A great start to the night! No, I don’t mean the dumb photoshopped picture of Simon and Paula. I was talking about spotting Mario Lopez in the audience! Hottie. .Plus – a surprise visit from Frankie Avalon singing “Venus” from 1959 (Simon’s birth year). Frankie looks damn good for his age. I always loved the “Beach” movies and Frankie and Annette.

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The "entertainment" starts with tonight's group song "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" by Kylie Minogue. This --- was really bad. Just awful. I honestly don't know if this was live, or taped and lip synced, and I do not want to hear that again so I'm not going to check it out. If this was taped and the singing was this bad, then that is major suckage. If it was live and the singing was this bad, then I know why they have been taping all this year. 

This week we got a peek at the making of the new Ford video. The shoot involved elaborate costumes and makeup which Idols had a lot of fun with. They sang "Circus" in the finished video. 

Before getting to the results, Ryan called on Adam and asked him how he felt about getting a standing "O" from Simon. Adam responded that he was extremely honored and really appreciated that gesture. He said there was really nothing else he could say. He had never seen that before and he had watched the show for 8 years. Adam was very flattered and expressed his thanks.  

The Mayor of Kalamazoo is there to support Matt. Awesome for him. 

Tonight's peek at the couches: 

Top row - Adam/Kris/Anoop/Danny

Bottom row - Scott/Allison/Lil/Matt 

Well, let's see. Using the old formula, I would say that in the top row Danny and Adam are safe so Kris & Anoop may be facing off.  In the bottom, hmmm - less clear. Maybe one of each pair unless Ryan has something creative up his sleeve. 

Time to dim the lights! Adam stands up, then Kris, then Anoop. Ryan starts with Adam. Since there was no time last night for Adam's critiques from each judge, Ryan asks them to weigh in now. Randy says Adam was the bomb, he's consistently great right now. "You're working it out, dude." Kara says the standing "O" was the perfect thing to do for Adam; they couldn't do anything bigger or better. Paula says (I cannot believe how many times I had to listen to this before I could figure out what she said) she is always entranced by his performances and thought it was such an amazing thing to see him more restrained and small with such a big song, that it showed that "you know who you are". Mmmmkay.  And Adam is SAFE. 

Kris and Anoop get the summary of their comments and one of them is SAFE - it's Kris and Anoop is in the B3. Kris looks a bit guilty since his comments were not as good as Anoop's. Kris is another very gracious guy. 

OK, I might as well segue right here into the bone I have to pick with American Idol. What happened last night - running 8 minutes late - is inexcusable. This created a totally unfair set of circumstances for the last performer, who in this case was Adam Lambert. I have read that at least 3 million people routinely DVR American Idol (no doubt so they can skip the unbelievable number of ads and all the nonsense that fills precious time that should be devoted to the singers). Many of them are watching their recording at a time when they can still vote. However, the DVRs shut off before Adam performed so that's millions of people who missed seeing him and if only say,  1/3 watch in time to vote, then he potentially lost a million opportunities for a vote.

There is no excuse for them to run this late. This is their 8th year on the air and all this should be figured out by now. The obvious reason for an extension of time is the 4th judge, but they have had all season to factor that in as well. I blame the shenanigans of the judges (mainly Paula & Simon) and spending too much time on the critiques of the 2 worst performers of the night as well as the shortcomings of the producers in keeping track of the pacing of the show. They should have known after half the singers were done that they were not on schedule. Matt was short shrifted first with a very terse, quick critique on a night when the judges were clearly in a mood to give him praise, so he was cheated too. Then Adam had to sing after the top of the hour, and while he got extreme praise from Simon in the form of the first ever standing ovation from him, he should have had the chance to bask in the praise from all of them following his amazing performance. Since Adam was safe tonight, I guess we could say no harm was done, but what if the last person had been, well, let's say Anoop. Anoop has just been placed in the bottom 3. What if his performance had been cut off? If he already is getting lower votes, then the additional he may have lost because of the overrun could spell expulsion from the show. Fortunately for the show, it was Adam, and his performance was strong enough to carry him through. When asked about this situation, TPTB didn't really address the potential harm to Adam. They did post his video on the site with a message that if their DVR cut off they could see his performance there. (Much too late to vote though.) I commented to a friend before tonight's show that they should take time in the results show and actually have each judge critique his performance. And to my surprise, they did. And I'm glad they did it, but their statements at this point lacked the emotion and enthusiasm they would have had at the time. American Idol screwed the pooch big time on this. I suggest they skip all the nonsense they waste time on (did we really need to see the judges' baby pictures?) and concentrate on getting it right. 

OK - back to the show. Flo-Rida is here to sing the #1 single this week "Right Round". It was great. 

And back to results. Danny is up - and he is SAFE. Matt is next and after Ryan messes with him again, he is SAFE. Scott stands and finds out that his "punk side" didn't play with America and he is in the B3. So that leaves us with Allison and Lil, with Lil going to the stools with Anoop & Scott. My faith in America is renewed cause Lil should be there this week. 

While the 3 on the stools take some time to ponder their fate, we have to suffer with them by sitting through a performance by Kellie Pickler. That was just god-awful, kind of like in Season 5. Actually, this may well have been the worst I've heard her. It was so out of tune, it was painful. Yikes. 

And back to results, with one sent to safety and it's ---- Lil. Darn. Only Scott and Anoop are left. Ryan says only 30,000 votes separate these two. Hmmm - in my theoretical situation in my rant (if Anoop had been last instead of Adam), that might really have been a factor here. But fortunately for Anoop, that didn't happen and he is SAFE.

Scott has to sing for his survival. He does a better job of it tonight too. The judges appear really split on whether to save Scott, but Simon's body language tells me it is never gonna happen. He says they are split 2-2 on whether to use the save, but eventually tells Scott that his Search Is Over.  

So goodbye to Scott (who is a very bright guy it turns out - went to college at 14 and is a Rhodes Scholar - awesome Scotty!). Next week they will be singing songs from movies.

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