Simon Cowell was right: The women do appear to have the inside track on this season's American Idol. Because as disappointing as the top 12 female singers were Tuesday night, the top 12 guys were even more unimpressive Wednesday night. I'm writing off the week to nerves, middling to poor performances, and unwise song choices on

everyone's part. Not a single performance made you think, "Oh, yeah, he or she is going to win." You could only say that based on potential, not what was actually delivered. I certainly hope it was an aberration, because this was the worst round of opening performances ever put forth on Idol.

As far as the top 12 guys -- sigh. I don't even know where to begin. The guitar-strumming Andrew Garcia clearly had the nod as the front-runner out of auditions, but his acoustic reworking of Fall Out Boy's "Sugar We're Going Down" was odd and misdirected; the group's "I Don't Care" had a much better chance of coming off like his revamp of Paula Abdul's "Straight Up" from the Hollywood round. Casey James was OK in a straightforward, safe performance of Bryan Adams' "Heaven," although it's hard to envision him as anything beyond Bucky Covington II (acknowledging that Covington has gone on to have a solid country music

career with a few hits). Lee Dewyze drew the biggest praise from Cowell, but the singer's bizarrely unmelodic, pitchy rendition of Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" left me shrugging. Michael Lynche flashed potential more with his charisma than his coffeehouse run-through of Maroon 5's "This Love."

The rest of the guys aren't even worth recapping. They all are in danger of leaving tonight, when two guys and two girls will be cut based on viewer votes. Most in danger from Wednesday night are John Park -- because he was barely shown during the Hollywood round and delivered a snoozy version of "God Bless the Child," which no young voter knows -- and Tim Urban (pictured) -- who blew his last-minute trip to the top 24 by singing an absolutely horrible version of One Republic's "Apologize," which every young voter knows (and knows it was way out of his range).

Once again -- sigh.