AI Recap: One (Bitter)Sweet Day

Much to my surprise, especially after Ryan's claim that "no one wants to break up the Idol family" (despite humiliating Jermaine on camera the night before), someone was actually eliminated at the end of last night's episode. I was totally expecting them to go through all of the anguish and then announcing that everyone was safe—silly me, underestimating this television juggernaut!

Watching last night's show, I learned a few things:

• Jimmy Iovine is a lot nicer with his comments about the contestants if he's sitting in the studio when they air;


• Celebrities like Steven wear the same clothes more than once, too, as he was wearing the same pink cheetah-print monstrosity during Shannon's audition in Savannah;


• I can rest easy now knowing that J.Lo's new single and video are coming out March 29; I was worried that she wasn't going to have enough to promote on the show;


• Ryan wants to be on the cover of Boy's Life magazine (I don't judge, just like Nigel and Ken);


• There's going to be an "Asian music explosion" at some point, and there's a ridiculously slim chance that Heejun could lead it (I guess William Hung is busy?); and


• The show still has a problem with voting, evidenced by the fact that two guys should have been in the bottom three instead of Elise and Erika.

Oh, and here's a quick request for the show's new "fashion advisor," Tommy Hilfiger: NEVER LET RANDY AND STEVEN WEAR PINK PLAID ANYTHING, EVER!!

After a fairly innocuous Ford music video to Shiny Toy Guns' Ghost Town, the dream crushing began. From the first grouping of Phillip, Skylar, Elise, and Joshua we found that Phillip wears the same green t-shirt on every results show. I also learned, much to my surprise, Percy Sledge is not only still alive (Randy's comment Wednesday night that "wherever Percy Sledge is, I know he's proud of what he just heard" made me believe he was dead), but he also emailed the show about how impressed he was with Joshua's performance of When A Man Loves A Woman (despite the fact he was allegedly singing "Michael Bolton's version"). Oh, and even though her performance was stellar, Elise was again in the bottom three.

Demi Lovato performed. Is she the one that went a little crazy, and is she the one allegedly dating Justin Bieber, or is that Selena Gomez? Can't tell the difference. This performance was, umm, yeah.

The next group to learn their fate included Colton, Shannon, Deandre, and Jessica. Ryan continued his obsession with faking Colton out by saying, "Colton, you sang an unfamiliar song and it will cost you...in that you'll be away from your family while you're on the tour!" Sorry, Ryan, once you've hooked up with Daughtry, you're just small potatoes. (Or peaches.) Anyway, while I would have put Deandre in the bottom three after his performance, the girls voting for his pretty, pretty hair kept him safe, and Shannon was sent back to the stools.

Daughtry performed Outta My Head next. Great song. He still has no personality, along with no first name, apparently.

And from the final grouping of Heejun, Hollie, and Erika, Jimmy mentioned that Erika fell into the trap of "oversinging," and to no one's surprise, she was named to the bottom three, despite Heejun's horrifically boring Richard Marx song Wednesday night.

The judges were not happy with the bottom three, or, at least that Elise was in there after the performance she gave. The super-solicitous Seacrest sent Elise back to safety. And then he told Shannon that she received the lowest number of votes, and was in danger of being eliminated if the judges chose not to use their save.

Shannon sang a less-than-stellar encore of One Sweet Day, and the producers trotted out the Disney meadow one last time for our pretty pretty princess, as her mom sang along. And then Randy quickly burst her bubble, telling her the judges wouldn't be saving her. (I'd imagine they're not going to let themselves get trapped as they did last year, when they saved Casey, only to find Pia was eliminated two weeks later.) Shannon showed true class and poise; in fact, Heejun was crying more than she was. (At least he was when the cameras were on him.)

So, farewell to Shannon Migraine, as she was called on several messageboards. A guy better go next week, unless both Erika and Elise bomb their performances.

Next week, the music of Billy Joel!! Great music...let's see what that means.