Eight's more than enough

Big smiles all around as American Idol seeks its own version of the Elite Eight. The recap's a bit more fun than the actual performances were; the Ford commercial's okay, they're all working at a fantasy eco-car wash (Kermit makes a guest appearence).

Ah, they finally launch the song writer contest; no explanation why it was delayed, and not much of a sell. Hmm, they stick them in groups of three, Blake/Chris/Sanjaya, they'll be fine. Haley/Gina/Phil, that's gotta be it.

Top three for sure--Jordin/Melinda/LaKisha, the only one to get a hand (they're arranged by height, it's funny). That group's all safe, not surprisingly.

Sanjaya's group is safe, yaay. Another good night of voting by America; Sanjaya's dad is hi-fiving people in the audience as they go to break. A special guest performing live, they say....

Trivia question is who was 'jokingly' referred to as Chicken Little. They thank Allstate for giving money to their charity; Tony Bennett can't sing, apparently he has the flu. They plug his CD anyway; and replace him with--Michael Buble, who I've never heard of, and who seems to mess up a couple of times.

Or maybe his style is to just clip his words--he has this hilarious moment where he lopes across stage to the band. Reminds me of an old man's idea of a young man; hmm, his stylistic ticks really border on making him seem an incompetent performer. Afterwards he messes around with Ryan, asks if he's wasting his votes by still voting for Antonella Barba, the joke falls flat--his delivery leads much to be desired.

Ryan sends Phil back to safety, to widespread cheers. The two remaining hug; Haley's crying. Randy says he's a bit surprised, after saying he wasn't surprised; Haley's crying, Paula won't say if America got it right; Simon says he's not surprised, Gina gives him the look of death.

And it's--Gina, after 33 million votes cast. Ugh, unbelievable--people are booing, Gina starts crying a bit. Aww, too bad, she was just starting to grow on me. Curious when the backlash against Haley starts, she should've punched out a looooong time ago. She tosses away her good luck charm, sings us out. The words to Smile fit the moment perfectly, it's quite a good performance, except when she stops briefly halfway through; the other Idols come out to stand around her--Jordin gives her an assist at the end, it's so sweet.

I'm just glad Jordin made the top three vote-getters.