By Chris Varias
Enquirer contributor

American Idol pulled its best ratings yet in its third season. But that doesn't mean the touring version is getting any better.

To read online reviews and post your own

Keyword: Idol

American Idol Live came to U.S. Bank Arena Wednesday, utilizing the same formula of past Idol tours. The top 10 finishers from the televised talent show's third season, which concluded this spring, took solo turns at the microphone and gathered in various ensembles in order to perform a cross section of hits from the Motown, disco and contemporary-pop eras.

But something about the 2 1/2-hour live version gets lost in the move from the television to the stage. It certainly isn't the over-singing. That can be heard loud and clear. And it's not the absence of vapid Idol host Ryan Seacreast, an Ed Sullivan for the new millennium. The problem is the lack of criticism and suspense. The TV show's hook is the judging, the voting and the dismissing. The live show has none of that and is merely kiddie karaoke. (A crowd of 4,022 paid, leaving most of the seats empty.)

The concert's first half featured a song by each of the contestants, going in the order of worst (10th place finisher Amy Adams) to first (winner Fantasia), with only a few memorable stops along the way. One was 17-year-old crooner John Stevens, the sixth-place contestant who went farther back in time than most Idol participants for a swinging take on the Frank Sinatra classic "Come Fly with Me."

Chicagoan Jennifer Hudson (seventh-place) let loose on Aretha Franklin's "Since You've Been Gone," singing as strongly as anyone who followed. That included ringer Tamyra Gray, the first-season contestant who did a few songs in the second half.

Fantasia closed out the first half of the show with a vocal-gymnastics version of Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed and Delivered." She was also featured on several of the second-half numbers, including "Purple Rain," the melodramatic finale of a Prince medley. Again, Hudson stole this portion of the show, in a duet with George Huff of "Nothing Compares 2 U."

E-mail cv@fuse.net