'American Idol' Recap: Night Full of Apologies
Rocker Colton Dixon voted off in yet another surprise elimination

By Carla Patton
Kicking things off with a terrible, bucket-drummer laden group number are the top 7 singing "Dancing in the Street." This song is wrong for all seven of them, and the background vocals are just way too loud. In a possible homage to "Flashdance," or just dancing in the street in general, a guy spun on his head behind the contestants.
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Poor Elise. She is really trying so hard to smile and "have fun." It's too little too late. We already know she hates this.
Balloon drop! I don't care what anyone says. Anything can be saved by a well-timed balloon drop! I love the group number now.
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Ryan says we find out who will go home on this night as we "inch closer" to the finale -- "inch" being the operative verb here! The Ford music video was typically strange and useless. Was this one some kind of homage to "Xanadu" and/or "Clash of the Titans"? 
Joshua and Hollie go center stage first, and everyone goes, "Aww!" because they are totally buddies! What will Jimmy say? The crazy person inside me wonders. Jimmy thinks that Joshua was great and that Hollie was good but not safe from the bottom three. She is not finale material in Jimmy's mind.
Ryan tells Joshua that he "didn't get the right number of votes ... to put you in the bottom three!" You're safe? Yes, Joshua is safe. And without any teasing, Ryan puts Hollie in the bottom three.

Skylar and Elise are Ryan Seacrest's next victims. Will anyone tell us why Elise changed back into the orange dress at the end of last night, though? Jimmy thinks Skylar delivered and Elise fell flat. Jimmy thinks Elise will be "at her vacation home" in the bottom three for her performance of "Let's Get It On." He thinks Skylar is the best performer they've got! Ryan asks Skylar and Elise some questions, and Elise takes it as an opportunity to show off that camera-ready personality (hmmph!) yet again. Elise is in the bottom three. Skylar is safe.

Phillip, Colton and Jessica get their results last. But I thought we loved them all? My gut says it will be Colton, but only for a moment. I think Jessica's Save bought her another two weeks here, including this one, and people just love Phillip "Fifty Shades" Phillips. But what of Colton and his jacket that was "too weird" for my parents? Backstage, Colton said, "I don't want to sound cocky, but I don't care." Not cute, Colton. Not caring got Elise where she is on this night -- in the bottom three practically permanently until she is eliminated (later in this episode, perhaps).
Jimmy apologizes not only for party rocking, but also for mentoring Jessica and failing to see that she was choosing songs that were not age-appropriate. He thought Phillip just had a pass and Colton's "Bad Romance" was all wrong. "I'm disappointed about that," Jimmy says of Colton's jacket. Jimmy says Phillip should be in the finale (and probably will be!) because he is picking the best songs for himself. Yeah.
Jessica is safe (after some typical Ryan Seacrest drama), and on this night Colton will take his first trip to the bottom three. Phillip is safe. Ryan asks Randy if the voters got it right, and he can't really say yes. But they pretty much did.
Ryan creepily holds Elise's hand and calls her "baby." He tells her she is safe. Well, I was wrong! Hollie and Colton remain. Who will it be? Do you mean to scare the teenage girl within all of us into voting for Colton like crazy next week? Oh, but remember how Colton doesn't care? I bet he does.
Are you OK? Can you breathe?
What do you think of Thursday night's results? Did America and the judges get it right?
"American Idol" airs Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.
Well I'd say in general they're not so much weak as raw. Some of them are still learning that just because you can hit the big notes doesn't mean you should through the whole song. But they're all very young and to varying degrees inexperienced. I tend to find the judge's comments almost entirely useless which is frustrating because I have a lot of respect for Steven Tyler as an artist and for JLo and think they both could be good judges and I think Randy was for years between Simon and Paula. Jimmy is refreshing because it at least expresses an opinion that has some credibility, but I don't agree with him half the time no matter how adamant he is. So aside from listening to my 70 year old mother who Always hates on Elise, at the time I'm left to form my own opinion(and later I can take a look on here and see what others think)
I mostly read though typos anyway though if I had to guess I'd say semi deliberate(when I make a typo and decide I like it that way so I'm not going to bother changing it) I seem to recall you being a proponent of spell check so maybe just lazy?(hardly anyone is going to bother reading any of this anyway.
Yeah it seems to have gone pretty quiet which seems to have been the case all yea but not last week. I guess the Jessica save(and particularly the way it was done) was more controvertial and kept people posting through the week.
Yes it's the brother of the other Skylar who Should be on the tonight show.
Yes, ideally people don't need shows like this and it would be good to think that talent wins out in the end, but despite all they have to go through just to reach the voting it's still a major shortcut over "doing it the old fashioned way" and they can get on TV in front of millions of people that's amazing for a kid just starting out(or on shows like The Voice and X-factor for someone for whatever reason just hasn't been able to break through.)
I have mixed feeling about pitchy. Sometimes I actually agree with him and sometimes it seems completely made up. I would tend to go with a less technical(and perhaps less fictitious) question of whether the singing is pleasing to the ear.
I was wondering if you'd pick up on that. Armenian Idol is(I assume) fictitious, though a lot of these shows have versions in Britain and perhaps other countries though I tend to doubt Armenia is one of them. I doubt there's an Albanian Idol either. Moe Sislak(the bartender on the Simpsons) was offered a judging job on American Idol. He misheard and thought he(the judge talent scout) said Armenian Idol. He was disappointed but he accepted anyway and joined Simon, Kara, Ellen, Randy, and (I think) Paula.
How do you know which number it is?(silly me I hadn't even noticed those tabs)
That's a tough call, people have made it on their own for years without these shows, but there's no denying the huge shortcut in making it deep into one of these shows. Ideally there's 2 components to making in the music business. Talent and getting noticed(though some people skip the talent part) For most people getting noticed is a serious grind and getting on tv and showing some talent is a major boon. So they can always try and make it on their own and see if maybe the exposure has helped, but with American Idol's age limits the window can be pretty narrow.
Colton's sister Is named Skylar and she did very well for herself, I think falling a couple steps short of getting to the voting. I never knew that to be all that common a name, but there were at least 2 that got pretty far. Skylar Dixon unlike her brother and the Skylar still on the show can try again next year if she wants. Could be just a coincidence. My best friend's mother was upset when she learned Skylar was eliminated by the judges but then I told her that was Skylar Dixon not Skylar Lane. "Interestingly" Colton Dixon wasn't going to audition this year and was just there to give his sister moral support, but the judges made him. Also, I think 2 Holly's, a Haylie, and a Baylie made it quite far.
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Deanna Barnert | Los Angeles, Calif.
Entertainment journalist Deanna "TVDeeva" Barnert visits sets, interviews industry players and critiques the final product. Buzz's daytime TV queen covers it all for MSN TV, but loves her sitcoms, soaps and any juicy drama that doesn't call itself Reality TV.




