I thought Seattle Times arts critic Misha Berson made a great comment yesterday: "I need a horse in this race!" I agree completely! Because of either a lack of talent or the change in format, I'm just not getting a buzz from any of the six who have made it through so far.

In previous years, it's been fun to latch onto a favorite around Top 24 time and become emotionally invested in their fate. Sometimes there's even a nice battle of genres.

In Season 6, that contestant for me was Melinda Doolittle -- as it was as well for Misha, I believe. Melinda was humble and amazingly talented -- still is, in fact.

Last season I was blown away by David Archuleta's version of "Imagine" (performed this week last year) and he became my "horse." One week later, David Cook emerged as almost a counter-punch to Archuleta with his version of "Hello." At that point it was easy to see a two-horse race between the cherubic balladeer (which was an over-simplification, of course) and the unshaven former bartender/rock front man (also pigeon-holed unfairly).

And both Davids -- along with Jason Castro, Carly Smithson and Michael Johns -- were in late February far more compelling and inspiring than the six pictured above.

But how much of the disappointment with the field so far is about sheer talent, and how much is about the new format? With the change in format, after next week we will have seen front-runner Danny Gokey perform live before the judges only once, as opposed to three times if we used last-year's format.

Maybe I just need to give this format a little more time, so I get to know the singers better.

I hope that the final group of the Top 36 that takes the stage on Tuesday produces the "American Idol" version of Seabiscuit, a thoroughbred that inspires America during difficult times.

Speaking of the Davids ... Check out these vids

I think part of the reason I keep bringing them up is that I miss the level of professionalism they brought to "Idol" last season. If you too like to revel in their success, come along with me for a little Then and now feature, brought to you via the wonder that is Youtube ....