One shocker came early on when Crystal Bowersox and Casey James were brought to the center of the stage – one contestant was announced as being safe, and the other in the bottom three. Crystal was sent to safety and early fan favorite Casey James was sent to the side of the stage where the bottom three would sit. Aaron Kelly was announced as the second contestant in the bottom three. And later int he show the final one at risk became Tim Urban.

Last night Ryan Seacrest announced that the show would likely run long – so I set my TiVo to record 15 minutes long just to be safe… but alas… it was not long enough and ended during Elton John’s performance and without hearing who was eliminated. It’s a good think I just happened to be watching … I hope those of you out there set your DVR’s for 30 minutes long …

… but if you didn’t …

The contestant who was sent home …

… Casey James? Aaron Kelly? or Tim Urban?

Well, Aaron Kelly was sent to safety… leaving only Casey James and Tim Urban.

Scary.

But at last… Tim Urban was announced as the one going home. (Whew!) Casey James is safe for another week. And Tim can move on to become a Disney Superstar or perhaps go on Glee as the Happy Kid who Can Only See the Good and Has No Problems. (LOL) I’m sure he’ll go on to something as he has a huge fan base already – it will be fun to see what becomes of him.

Lacey Brown is no longer going to grace audiences with her abilities this season…

Actually was anyone surprised about the elimination? The only thing that surprised me was the fact that only one contestant was eliminated. For some reason I thought it would be 2 going home last night to get us to the Top 10… oh well… it’s okay to be wrong once in a while …

The bottom three contestants included: Paige Miles (not a surprise), Tim Urban, and Lacey Brown.

It was fun to see David Cook perform again on the American Idol stage tonight… I like to see how artists can go on and live their dreams, progressing, and becoming more refined as performers.

Okay I do have to say enough of the shameless advertising… how many minutes did we have to see of the Ford ads, commercials etc?  I mean the custom graphics were cool and everything… but wow… that’s a lot of time dedicated to the advertiser in the middle of the show. I guess American Idol is low on cash and needs the money… blame the economy.  (sorry about the sarcasm… it’s late and I’m tired…)

I would love to see an American Idol competition between current stars… the live performance by Orianthi was not great … and not that I know the group anyway, but it would be kind of fun to have a competition on “studio” stars — those who have great albums, but don’t sound very good live… put them up against some of the previous American Idol contestants and see who comes out on top… might be fun… but I don’t think many “stars” would want to take the risk and participate… especially all of those lip syncing superstars. Anyone else want to see this type of competition?

Oh… and another idea… I’d love a “Singing with the Stars” show — like dancing with the stars — but with singing instead. Wouldn’t it be fun to see someone with talent but who is not refined and doesn’t have a ton of experience – work directly with a mentor who would help them master different styles and performance techniques. I would LOVE that!  (I’d also LOVE a royalty for the idea… )

And for those who didn’t want to see the spoiler in the first paragraph….

Our new American Idol winner is …

Kris Allen!

I was actually very surprised as I thought Adam Lambert would win – since he’s become such a media darling… but personally I was happy to see Kris Allen become the new American Idol winner. Please don’t send me hate messages — I know many of you are adoring fans of Adam… but I think Kris will fill the “main stream” audience (ie country, pop) and Adam will go on to do great things for the rocker and alternative music fans.

Was anyone else surprised?

(Note: I think the Danny Gokey fans probably voted for Kris – which put him over the top.)

I also have to add that I’m totally and completely psyched for the new “So You Think You Can Dance!” The talent there is utterly amazing and I LOVE THAT SHOW!!!!!

David Cook proved why he was the winner from last season. He did a great job! This is a nice platform to launch new singles – I bet David Cook’s latest single will be the top download on iTunes soon. So… even though I really liked David Archuleta better last season and I could listen to him sing all the time, David Cook I think is more main-stream. But I did want to cut the drummer’s hair – that has got to be distracting to have it in your face so you can’t see. Several of the guitar players could have used a nice trim as well.

Ahhhh. My laptop is almost out of battery and I left my power cord at work…. hopefully I can get this done and posted before it shuts down.

The bottom three: Megan Joy (when she flapped her arms and cawed going to the chairs I was really embarrassed for her — what in the world what that? certainly not something a star would be doing), Allison Iraheta (I was surprised by that one), and Anoop Desai (not a huge surprise). Sending Allison back to safety was obvious.

I do feel bad for Megan – but I think America got it right in sending her home. She had a good start by being quirky and different, but it became strange and I think it was her time to go. I still think she’s a really cute girl and seems like a darling mother. I’m glad she took a risk and at least gave it a shot.

Can’t wait for the new season to begin, for the David Archuletta album to come out and to see if David Cook’s album is as good as expected.