Each spring, my blog becomes a sort of Idol Central. There are comments after every show and interviews with each ousted person. Now I wanted this interview with Scott MacIntyre.

He finished eighth in 2009, which was one of the good years, crackling with the firepower of Adam Lambert, Allison Iraheta and Lil Rounds. (The show sagged in 2010, then rebounded strongly this year.) Now his life seems packed with music, speaking appearances and his recent engagement. Here's the story I sent to papers:

By MIKE HUGHES

Most of the big, emotional "American Idol" stories are gone now.

The show has shed both single moms ... and its oilfield-worker father of two ... and now its virtually blind prodigy, Scott MacIntyre.

These are talented people, but most don't quite have voices good enough to be in the final crop. (The exception is single mom Alexis Grace, who really shouldn't have been dumped.)

Simon Cowell has a great sense of music, but not of drama. Tonight, "American Idol" barely missed an epic moment.

The viewers had put Scott MacIntyre at the bottom, with Anoop Desai next and Lil Rounds -- a great singer who had an average week -- third from the bottom.

The viewers got it right, but there was still a chance for the judges to save him. For a while, this seemed like it had been scripted for one of those feel-good menus.

If you ever wanted to see a look of pure Joy, you could have glimpsed Megan Joy in tonight's "American Idol."

On Wednesday, Joy -- she was Megan Joy Corkrey, before jettisoning her ex-husband's name -- had given a performance that Simon Cowell correctly called "a train wreck." She seemed properly astonished tonight to not be in the final three. During the Stevie Wonder medley, she squeezed little Allison Iraheta and had the look of a serial killer who had received a reprieve due to a typographical error.

Don't expect a bunch of look-alike, sound-alike people in this year's "American Idol" final 12.
The differences are enormous. Just consider the three who advanced on Wednesday:
-- Jorge Nunez is a comparative-literature major who was hoping to be a lawyer. He's sung in choirs, he said today (Thursday), but that's about it. "This is the only big thing I've ever done with music."
-- Lil Rounds grew up amid the music of Memphis. Still, she's confined her singing mostly to church.
-- And Scott MacIntyre? Well, the list goes on and on.

After its first two rounds, "American Idol" was still missing a key element -- a great, black singer. Now it has at least one, maybe two.

Lil Rounds sang beautifully to close the show; she should easily zoom into the final 12. Ju'Not Joyner also did a great job, but was sandwiched in the middle; some other guys followed strongly.