Blog Posts by Lyndsey Parker

Those of you who've been missing Paula Abdul since she got the pink slip from Simon Cowell's "X Factor" earlier this year are no doubt thrilled with the current season of "Dancing With The Stars," which has been giving Paula plenty of screentime lately. Paula, a true dance allstar, recently judged the current allstar season of "DWTS," and this week she returned to perform on Tuesday's "DWTS" results show. And the result was straight-up fun.

Sylvia Yacoub goes homeThis week on "The Voice's" top 10 results show, Team Xtina's Sylvia Yacoub went home--thus totally ruining Christina Aguilera's grand plan of leading a fellow diva to victory, as this was Christina's second consecutive female contestant to exit the show, leaving her with just one singer to work with: hunky male Dez Duron. But considering that Sylvia performed first on Monday night, and was easily upstaged by the nine singers that followed her (and that Dez makes all the lady voters swoon), this was not such a huge surprise. I never really thought Sylvia could win this show in the end.

But I'd always thought that the other singer who went home this week, Team Adam's Bryan Keith, had a shot.

Last night, the top 10 competed on "The Voice," and while almost everyone was amazing--Blake Shelton was NOT kidding when he said it was the best "Voice" episode of all time--there was one contestant who amazed me and my "The Day After" co-host Matt Whitfield most of all: Cody Belew, who brought a little bit of bam-bam and a whole lot of fierceness to the competition, with a "Crazy In Love" performance that was just crazy.

photos: Yahoo! NewsIt's been weeks since Nicki's feud with her new "American Idol" co-star, Mariah Carey, went public, after TMZ "leaked" footage of the two alpha-females bickering on the set of the Season 12 auditions, and then Mariah shockingly told "The View's" Barbara Walters that Nicki had threatened to shoot her with a gun. The Fox PR machine subsequently lurched into damage-control overdrive, with producer Nigel Lythgoe and host Ryan Seacrest insisting that all was quiet on the "Idol" front, and publicists dispatching multiple staged press shots of Nicki and Mariah posing with pained, plastered grins on their faces (always with the buffer of fellow judges Randy Jackson and Keith Urban between them, of course).

But weeks later, Nicki still refuses to let it go.

In addition to dishing about the feud in her recent E! reality miniseries, "Nicki Minaj: My Truth," Her Minajesty is now rapping about it in a new song called "Hell Yeah," off Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded The Re-Up. Sample lyrics include...

Cody Belew taps into his inner Sasha Fierce"This may be the best episode of 'The Voice' we've ever had," declared Blake Shelton during this Monday's top 10 "Voice" episode--and you know, he may've been right. It was an evening positively packed with stellar performances, so much so that I truly cannot predict which two talented contestants will, sadly, go home on Tuesday night.

All I can say is: CODY BELEW BETTER NOT BE ONE OF THEM.

McPhee's Karen Cartwright is in awe of Hudson's Veronica MooreFollowing in the footsteps "American Idol" superstar Kelly Clarkson, who guest-mentored on "The Voice" last season, tonight (Monday) Jennifer Hudson also crosses the great "Idol"/"Voice" divide and makes a special mentoring appearance on "The Voice" herself. And adding to all this cross-show awesomeness is that, in a perfect act of well-timed NBC synergy, a preview of J.Hud in the forthcoming second season of NBC's musical dramedy "Smash"--starring Season 5 "Idol" runner-up Katharine McPhee, of course--also debuts this fine Monday evening.

Lyric 145 go home on "The X Factor" [photo: Ray Mickshaw/Fox]"The Voice" and "The X Factor" continued apace last week...and more than ever, it was abundantly obvious just how different the two singing shows truly are. Over on "The Voice," it was all happyfuntimes, group hugs, and unflagging team spirit, while on "The X Factor," it was all about that series' usual stock in trade: "shocking" eliminations, icky judge infighting, manufactured drama, and just plain old bad vibes. Oh, Simon Cowell, will you ever change?

Last night, two of my favorite contestants on "The X Factor" Season 2--potential hip-hop superstars Lyric 145, and rocker-girl-next-door Jennel Garcia--went home on a very controversial double-elimination episode. I was not happy. My "The Day After" co-host, Matt Whitfield, was not happy. Many "X Factor" viewers were not happy. Demi Lovato was not happy, since her attempt to save Jennel was outvoted by her fellow judges. Basically, it was a really unhappy night--and a potentially shark-jumping one for the show.

So today, I'm rocking my eyepatch one last time in honor of the wrongly dethroned Lyric Da Queen. And I'm dressed in black, not just because I'm still in mourning over these controversial eliminations, but because I'm mourning the possible death of what could have been a great "X Factor" season. With three of Season 2's most interesting and unique contestants--Jennel and Lyric 145, as well as last week's colorful castoff, Jason Brock--already out of the running, I am starting to get (to use Demi's favorite adjective) bored.