Alright, confession time here. I watch American Idol. There. I said it. The cat is now officially out of the bag.

I have watched it since midway through Season 2 when Clay Aiken was on. And yes, I am a Claymate. Besides, I live just outside Raleigh, his hometown. I wouldn’t even want to call myself a Tarheel if I didn’t like Clay, but I do, so I can. And while we’re on the subject of Tarheels, yes, I am a rabid Tarheel fan as well. ACC Basketball is huge in my family and we are split evenly between the Tarheel and Wolfpack contingent. Go Heels all the way for the National Championship! Okay, sorry. I seriously digressed there. Back to American Idol.

If you’re like me, I TiVo the show. It’s the ONLY way to watch television, especially the AI results show! I usually turn 1 hour of programming into about 10-15 minutes!

So this week was Dolly Parton week. Now, I’m a Dolly Parton fan. My mama used to watch Dolly’s little variety show that came on on Saturday nights, and I watched and listened to her sing “I Will Always Love You” at the end of that show every week. I loved that song! I would stand there in front of the TV and sing it with her at the top of my lungs. I thought Dolly was the bomb!

I have to tell you, you could have knocked me over with a feather this week after watching the results show. I confess I was a little surprised when a couple of the contestants sang songs that said “Jesus” (gasp!) not once but multiple times. Not only that, there weren’t any negative comments from Simon about it. He slammed Mandisa a couple of seasons ago when she came out and sang a gospel-type song. As it turns out, that was also the week she went home. As a side note, I like Simon. I think he’s usually spot on in his assessments of the songs (This is all in my professional layperson’s opinion you understand. Simon and I confer on a regular basis. :->) Still, I haven’t seen a lot of evidence that Jesus is a name that passes Simon’s lips that often.

On the results show, Dolly gets up there and sings a song called, “Jesus and Gravity.” Jesus and gravity, people! It was all about how she had someone lifting her up and something keeping her feet on the ground. She said, “Jesus” at nearly every chorus. She said God was her light and her life. This was all part of the lyrics in the song. AND THEN…

As if that weren’t enough, when Ryan came up to talk to her, he suggested they needed to let Simon back into Dollywood (a reference to something earlier in the show). Dolly said he was welcome, and that Simon was needed. She said she had Jesus and Ryan had Simon. Knock me over again. BTW, Ryan commented that he felt he had gotten the short end of the stick. Indeed.

You know what? I got Jesus, too, and I am ever so thankful. I like Simon, but Ryan should think about trading him in!

Having said all that, I think Hollywood got something right this week!