Elimination Thursday - 4/7/11

Hello all. Wow, tonight's results turn out to be a real shocker. I must say this season seems to be full of them. Before I get to the actual results let's cover some of the other areas that made up tonight's show.

New words to read as we see clips of repeat performances and comments from the judges. The words are:

They came from every corner of the country (we see our top 9 introduce themselves for the first time)
The race has never been tighter
Only 9 remain
There can only be one

This is American Idol!

I so love the outfits the judges wear as they are introduced and of course our Ryan Seacrest looks as spiffy as ever.

After mentioning the shocker we are in for we hear that Constantine Maroulis from season 4 will perform as well as "hall of famer" Iggy Pop.

Now comes our group performing a rock medley which include "I Love Rock & Roll" by Joan Jett, "The Letter" by The Box Tops and "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I thought the group sounded the best on the first song as the other two songs seemed kind of a mess overall.

Now comes the Ford music video to the song "Love Gun" which has some of our idols acting like thieves while two act as security guards. It was just okay in my book.

Russell Brand (hubby of Katy Perry) is shown next giving our idols some pointers on how to perform. He seems like a funny guy and I was surprised no mention was given of his new movie coming out called "Arthur" which is a re-make I believe of the 1981 movie of the same name starring Dudley Moore. His biggest piece of advice for the idols was "loosen up and don't wear any pants".

I will cover the actual results later in this post. Let's get to the entertainment.

Broadway star Constantine Maroulis does a very different rendition to the song "Unchained Melody". While Constantine was not my top favorite on his season I kind of liked what he did tonight. The background music was awesome I think. My biggest problem with Constantine then and now is the way he kind of sucks in his breath before he sings a note. He only did this a few times tonight thankfully. Needless to say Constantine has been a big hit in theatre productions and is currently touring with his show "Rock of Ages". Another note about this talented guy is he is a new father with daughter Malena who was born 12/23/10. He and former co-star/girlfriend Angel Reed are thrilled to be parents.

Gwen Stefani is shown in clips dressing our three remaining girls in the competition for their appearances last night. I liked Haley's outfit but frankly the other clothes we saw were not something I would like to buy. I do think Gwen is one beautiful woman and as a performer she is awesome but I was not into her fashion sense.

Iggy Pop is our last guest performer. This "Real Wild Child" is 63 years old but I must say he started out with a bang with the energy and the vocals were not bad in the beginning. However going shirtless was not too cool although this sometimes "drug addict" has done worse in his actual live shows. Towards the end of the song, Iggy seemed to be loosing steam and personally I was glad when his number ended.

The last of our filler time involved the staff from the TMZ giving our idols some critiques about their moments on stage as well as off. To me this was a complete waste of time and I would have loved to see our idols sing in duets and trios as they did last week.

Now comes the results which had not only Steven using cuss words but also our very own Randy. Their mics were turned off but you certainly could tell what they were saying. Let's begin:

First up is Casey, Stefano and Lauren. Just a short note that Kelly Clarkson has a crush on Casey since she tweeted this on her site. Casey was adorable saying he would keep his thoughts to himself. First to safety is Lauren followed by Casey which put Stefano in the bottom 3.

Next are Paul, Scotty and Pia. Scotty is first back to safety. Paul is also safe which floored me (why oh why is this guy still here). The real shock was seeing Pia make the bottom 3 for the first time. The audience are not happy campers as well as the judges sinces boos abound.

Lastly come James, Jacob and Haley. James is safe. Shocker again as Haley is also safe and Jacob makes up the remainder of the bottom 3. The judges look sick over this and once again boos abound from the audience.

The biggest shock of the night is who actually goes home which turns out to be Pia Toscano. I was floored with this result as was the judges, the audience and even Stefano Langone who I believe thought he was doomed since Jacob had already gone back to safety. The judges were totally shocked and angry as each let's us know their thoughts on how wrong the voters got it this week. I must say they had a right to express their thoughts but I sort of felt sorry for Stefano who must have felt somewhat insulted by the reaction of the audience and judges. Tears are flowing from the idols as we see Pia's journey on the show. My final thoughts on this are even though I felt no real spark when Pia performed I did think she was the best girl singer left on the show. I have no doubt she will get a contract after idol ends this season. My last thoughts are this confirms that a guy will win the title since neither Haley or Lauren are that strong of contenders against the remaining guys on the show. Who will that be, well it is anyone's guess with the constant shocks we keep getting from this season.

So now another week is ended and I must call this a wrap. Wishing all of you a great week ahead as always and I welcome your comments.

I got home just in time to see who the bottom three were. What a surprise! Paul made it to safety...AGAIN! WTF???? I watched Ryan tell Jacob he was safe and a shocked Jacob strolled back over to the group. Here came the nail biter. Pia?? OMG??????? I was totally shocked that America sent her home. I literally cried. America has gone nuts with the voting this season, for sure.