On last night’s American Idol Top 13 Performance show, the judges all proclaimed how ridiculous the contestants’ talent is this season. Randy Jackson then proceeded to remind the viewers that, indeed, it was him and Jennifer and Steven who put all that talent through to the Top 13. The only thing stopping Randy from patting himself on the back is the fact that he can’t reach his hand back there.

I do have to agree with the judges: the contestants’ talent this season is ridiculous. After all, it’s ridiculous that most of the contestants’ don’t seem to want to bring their talent on stage with them.

Okay. So maybe that is a little harsh. After all, every year we see one or two contestants shine tremendously during auditions and Hollywood Week, only to fall flat on their face once the live audience shows begin. Katie Stevens (Season 9), Michael Sarver (Season 8), and Michael Johns (Season 7) all come to my mind. Contestants like this will usually make it through for a few weeks while America dispatches those contestants who have no business being there in the first place. Eventually, though, America gets tired of their poor showings and will show them an early door, earlier than many people thought they would see.

What is different about this season, however, is the scope of just how many contestants are falling flat on their faces at this point. Unlike past seasons, the majority of the contestants this season wowed us with solid, if not excellent, performances. Most of them more than proved that they deserve a chance to be in the Top 13, and I’m glad they are. But they have GOT to figure out why they aren’t performing to their full potential and fix it.

Sadly, this made last night’s two-hour American Idol seem like four-hours. No wonder I was out of it by the time the Idol Radio Show started.

Picking the worst contestants of the night, however, was actually an easy task. While most of the contestants were simply bad last night, three stood out in a way that no human being should ever stand out.

My pick for the third worst performance of the night is Casey Abrams. Every time I see him sing, I get the impression that he is trying to put on an impression. It’s like he’s trying to make us think he is someone other than who he is, like he is embarrassed of who he is. Add to that his lack of facial emotions while singing and those forced growls, and you end up with a very big mess. That said, I don’t have him as one of my Bottom 3 picks this week, though he did end up with the second lowest score of the night over on Dial Idol.

The second worst performance of the night belongs to Karen Rodriguez. Of the five girls who made it through to the Top 13 on votes, none was more shocking to bloggers I’ve read and viewers I’ve talked to than Karen. Clearly she has a support base voting for her, but performances like last night’s won’t win her any new voters. Karen started her song so far off-key, it took her almost 45 seconds to find her way back on-key. In addition, she was overpowered by the music and looked very uncomfortable up there singing. I have Karen in my Bottom 3, but her late performance slot may help her avoid that designation this week.

Worst of the night by far was Ashthon Jones. Not only was Ashthon’s vocals very under powering, but she started the song off-key and never found her way back. In addition, for much of the song she was breathing harder than she was singing. Not something that I care to hear in most of my songs. As one of the judges’ Wild Card picks, most of the people I’ve talked to seem to feel that Kendra Chantelle and Rachel Zevita would have been more deserving choices. And from what I’ve read, it seems that most Americans feel the same way. As a result, I expect America to make short work of Ashthon, and she is my pick to pack her bags for home this week.

Despite all the bad the contestants offered up last night, there was a good performance. And there were two excellent performances.

The good performance of the night belonged to Scotty McCreery. From the beginning I’ve compared him as a cross between Garth Brooks and Clint Black, so I was happy to see him take on one of Garth’s classic songs. I did think that Scotty was a little overpowered by the music, but his pitch was spot on and his voice was smooth. Frankly, I thought he did Garth proud. In addition, Scotty has a charm and confidence that exudes from him when he is on stage.

The first excellent performance of the night goes to Pia Toscano. As I said last week, Pia wasn’t even on my radar when the Top 24 took to the stage. But that changed the moment she belted out her song last week, and she reinforced my new-found love for her again this week. Her voice is strong and she knows it. She’s not afraid to hit those higher notes and hold them. And the control she displays when singing is second only to one other contestant right now. I can only hope that America has stood up and taken notice of Pia as well.

The second excellent performance of the night, and the best as far as I’m concerned, came from James Durbin. Many people in the IdolBlogLive.com Shoutbox during his performance were saying that he was better than Adam Lambert. While I’m not ready to go that far yet, I am ready to proclaim him the best singer of this season. He went from Judas Priest last week to Paul McCartney this week without missing a beat. James appears to have a large following already, second possibly only to Scotty. It will be interesting to see if voters will put their votes behind them as the field narrows, or if like Adam, he will end up losing out in the end.

So there you go. My thoughts about last night’s American Idol Top 13 performances. Let me know what you thought in the comments below.