Who Are the Next Four to Go on American Idol?

One week does not a star make. However, on American Idol, a good first performance could propel you all the way to the finals, and a poor one could mean you're finding yourself trying to catch up for weeks.

So how will the first week of performances impact this week's results? I'd say, based on the strength of their 60's performance (in addition, of course, to what they did during their initial auditions and Hollywood week), David Archuleta, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson and Ramiele Mulabay will all cruise into the Top 12. Jason Castro, who had no screentime coming into last week, will also most likely be a finalist, barring a major meltdown in the next two weeks.

David Cook, Brooke White, Syesha Mercado and Asia'h Epperson also performed well last week, and with ample airtime during the initial stages of the competition, they are also looking good to make it at least one more week. Alaina Whitaker was a wildcard coming into last week, and she really delivered, so if she follows it up with another strong performance she should be okay as well.

David Hernandez, Robbie Carrico, Danny Noriega, Amanda Overmyer and Alex Lushington are all on the fence -- they could slip through the cracks if they don't come out and give memorable performances. While any one of them could go home, I'd say there's a few other contenders in more serious danger.

Yep, I'm talkin' about Jason Yaegar, Luke Menard, Chekezie Eze, Kristy Lee Cook and Kady Malloy. While Yaegar's biggest sin was being boring, Menard and Eze were borderline painful (despite Luke's cutie patottie-ness). Jason's going to have to prove he's more than a cheesy cruise-ship singer with a B-grade voice, while Chekezie better remind us all that he can really sing. As for Luke, I can't imagine a scenario in which he does enough to impress -- basically he's gotta hope for a Jason and Chekzie meltdown.

On the girls side, both Cook and Malloy were pretty much trainwrecks last week (with Kristy Lee being the slightly worse of the two), so they'll both have to step it up this week to survive. Hopefully Kristy Lee has recovered from her "illness" (and learned a song other than "Amazing Grace"), while Malloy one more chance to prove she has personality beyond a killer Britney Spears impresion.

So, going into the performances I'm guessing Luke, Jason, Kristy Lee and Kady are most in danger. Of course, anything could happen, and all of this could be irrelevant in less than 24 hours. Guess we'll have to wait and see...

Read: Ten Best Semifinal Performances of All Time