On balance, Tuesday night's (April 27) episode of "American Idol" didn't end up as strange or terrible as MTV News' Eric Ditzian predicted yesterday. Shania Twain was a roundly excellent mentor (both in the one-on-one segments and during the judging), and none of the songs sounded especially odd or out of place (though the contestants did mostly pick some unusual selections from Twain's back catalog). While the performances themselves were somewhat middling, all told it was a relatively straightforward episode of "American Idol."
You apparently agreed, as "Shania Twain Week" finished a distant fourth in the poll we presented about the weirdest, most head-scratchingly "Huh?" theme weeks in the history of the show. What came in first place? "No Doubt and the Songs That Inspired Gwen Stefani," which took first place with 33 percent of the vote. That show — an entry from season six — was particularly odd mostly because the No Doubt tunes (like "Bathwater" and "Hey Baby") sounded somewhat out of place, and there didn't appear to be any rhyme or reason binding the other songs together (except that we now know that Stefani was inspired by both Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" and the Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic").
Elsewhere in the voting, "Andrew Lloyd Webber" — a theme that encouraged overwrought theatricality on a show that shoots such performing tropes down — took second place with 22 percent. "Burt Bacharach's Love Songs" came in third with 16 percent, followed distantly by this week's episode and "Neil Sedaka and the '60s."
What "American Idol" theme week would you most like to see? Let us know in the comments!