Queen on "Idol" Season 8 (photo: Fox)Queen's performance with Kris Allen and Adam Lambert on the Season 8 "American Idol" finale ranks as one of the series' all-time greatest moments, so expect more greatness when Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor return to perform with "Idol" top six finalists next Wednesday, April 25.

Jessica's dramatic moment last week (photo: Fox)Last week on "American Idol," judges' pet Jessica Sanchez shockingly received the fewest votes, but of course the judges saved her. They in fact bumrushed the stage and wrestled the microphone out of Jessica's hand before she'd even made it through the first verse of her (apparently unnecessary) Judges' Save song. It was a dramatic moment, for sure, so naturally producers milked it for all it was worth, opening this Wednesday's "Idol" top seven redux show with what felt like 10 minutes of ominously scored, grainy, slow-motion footage replaying last week's events. Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler's slo-mo expressions of shock-horror. J.Lo's slo-mo high-heeled sprint across the stage. Slo-mo scenes of Jessica lying shell-shocked on a backstage fainting couch, watching a rebroadcast of her near-elimination through frightened Keane-painting eyes. It was all a little much, really.

Monday night, Team Blake's Jordis Unga and Team Xtina's Jesse Campbell were shockingly cut by their respective coaches in some sort of controversial new "instant elimination" round, and my "The Day After" co-host Matt Whitfield and I were NOT happy about this. But last night, Blake and Christina redeemed themselves, at least somewhat, by choosing to save Erin Willett over RaeLynn and Lindsey Pavao over Ashley De La Rosa. Maybe the show hasn't jumped the shark after all.

Season 10's Sarah SellersDiehard "American Idol" viewers will remember Sarah Sellers as the geek-chic food blogger who made it to Hollywood Week last year. (Watch her Season 10 audition here.)  Sarah has since continued her food-blogging, and has been cooking up scrumptious snack suggestions for any "Idol" viewing party and posting them here in Reality Rocks each week. She was also my special guest on a special South By Southwest version of "The Day After" in Austin last month, which you can watch HERE!

photo: Danny Clinch/EsquireEsquire magazine's Third Annual Songwriting Challenge will hit newsstands April 24, in the May issue, and this year's batch of participants is impressive, ranging from Grammy-winning soul star Anthony Hamilton, to indie darlings Craig Finn (of the Hold Steady) and Rhett Miller (of the Old 97's Rhett Miller), to multiplatinum Canadian rocker Sam Roberts, to "American Idol" star Chris Daughtry.

The five diverse singer-songwriters accepted Esquire's challenge to compose, perform, and record an original tune  inspired by "Pacific Standard Time," the title of their Esquire fashion portfolio shot by world-famous photographer Danny Clinch in the Coachella Valley. The result was five new original songs--Chris Daughtry's "4:00 A.M.," Anthony Hamilton's "Home By Five," Craig Finn's "Respective Coasts," Sam Roberts' "Faultline Blues," and Rhett Miller's "Cassandra"--the iTunes sales of which will benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America. Hearst Magazines will be matching all donations up to $10,000.

The five full songs are available now (and through May 31) exclusively in the iTunes store for $1.29 each, but before you head over to iTunes to buy them, check out the Danny Clinch-directed video for Chris Daughtry's lovely Esquire original, "4 A.M.," exclusively on Yahoo! Music.

Team Xtina's final threeMonday night, on what was perhaps the most controversial episode in the entire history of "The Voice," Christina Aguilera and Blake Shelton respectively cut two of their strongest singers, Jesse Campbell and Jordis Unga, in a seemingly last-minute and not fully explained "instant elimination" round. And public outrage ensued. Jesse's elimination in particular seemed to really anger "Voice" viewers, and on Tuesday's results show, even Christina's co-coaches Cee Lo Green and Adam Levine respectfully expressed confusion over her decision. However, on Tuesday, neither Blake nor Christina backed down from their choices, and Christina even declared, "I am no stranger to controversy, and I am okay with that. I am fearless in the face of what I believe, and I defend any action that I make. I do have a strategy."

Last night, Team Xtina and Team Blake competed in "The Voice's" quarterfinals, but sadly, two of those team's strongest singers didn't even get to compete for America's votes. Blake's Jordis Unga and Christina's Jesse Campbell were shockingly cut by their respective coaches in some sort of controversial new "instant elimination" round, and today, my "The Day After" co-host Matt Whitfield and I are NOT happy about this.

Gotye's positively inescapable "Somebody That I Used To Know" has already been covered on "The Voice," "American Idol," and "Glee," as well as by "The Sing-Off" winners Pentatonix. And now a bunch of other musical TV stars are getting in on the act. I really thought I'd be tired of "Somebody" remakes by now, but two new versions just hit YouTube today, and they have me loving the song all over again.