"I love my job. This is the best show in America."

That's what Paula Abdul said during last night's concluding moments of the first night of Idol competition. And I agree. Idol is the best - yes best! - hour on TV right now. OK, I guess 24, Grey's Anatomy, Project Runway, and occasionally Oprah are pretty close in my rankings. But there's something about Idol that makes me giddy to get home and play my Tivo. (By the way, Paula also told one of the contestants that she lit a fire in her heart (or something like that). That made me uncomfortable for all involved.)

Anyway, here's my assessment of last night's performance. There's some amazing talent mixed in, but there's always those few that I can't understand for the life of me how they made it this far. I'll rank them in order of my current favorites.

1. Katherine McPhee - I think she's just incredible. (Side note: Does anyone else think she has an uncanny resemblance to Katie Holmes?)

2. Paris Bennett and Lisa Tucker - these two are tied for second. I think they both will make it deep into the competition - they are naturals. I've heard some say Lisa is robotic, I totally disagree. As for Paris, my only hesitation is that she sounds too much like Fantasia (and perhaps not as good).

3. Mandisa - I really like her (again, minus the Jesus comment from Hollywood) and she clearly can sing. I didn't love last night's performance, though. But she's still in my top four and she has the potential to be awesome.

4. Kinnik Sky - I have no idea why the judge's panned her performance of Oleta Adam's "Get Here." I thought it was one of the better performances, and thought the judges were going to exclaim: "You're this year's best kept secret! This year's Latoya London!" Um, instead they said: "You sucked." I was shocked, so I'm keeping her in my top 5. Boo judges.

5. Kellie Pickler - I'm a sucker for the sob story, but enough producers enough! Anyway, I think she actually has a good voice. And I just like her better than the others.

6. Ayla Brown/Melissa McGhee - They too are tied right now for me. They both were pretty good, but kinda forgettable. Besides, sure, Ayla showed some emotion, but even that seemed contrived. Melissa was good, but the beauty pageant thing threw me off. (Side note: did anyone think that she almost had a major wardrobe malfunction during the clip they showed from Hollywood Week; that was scary, and even scarier the fact that her you-know-whats didn't seem to move, leading me to wonder . . .)

7. Becky O'Donohue - She was pretty bad.

8. Heather Cox - She too was pretty bad, but I just like Becky a bit better I think.

9. Stevie Scott - Really bad. But she is somewhat endearing in some I-can't-explain-it way. Rufus my dog was snoring during her performance. Take that for what it's worth.

10. Brenna Gethers - HATE.