It was close, but Anoop Desai survived.  Despite a terrible first week, he managed to eek his way on towards another week on 'American Idol.'  The odds were against him, but he got through not one, but two eliminations yesterday.  The unlucky contestants who could not make it past week 1 were Jasmine Murray and Jorge Nunez.

Anoop Desai did not have a good first week, singing 'Beat It' by Michael Jackson.  Paula Abdul, the nice judge, even said it sounded too much like karaoke and Simon Cowell even went so far as to say after listening to his performance he regretted making it 13 finalists instead of 12.  Luckily for Anoop, Jasmine Murray sounded too 'robotic' on 'I'll Be There,' and Jorge Nunez was just not good at all when he sang 'Never Can Say Goodbye.'  Jasmine was eliminated first and later on when it came down to Jorge and Anoop, the 33 million fans who voted managed to keep Anoop on.

The biggest surprise didn't come from the eliminations or even the surprisingly boring performances by both Kanye West and Kelly Clarkson.  The big surprise was the new rule that may or may not be put into play.  The new rule now allows the judges to in essence, reverse America's vote.  I guess you can call it a "get out of jail free" card where if the judges feel like America really messed up the vote and a really good singer gets eliminated, they can opt to keep them on the show as long as the votes were unanimous amongst the judges.  This pass can only be used once, it cannot be used once the top 5 is revealed, and once the judges use that vote, nobody gets eliminated that week, but the following week, two people get eliminated no matter what.  This move was done so the Daughtry's and Jennifer Hudson's of the world can't slip through the cracks again.  Call it 'The Danny and Lil' Rule' I can't see this being used on anyone else but those two.

So, what do you think Anoop has to do to get himself back on track?  Does he need to choose a better song or challenge himself some more?  More importantly, do you think he'll do enough to advance past next week?  Let us know what you think.