safe, Casey is not.

I was never a fan of Casey’s for probably the same reason that he was sent home  in 11th place and again in 6th. I just don’t like jazz. I don’t get it. I respect it, but I’m not going to be pretentious and claim to like it. But that’s neither here nor there. What I meant to say was that Casey is crazy talented. He will be very successful and make plenty of jazz fans happy that someone so young and talented can amp up the genre. “American Idol” just wasn’t the right platform for him. But I’m sure it’ll help him get a proper start. So Casey fans, hang in there. You and Casey are more than likely better off that he did not win this competition.

What were your thoughts on the vote outcome and tonight’s trainwreck show?

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