Some old "American Idol" trends crumbled tonight. They included:
1) Latino landslide. Remember 2007, when 42 per cent of the top 12 were Latino? That was the year of David Archuleta, Ramiele Malubay, Jason Castro, Syesha Mercado and David Hernandez. Maybe that wasn't a coincidence, we figured. Maybe Latinos are especially popular or have a great voting base. Well, maybe not. Tonight, Ashley Rodgriguez and Joe Munoz were two of the first four dumped. By surname, at least, there's only one Latino (Andrew Garcia) left in the top 20.
2) Beauty rules. Ashley Rodgriguez was, very simply, the most gorgeous person in the competition. Tyler Grady was attractive in sort of the way Tom Welling might be when he just gets up in the morning. Both are gone.
3) Talent beats no talent. I was quite sure that Alex Lambert and Lacey Brown would be gone, based narrowly on the fact that they were really quite awful. Both survived while Rodriguez, Munoz, Grady and Janelle Wheeler -- each of them adequate, most of them forgettable -- were ousted. Go figure.