Now I know how Simon feels.

I didn't necessarily want to be right -- predicting the ejection of South Florida moppet Ramiele Malubay from last night's American Idol -- but her loss proves that, except for teen heartthrobs like Jason Castro and David Archuleta, survival is all about the performances.

One thing that gives me hope about Idol is that voters seems to really suss out who performed best each week in the voting, and Ramiele had the misfortune to pick a listless song to go with her listless stage personality.

One unwelcome trend which returned on last night's Idol: the mentor performance sucked.

I still remember watching Dolly Parton tear it up on the old Tonight Show, picking out a powerful tune on her guitar, inch-thick nails no problem, while Johnny Carson looked on like he was seeing the second Coming. So it was doubly disappointing to watch Parton reveal a dog of a song -- Jesus and Gravity? Really? -- with vocals shakier than her Botox work.

By now, I'm growing convinced Idol producers make these people sound bad on purpose.