Tonight, on American Idol III the theme was Big Band Beat. George Huff was suited up in black on black, as was host, Ryan Seacrest. La Toya London had on a brightly colored Marilyn Monroe-like contemporary halter dress. Fantasia Barrino wore a black halter top pant suit and bangles. DeGarmo wore a pretty periwinkle and lace dress that worked for the theme. It was a huge improvement over last night's tummy revealing top. Tonight, four-out-of-five contestants dressed the part. However, all five finalists delivered performances that make it difficult to be certain who will be eliminated from the contest tomorrow.

Once again judging tonight's performance was as Seacrest described, "Big Head" Simon Cowell, "Big Talent" Paula Abdul and the guy "that used to be big," Randy Jackson.

Nigel Wright

The celebrity-in-disguise tonight was American Idol's Big Band music director. "Costing Fox a fortune," said Seacrest, and worth every penny was two-time Grammy nominee and one-time Oscar nominee, Nigel Wright, conducting, Ron Walters, Jr. on piano and the American Idol Penguins and The Band. Wright, who has served as Idol's Music Director for the past two years, is known best for his work with Barbra Streisand, Madonna, Jose Carreras, Sarah Brightman, Cliff Richards, Andrew Lloyd Webber and numerous Broadway productions.

Tonight, each contestant was invited to sing two songs from the Big Band era.

Diana DeGarmo

Diana was up first. For her grandpa, all the veterans, her brother and for all those in the Army watching over us, she sang Someone To Watch Over Me.

Her second selection was a Judy Garland tune.

Randy Jackson called her "The Bomb" and a seasoned-talent. Paula praised her for looking like a classy young lady. She said, "You picked two songs that suit you beautifully." Cowell clarified that he had not help pick out her dress. He called her an old soul. He said his only reservation was that "You look like a 16 year-old sounding like a 50 year-old body singing in a contemporary competition."

George Huff

Singing Heaven all in this household were in Heaven listening to and watching George shine.

Originally performed by Louie Armstrong, George did Armstrong proud singing What a Wonderful World. George Huff's happiness is infectious. His voice is "big" and bold. His fan section was also out en force.

Randy Jackson said "It was really good, but not great." Paula found him "truly enchanting." Simon said "Tonight is about being cool. You could go on any medium cruise liner and hear this kind of music."

La Toya London

Following in the footsteps of Natalie Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, La Toya started tonight's performance with Too Close For Comfort. She was as radiant as the orange color of her dress. She said she chose the song because it was simply fun.

Her second song was a selection from Funny Girl. Just as the lyrics from the song indicated nobody is going to rain on La Toya London's parade.

Randy was as animated as we ever seen him. He said, "I've loved you every time. But this is the kind of music you were meant to sing. All the personality we were waiting to see, it was right here, naturally." Paula affirmed Randy's compliments by saying "This is just another type of album that you will put out that will sell millions and millions of albums." She added, "This is like the Olympics and you've just won The Gold."

"10 out of 10 for a very good Broadway performance," said Cowell.

Jasmine Trias

Tonight, Jasmine started with The Way You Look Tonight. Jasmine dedicated the song to her family back home in Hawaii. Unfortunately, her jeans, chains and revealing top "look" tonight didn't help her performance. If tonight's vote was based on her presence during Seacrest's interview, she might have remained in the hunt. However, the competition was too tough tonight.

It's Almost Like Being In Love was Jasmine's second selection of the night. It also was almost there.

As much as we and the world love the Aloha girl with the flower in her hair, tomorrow night may be the last time we see her perform on this year's show.

Randy wasn't sure he was wowed. He called it very good. He was looking for "Dude. The Bomb! Bring it on." Paula told her she enjoyed her performance. She applauded her for her growth. Cowell disagreed with Abdul's praise. He called her performance "just plain pleasant."

A highlight of the night was when Cowell and Jackson stood up and started for the stage to show Jasmine how it's done. Too bad they didn't give a taste. Now that would have been the worth the price of admission.

Fantasia Barrino

Fantasia Barrino delivered a Queen classic with a Big Band twist. Seated for her second song she sang What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life as a tribute to her daughter. Her boyfriend and family were in the audience to cheer her on.

Also in the crowd tonight was Jon Peter Lewis.

Randy called Fantasia absolutely brilliant. "It's about tone people." Even though it was a subdued Fantasia performance, it was Paula was brought to tears.

Cowell made it clear that Fantasia and La Toya are in "a different league." Her response: "God bless you!"

So, again it appears the divas reign!!

One American Family's AI Order of Favorites from Tonight's Performances:

Tim (44 yrs.): La Toya, Diana, George, Fantasia, Jasmine
Jen (43): La Toya, George, Fantasia, Diana, Jasmine
Lisa (19): George, Fantasia, La Toya, Diana, Jasmine
Jessie (8): Diana, La Toya, George, Jasmine, Fantasia
Niki's (6): George, Diana, Fantasia, La Toya, Jasmine

Don't you just wonder if they had done Big Band songs last week, John Stevens might still be around?

The one thing that failed miserably tonight were the producers choices of advertisers. For what should be a G Rated family show, the fact that they took significant dollars for Universal's upcoming film Van Helsing the over-the-top violent The Chronicles of Riddick and chose to promote The Swan was poor, poor judgment. Fox, FreemantelMedia North America, 19 Entertainment and New's Corp. should all be inspired to do better.

"The price of a 30-second commercial on American Idol rose to as much as $700,000 from about $250,000 a year earlier," said Karen McCallum, an advertising buyer at Albuquerque, New Mexico-based McKee Wallwork Henderson. News Corp., the world's fifth-largest media company by revenue, tomorrow will report net income of about $386 million, or 27 cents a share, on sales of $5.04 billion, the average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, for the third quarter ended March 31. Television, mostly the Fox network, added 31 percent more to profit than a year earlier, said Michael Gallant, an analyst at CIBC World Markets Inc.

With this kind of market share and revenue generating capability you'd think Fox, News Corp. and Rupert Murdoch could be more responsible. With six children of his own, two who are under the age of three, and seven grandchildren, doesn't he realize that six year-olds are watching?

Inspire & Be Inspired, Please Mr. Murdoch!

~Jennifer King

P.S. Next week? We understand Fox may include guest judge, Donna Summer.