TVSquad

(S07E21) For the first in a season full of hour-long American Idol results show, I'll give Idol credit for filling it pretty well. It was nice to see past runner-up Katharine McPhee perform on the Idol stage again, as well as the video footage of the Idols reacting to their sudden fame. What they need to do is turn the Results show into more of a classic variety show. And keep those past Idol contestants coming, too. American Idol has been around long enough now that it has it's own legacy and tradition, so keep honoring that.

As for the results, while the person who left wasn't necessarily the consensus choice, it was someone that I'm perfectly alright with seeing leave at this early stage. In fact, I could have lost the whole "Bottom Three" tonight and not lost any sleep over it.

There were over 29 million votes cast last night for the Top 12. And for no apparent reason, Jim Carrey was in the audience dressed up like an elephant to shamelessly promote his FOX film Horton Hears a Who. Later he appeared up with the contestants during elimination to ham it up some more. After all, we don't have four eliminations to get through but only one, and how long can that take?

As much as I love the music of The Beatles, I wasn't looking forward to the Top 12 singing a medley of their hits. I think I hold Beatles music too high to subject it to this sort of treatment. For the most part, it was like most medleys they do on Idol. The dancing and choreography was horrible, some of the singers did well and some others were terrible. But it filled some more time, so FOX is happy. How come America didn't get a vote as to whether or not we wanted the results shows to all be a full hour this year?

For more filler, they made a video about how much the "Idol Experience" has affected the contestants ... set to Beatles music. They're definitely living up to their vow of making this year more about the Idols themselves, as I think I may already know more about these twelve than I ever learned about anybody last year. During this video, they showed the Idols at the premiere of Horton Hears a Who, for more cross-promotional goodness. FOX loves this crap.

FORD COMMERCIAL #1 - "The Distance"
In this election year, the first Ford music video of the season cast the Idols as political contestants, campaigning and kissing babies and all the stereotypical political stuff. And I hate to admit this, but it was actually pretty good. Which may be the second or third time I've been able to say that in the past six years. Congratulations, Ford. It was funny but not too corny.

INTERACTIVE IDOL
Tonight marked the first time in Idol history that they've taken live calls during the broadcast. Helpful hints for future broadcasts, It takes the suspense of what the caller's question is going to be when you plaster it on the screen beforehand. And it makes Ryan look stupid when he asks the caller as if he can't see the question right in front of his face.

1) The first question was for Jason Castro: "If you could be one judge for a day, who would you be?" Jason hates interviews, so fumbled around before not being able to answer this one conclusively.
2) The second question was for the judges: "I have auditioned for the show 7 times in 6 cities. What does it take?" Now this question shouldn't have even been allowed in.
3) The third question was for Ryan and Simon: "When are you two going to just throw down?" Ryan's response was to do so in mud.
4) The next thing to come up was a comment ("Simon is sexy...") which Ryan quickly took down.
5) The fourth question is for Simon: "Do Americans or Brits have more talent?" Simon conceded that American singers have the most talent, but the Brits are superior on the judging panel.

Katharine McPhee w/ David Foster - "Something," The Beatles
This song isn't eligible for the show because it was written by George Harrison but it's still a beautiful song. And Katharine is still a beautiful girl with a pretty voice. Beyond that, I never really saw the magic of Katharine during her season beyond her classically good looks. She follows Blake Lewis last week in the string of second place finishers. Does that mean Bo Bice is next?

She's grown since then as a performer and showed more authenticity than ever before on an Idol stage. She still didn't seem to know what to do with her body, though, as she just fidgeted at the end of the piano David Foster was playing. After the performance, David Foster revealed that he's working with McPhee on her next album, as he's absolutely in love with her voice. Do you think McPhee will get an Idol boost on her album's sales? I'm quite certain The Beatles will, as most theme artists do.

THE BOTTOM THREE
You just knew Ryan was going to drag this out because he's contractually obligated to do so. This week they started off by building a "Bottom Three." Ryan began this process by having Carly, Michael, Jason and Syesha all stand up. Of the four, Syesha has been consistently ranked toward the bottom in popularity, so would she be the only of these to go into the bottom three? He saved her for last, and in the end Syesha Mercado was indeed the first to fall into the bottom three. You remember how we had a lot of time to fill? Well, we can take up time by having all three "bottom" contestants sing their swan songs, right? Excellent! You haven't noticed that this column has as much filler in it as the show, have you? I'm just trying to capture the same sense of "Come on, just get to it already!"

The second group to rise was Chikezie, David C., Kristy and Amanda. Of this group, I would think Kristy is the obvious choice, and of course he saved her for last. And unless it was going to be a "shock" safe vote for her. She responded pretty humorously by asking "Where's my microphone?" before Ryan even gave her the results. And as she predicted, Kristy Lee Cook. Then when she hit center stage she said, "Sorry you gotta hear it again," to the judges. Most of you commenters said much of her problem last night was with the speed at which the band played the song. It looks, however, like that's how she wanted it done as they were clipping along again tonight and the result was about the same.

The last group of four was David A., Brooke, David H., and Ramiele, so Ryan brought them all center stage. Of these four, he narrowed it down to David H. and Ramiele, so none of this was really surprising yet. It should be David H., as Ramiele has more raw singing ability to work with, and it was. She needs to really step it up, though, to stick around. So the last of the "Bottom Three" was David Hernandez.

This is the part that Idol loves. First, you pick it down to three. Then you make them wait through a commercial break. Then you send one to safety and stare down the "Bottom Two." Love that building tension. The judges agreed with the "Bottom Three" before Ryan sent Syesha back to safety. That leaves Kristy and David H.

RESULTS
And the person leaving us tonight is...I'll tell you after the (paragraph) break.

David Hernandez

Ruben Studdard recorded this seasons "farewell song," a cover of Kenny Loggins' "Celebrate Me Home." He does a good job with it, and it's good to hear the big boy still at it. It's also nice to see Idol reaching out more to their own in recent years for things like this.

MY PICKS
I underestimated the country vote, I guess. I knew David Hernandez' performance wasn't good, but I thought it was still better than Kristy's. So that's 0-1 for me tonight, lowering my total to 5-8 on the year.

YOUR PICKS
You guys had Syesha at the bottom, followed by David H. and Kristy Lee Cook, so kudos for getting the "Bottom Three" right (I should have picked that). But, your bottom pick was the first one safe, so that's 0-1 for you guys as well. This drops you to a still impressive 9-4.

NEXT WEEK
Ryan told us that because of all the letters they received, they've nixed whatever their original idea was for a theme so they could do a second week of Lennon-McCartney hits. So if you loved it, you're gonna love it more next week, and if you absolutely hated it maybe you should just skip next week altogether. Of course I'll be there, and here, to help guide you through the Idol shenanigans again.