Maybe it's the humidity

We had some cranky performers on Monday night's episode. The acts were left sweating as the show trimmed the field from eight to six.

Shawn Mayer, from May City, was cranky with her mentor John Rich.

Laura & Sophie... well, if there's a pick ax and some broken concrete under the crawlspace in the basement, I don't think it will take the Law & Order detectives to solve that one.

And I think some of the callers and text messengers may have spent a little too much time out in the sun.

First the eliminations:

The right people aren't being sent home on this show. If you wanted to save the energetic performer with a questionable country pedigree, you'd vote for Tommy Stanley over Coffey because Stanley is a better singer by far, right? If you wanted to save a young, harmonizing group act, you'd spare Pearl Heart over Laura & Sophie, right? These are apples-to-apples comparisons.

The structure of the show is one of its flaws though: Tommy Stanley has to pick out a song, go through the motions with his mentor Jewel and they keep him dangling for a week. Then, Monday night he gets booted off the show. In the first five minutes. And he doesn't get to perform. At least on "American Idol," they bring them back the next night and put them out of their misery.

Pearl Heart's best two weeks were the group's last two. Instead we get... well, I'll get to that. Pearl Heart sang "Ain't Goin' Down 'Til the Sun Comes Up" and left with their best performance of the season. (By the way, I timed the amount of time that passes between "The performer going home tonight is..." and the moment when Billy Ray Cyrus announces the name. Twenty-six seconds, people. Who lets a word hang for 26 seconds? Can't a circus bear chase Miley's dad around on stage during the down time? Tighten that up, producers.)

Now back to Shawn:

Seriously Shawn? You got rid of your mentor? Seriously? "Save a Horse (Fire a Cowboy)" I suppose.

Early on in the series judge Jeffrey Steele didn't like her taking on the George Jones standard "He Stopped Loving Her Today." 'N Sync's "Bye, Bye, Bye" had him predicting she'd be going home a week later. Shawn's original mentor, John Rich on the other hand seemed to like her bold choices. He thought she had room to improve, but the comments were more good than bad.

Over the last couple of weeks, both judges began to change. Steele became more nurturing to the acts he was mentoring. Rich seemed to get impatient with Shawn's lack of progress - and he's right about that. She truly blessed, but hasn't made a big jump from what I can hear. I also read a Jeffrey Steele interview on buddytv.com that doesn't put Shawn in a very flattering light.

Shawn's fallout with Rich started when he told her: "I don't think you're competitive enough to make it all the way to the top." That sent Shawn backstage sobbing.

(Credit to resident mom Melissa Lawson for being there to comfort her.)

Then Shawn told Rich she felt like she was going to her mentoring session just to sit there for "OK tell me how much it sucked." Rich kind of prodded her to "fire" him and she made a switch to Steele. I think there was more to it than just a personality conflict. It's pretty handy that all of the mentors still have two acts to work with.

If Shawn didn't switch, Rich would have three, Jewel would have two and Steele would have Laura & Sophie (hopefully with no weapons nearby).

I do think Steele has a better chance of getting growth out of Shawn. She'll probably respond to his style a little better. I have two concerns: It appears Steele wants to bring out the tender, more vulnerable side of her singing. She has a big voice. It's her biggest strength. I hope he doesn't get too far away from that. Judging by the interview I read, Shawn doesn't like to take direction from the mentors. They were pretty generous with her Monday night. If she's difficult for a second judge, well, she's probably a little too difficult in general. The panel is accomplished in the industry for a reason. I hope she takes what they say to heart.

As for the judges' comments:

"Shawn, wow," Jewel said. "It takes a lot of guts to turn down John Rich. And, John, you can back me up. I told you in the beginning: With this girl you have to be gentle."

Jewel went on to tell Shawn: "I've worked with a lot of great, talented people -- and John's really talented, but I just wasn't a good match for them so congratulations for trying to stick up for yourself. And it was nice to see some restraint."

Rich told Shawn: "I also respect you for sticking up for yourself. Some of the most talented people in the world can't work together. However, I've got to say: The performance tonight (to Steele) -- if that was your critique and that was the performance it was still, on a 1-to-10, a five. It was still somewhere in the middle to me. What did you tell her that I didn't tell her?"

Steele said: "I told her to stay out of the way of the licks and let the song do the work for her -- (to Shawn) and I thought you did a lot of that. You jumped in there with a couple of licks I hoped you wouldn't do. But you did kind of let the song carry you. I just want to make sure to tell you: Keep your tears on stage and backstage and all those tears that you're crying -- put them into your song. Put them into you words. You brought a little of it out tonight, but you've got a long way to go. I'm proud of you, though, Shawn."

"I am too," Rich added.

I don't remember them saying it on the show, but I've heard they'll knock out two more on Monday?

With six competitors left, the performers have fallen into three, clear tiers in my opinion.

The top tier: Gabe Garcia and Melissa Lawson are still head and shoulders above the rest. Melissa sang "Danny's Song" and I thought it started a little quiet and low, but that's being picky. She's terrific. Gabe Garcia told segment producers "I got me some dance lessons." Then he did a great job with "Somebody Like You." Anything before the finale for these two would be a shocker.

The middle tier: If Shawn listens, and grows, she could be in third place, which is pretty darn amazing out of 45,000 auditions. (Shawn sang "The First Cut is the Deepest" by the way.) Ashlee Hewitt is better than Coffey and Laura & Sophie. She didn't knock me over with "Take the Money and Run." She's seldom bad. She just doesn't capture my attention.

The bottom tier: As clear as Gabe and Melissa are at the top, Laura & Sophie and Coffey are easily the two worst. I was expecting them to be eliminated Monday.

Since they're still around, that gives Shawn a little margin for error. Coffey sang "Proud Mary." I appreciate the effort in his performances. He puts it all out there, but I hate his singing.

I completely give up on the show if snarling Laura & Sophie make another cut. If you can't be good, at least be sympathetic. They couldn't appear more petulant than they were in the week before (based on the clips NBC selected) and the moments after "Squawking After Midnight." Their elimination should include a trap door. And a shark tank.

So, wow, I think Shawn's safe for another episode.