Let the real games begin...

American Idol Season 5 kicked off its real competition tonight starting with the Top 12 girls, and despite being fairly disappointed overall, Paris Bennett's performance of "Midnight Train to Georgia" more than made up for it. The girl was seriously on her game from the minute she took the stage; I couldn't believe her confidence and comfort level up there. As an aside, is anyone else noticing the striking resemblance of Paris to Dr. Bailey on "Grey's Anatomy"? Auddie and I had already been calling her 'Mini Bailey,' and with tonight's new hairdo, she's really looked like her spitting miniature image. Here's your photo comparison, and I'll update the photo when I can grab a better one from tonight's performance:

Other Idol thoughts: my early faves at this point are Paris, of course, as well as Lisa Tucker (I mean, she was Nala in a production of "The Lion King," who can resist??) and Katharine McPhee. Can we just skip all the bad people (Um, we get that the judges think Becky O'Donohue is "gorgeous" and all, but I thought her rendition of "Because the Night" was straight-up drunken bar Karaoke or something) and move on to the final 3?

Besides, I actually watched the Olympics tonight-- oh come on, who can pass up women's figure skating??-- and trying to cram in both lengthy programs is making my brain fry.