LAST EDITED ON 03-30-09 AT 11:20 AM (EST)

Top ten week...Motown songs theme. Includes a trip to Motown sans the flu recovering Michael and Megan. Smokey Robinson is the mentor (is this Smokey's second time as the mentor in 8 seasons?) and we also get Berry Gordy on the Hitsville USA tour and on performance night, too.

Results night guest performances were Josh Stone/Smokey Robinson duet; Ruben Stoddard; Stevie Wonder with a Motown medley.

Singing order:

1. Matt: "Let's Get It On" --bottom two--
2. Kris: "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)"
3. Scott: "You Can't Hurry Love" --bottom three (but "safe")--
4. Megan: "For Once In My Life"
5. Anoop: "Ooooh, Baby, Baby"
6. Michael: "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" **booted**
7. Lil: "Heatwave"
8. Adam: "Tracks Of My Tears"
9. Danny: "Get Ready"
10. Allison: "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" **pimp spot**

Matt got "one of the front runners" pimpage. He also had the first spot in the singing order and wound up in the bottom two because, perhaps, he was forgotten by the end of the show? Dial Idol had him as safe and not as one of the bottom three candidates; so text messages must have made the difference.

Kris got some good praise but it was tempered in comparison with Matt's pimpage. Simon also did the picking on image thing to help sew seeds of doubt about Kris. "Standing at a busstop". Good for Kris for clarifying confidence from conceit.

Scott got mostly panned and got the lengthy confusing discussion with the judges, primarily Simon and Paula, that devolves into it being about them and not about Scott.

Megan was a mess and her only (faint) pimpage was that she looked good and the camera loves her. Simon's admonition that she was in trouble did help rally her support so she was not back in the bottom 3 this week. She wore a short dress that showed off her legs this week; taking a page from Haley, perhaps?

Anoop got some minor pimpage. He bores me--so I don't really recall what their praise was. He did get the dual edged sword judges' suggestion to change it up next week. That usually does not work, so it will be interesting to see if Anoop follows their advice. IMO the judges/producers want Anoop for viewers and text messages but not in the F4. We'll see!

Michael got panned. Simon told him he had no chance of winning. Clearly Michael was going to be in the bottom of the votes because many of the other performers were simply better. Michael had to do a "sing off" to get into the top 36. IMO the sing off peeps never get far. And so it was for Michael.

Lil got the "it could have been better" type of comments, but we were reminded that she IS one of the best singers by Simon, too. So that's save-the-performer pimpage.

Adam. From Smokey R's standing O (and whether Smokey gave a standing O to anyone else we weren't shown except for Allison) to the judges' effusive praise, Adam got the "best performance of the night" pimpage AND the "you have emerged as a star tonight" pimpage from Simon, who had previously held back on praising Adam. This was also a huge contrast to last week's slam on Adam by Simon after Adam performed "Ring of Fire".

Danny got interesting placement tonight. By placing him between Adam and Allison, the judges got to be effusive with both Adam and Allison and contrast their performances to Danny's. I wondered if we were having the Final 3 served up as the last three of the top ten. We'll know many weeks from now. Paula was assigned to praise him, er, I mean gave him props while Randy and Kara gave the mixed reviews and Simon the thumbs down. This week they did not let the audience applause go on and on and the judges' comments were short and rushed.

Allison--from having the pimp spot to Smokey R's standing O and two judges' standing O's...she was clearly and completely pimped. No judge mentioned her mumbling words (or were they forgotten words?). Kara exclaimed that Allison's talent was from God while Randy reminded us that she is 16 and is "blazing hot". Simon said it was one of her best. (IMO Kara could not tell Adam he was the best performance of the night because she had to be the one to gush for Allison--so she told Adam he was one of the best performances, paving the way for Simon to declare it THE best.) Kara implored people to vote for Allison and it worked. She was not back in the bottom this week.

Other pimpage:

Lil got quite a bit of spotlight on the Motown visit; and in the group number on results night she was THE spotlighted one. Matt got more singouts than others, too, on the male side.

Lil also got another spotlight with the "you could be in the bottom three" build up from Ryan as he mentioned past "Heatwave" performers going to the bottom three while he gave the results. He had Lil convinced she was going to the bottom three before he declared her safe.

Megan was the other one who was made to seem likely to go to the bottom 3 but was safe. Megan also get some small pimpage from TV Guide--this week's Idolchat in TVG focuses on Megan's Joyful Tatoos--we learn it is a castle with a queen, a prince, a princess, but no king as she is now divorced (and that's why she dropped the Corkrey from her name). Like I keep saying--the pretty girl hangs in until around 8th or so.

Next week's theme: Top 100 current itunes downloads