Idol Cuts Lil Rounds, Anoop Desai

Everything went according to plan on Idol last night. Anoop Desai and Lil Rounds were out, Matt Giraud stayed in, and the other four had nothing (almost nothing, anyway) to worry about. And now that the Judges’ Save is used up, there’s none of that fun “Sing for your life!” business anymore to humiliate the contestants. Still, the show had a healthy dose of guest appearances and crazy outfits last night (OMG did you guys see Ryan Seacrest‘s outfit?? He went tie-clip commando!) that made it all worth it.

5. Pool of Abdul, Part II

Paula Abdul was totally in her element last night – not only was she wearing a totally cute mini-dress (we’re on board with a Paula outfit for once!) but she played choreographer for the group song and acted not-drugged-out for once. She called herself a drill sergeant, working the contestants and forcing them to learn their moves and it was great to see her on her game, sans slurring. The group song itself was another story altogether, but we liked seeing Paula doing what she’s good at and acting like a genuinely proud den mother after the kids performed.

4. Old School

We were treated to three classic disco songs as sung by the original artists last night – Freda Payne who sang “Band of Gold”, Thelma Houston who sang “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” and KC, formerly of the Sunshine Band, singing “Get Down Tonight”. Why no one sang any of those songs on Tuesday is a mystery, but alas, we learned something from the three performances. First, that Thelma Houston and Freda Payne not only look good for their age, but they look good for every age. (Note to our boobies – we’re sorry we don’t let you out like Thelma does, we just assumed you were shy. Thelma’s boobies however, not so shy.) Lesson number two, KC minus the Sunshine Band looks a lot like George Costanza. But again, there’s a lot to learn from these performers and it’s amazing to compare them to say, David Archuleta‘s lackluster, breathless performance. Seriously, someone grab that kid his inhaler.

3. Group Song

Now that Life on Mars has been canceled, all that 70′s clothing had to go somewhere, and the Idol producers saw a deal and scooped it up for the group song. The gang sang/lip synced “Shake Your Body” and it made us wonder just how many categories we can jam Michael Jackson into this season – why give the man his own entire week if we’re just going to keep bringing him back for Motown week and Disco week and Artists Whose Hair Caught Fire That One Time week?

2. Last Lil Point We’re Going to Make

In a swift turn of events, Ryan asked Lil to step over to the Bottom Three holding area but without even hesitating, he gave her the boot in the first twenty minutes of the show instead of strettttching it out till the end. At first it seemed like just one more way the show was going to take a giant crap on Lil, but maybe it was just to get it overwith – a swift rip of the band-aid. We wonder if the judges realized how hard they were on Lil for the past few weeks, coming down on her, because they did offer her many kind words telling her she was going out on top of her game and she has a long career ahead of her, etc., etc. We could have done without Kara DioGuardi who was kind of condescending like “Hey, at least you learned something, didn’t you, Lil? Yeah. You did.” If we were Lil we’d be thinking “That intense staring lady is making me feel funny.”

1. The Bottom Three

We finally got a prediction right and Anoop Desai and Lil Rounds were sent home last night. Sad to see them go, but it was about time. However, we know that there has to be a third person in that bottom three and we hate that it was Allison Iraheta. We don’t think she’s getting the love she deserves and it’s becoming clear that as much as we’re pulling for her to win this thing she totally won’t (and, cry, Adam Lambert will).

Final Thought:

-You were right, dear commenter, those girls were Danny Gokey‘s sisters. Sorry we missed that.