How much has "American Idol" advanced in the past five years?

Consider this: Jasmine Murray and Diana DeGarmo were essentially the same person on "Idol." Each was a cute teen-ager with a big voice, belting out high-volume finishes.

Back in 2004, that was enough to take DeGarmo all the way to the top two. This time, Murray didn't reach the top 11.

There were plenty of reasons Murray and Jorge Nunez were eliminated tonight, but one is the steep improvement in the competition.

This was a strange night of "American Idol," throwing away all the usual patterns.

Usually, the show is all about balance -- boy-girl, loud-soft, good-bad. Not this time. It started and ended with women -- fresh, fierce work by Lil Rounds and Alexis Grace; that left the middle with eight men and only three women. It started with seven songs the judges loved -- then three they didn't -- then three more good ones.

It was all odd, but interesting. Here are a few of my comments and then my should-go, will-go. Please add yours:

What's it like to have a TV show toy with your emotions?
"It was the pits, man," Anoop Desai said today (Friday). "It's the difference between having all your dreams dashed and seeing them (revived)."
For a moment Thursday, it appeared that Desai was out, failing to make the show's final 12. Then came the switch: There will be 13 this year and he's in.

"We've got to cast the rest of the season," Simon Cowell said tonight.

And that, of course, is what we figured they'd do. These final picks -- the judges' wild cards -- are all about filling out what's missing.

We'd predicted Wednesday that the judges would go with Jasmine Murray, Anoop Desai and Megan Joy Corkrey. They did; they also threw in a surprise with Matt Giraud, expanding the field to 13.