Last night the remaining Top 9 American Idol contestants performed (again) and tonight we’ll see which two are going home.
That’s right: last week the judges used their only save of the season to keep Big Mike around another week. Which means that two contestants go home tonight to keep to the schedule.
So here’s a question: what if Crystal is in the bottom two tonight?
Stranger things have happened. And last night she opted to sing an old time gospel song on the week when Idol was celebrating the … outlandish? … with guest mentor Adam Lambert. Will that song choice work against her? She also performed first, which tends to work against a contestant; everyone sort of forgets them by the end of the show.
Idol viewers haven’t always been kind to contestants who perform songs with blatantly religious themes – think Mandisa, or the controversy when Carly Smithson went home after singing “Jesus Christ Superstar.” (I, for one, didn’t think her song choice had anything to do with the results, but who really knows for sure.)
I’m not predicting that Crystal is going home, not by any means. I’m just throwing out the question: what if the judges used their save prematurely?

By the way, DialIdol.com, which uses busy signals to predict which contestants are going home, is calling this one too close to call. Big Mike, Crystal Bowersox and Casey James are predicted to be safe, but everyone else is a possible candidate to say goodbye tonight.
MediaCurves.com puts Andrew Garcia and Aaron Kelly solidly in the bottom, with Crystal, Lee, Mike and Katie solidly at the top. Siobhan, Casey and Tim fall in the middle.
Which means that my musing is probably all for naught. My guess is Andrew is going home tonight. Who goes with him? We’ll find out. My gut says that despite the polls, Big Mike may be in trouble.
OK, so here we go!
Ryan says more than 34 million votes were cast last night, the highest so far this season. Brooke White, Justin Gaston, and Adam Lambert will perform tonight. I only know Justin Gaston as the underwear model who was dating Miley Cyrus; he sings, too? Who knew? Bit of trivia: Brooke White is one of the artists on the soundtrack fo the movie, “Secrets of the Mountain,” which also contains The Afters.
Time for a cheesy medley of Elvis songs. The performance is cheesy, not Elvis. I mean really; they’re lip synching and half of them clearly aren’t doing a very good job. Casey is so clearly not into this, hahaha.
We’re back, and Ryan tells us it’s going to be a dramatic night, but first, we’re “going green” with the weekly Ford commercial. Because tomorrow is Earth Day and all. I’m going to put every light on in my house and ues double the amount of paper towel I normally would, just because I can. (For those of you who just totally freaked, that’s a joke. Probably.)
Casey James is up first, middle of the first row, and Aaron Kelly, back row, and Andrew Garcia, back row. Tricky, tricky, Ryan. He has them come center stage and stand in a row. (Good grief, Casey is sooo tall! Aaron and Andrew come up to his shoulders. )
And right off the bat, Andrew is gone. Casey and Aaron are safe and go back to their seats. Andrew sings his goodbye song, and reminds us why it was time for him to go. No offense, Andrew. Loved you, really did, but you never really bloomed on the show. And he’s very grateful and upbeat and gracious. He’ll be fine.
Before Ryan pulls the plug on another contestant’s dreams, there’s a promo for next week’s Idol Gives Back, with some video of Elliot Yamin’s 2008 trip to Angola, Africa with Fantasia, and his most recent trip back to Angola with Kara Dioguardi. I do like that this goofy show is able to turn that platform around and really reach out to the rest of the world.
Next week, Black Eyed Peas, Annie Lennox, Carrie Underwood, Mary J Blige, Elton John and a host of other stars will perform.
Now we have a duet with Brooke White and Justin Gaston. I love her; she was one of my favorites the year she competed. I just like her attitude. OK, every time I hear “Justin Gaston” I think of Gaston, from “Beauty and The Beast.”
They only met a week or so ago to work on that song; Ryan says to Justin, “You know she’s married,” and Justin mumbles something like, “Yeah that was the problem.” Or something equally bizarre. Justin Gaston might want to stick to modeling tighty whiteys.
So we’re back now; Aaron looks like he’s about to break out in tears. You’re safe, honey!
Ryan calls the bottom row to the stage and recaps each of their performances. Lee Dewyze says he’s feeling more comfortable, Katie Stevens says she hopes people see she’s growing, Siobhan Mangus doesn’t comment, Mike Lynche says he’s grateful for every moment, Crystal Bowersox doesn’t comment, and Tim Urban doesn’t comment.
Ryan sends Crystal to her seat; she’s safe, and she’s blowing a whistle or something.
Sioghban is also safe, and she lets out a huge sigh of relief.
Ryan points out that the song Lee sang was also the song Chris Daughtry sang the week he went home. But he’s safe.
That leaves Tim, Mike, or Katie, and one of them is going home. My guess? Big Mike. But first we’ll watch Adam Lambert perform. Not like we have a choice. He’s singing “What Do You Want From Me.” Lights and is that smoke? He’s singing in the dark? Just a silouette? OK, being honest. This is one the few performances of guests this season that I’m half way enjoying. Nothing raunchy, he’s actually singing a song. If he was hoping to redeem himself with the mainstream fans who kept him in the Idol competition but were turned off after that AMA nightmare, he may have done it.
Ryan asks what he’s learned about the real world of music, and Adam says he thinks Idol helped prepare him, with all of the hard work and he owes Idol everything.
So here we go: who is going home? It’s not going to be Tim. And he’s safe. Kara doesn’t look very happy about that. Tim is like a Weeble. He wobbles but he doesn’t fall down.
Ryan says that the person who is staying wasn’t even in the bottom three. And Katie is leaving. Well, that’s not really a shocker. She says she’s had an amazing experience and grew up a lot over the last few weeks. She sings her goodbye song, “Let It Be.” She’ll be fine, too. Someone will snag her as a spokesperson or role model for teens or something. Or even the Alzheimer’s Association, since she is so supportive of the cause.
So there you have it. Andrew and Katie go home.
Next week: Inspirational songs.
What do you think about the results and Adam’s anticipated performance?
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