Good Evening, America! Tonight is going to be an exciting night. For once, I have no idea who is going home. I know who should go home. (I’m looking right at you, Danny Gokey.) Plus, we get 3, count ‘em 3 musical performances this evening, including one by none other than my girl Paula Abdul! (And for those of you who haven’t heard the Paula news today, go to: http://www.lhj.com/style/covers/paula-abdul/ ) With a possible shocking elimination and the potential for greatness from Paula, tonight could be full of surprises! This… is American Idol!

Before we begin, I’d like to start with something that was pointed out to me last night by my friend Greg Cappel. (Yes, of the amazing Cappel’s stores all across the Greater Cincinnati area!!! Cappel’s – Cincinnati’s Leading Party retailer since 1945. http://www.cappelsinc.com ) Greg said, and I quote, “You neglected to mention Kara’s belief that "Cryin’" and "Crazy" (off of ‘Get a Grip’, released in 1993) represent old Aerosmith, while "Dream On" (off of ‘Aerosmith’, released in 1973) is apparently "new". This is another perfect example of Kara’s “genius”. First with “Studio 57” (not to be confused with Heinz 57) and now this. At least when Paula makes blunders, it’s funny. With Kara, it just comes off as stupid. I’m so over her.

As the show starts, we are subjected again to Danny’s scream. Haven’t we suffered enough? I mean, come on, there are children watching. Seacrest reminds us we have performances by No Doubt, Daughtry, and Paula Abdul. And then right into the…

Ford Music Video – to “Move Along”. It features our Idols jumping out of billboards, magazines, newspapers, and a t-shirt. Pretty blah in terms of some of the other videos this season. Some weeks, it’s like they don’t even try to be cheesy and entertain me. Don’t they realize that’s what counts?

Group Song is “School’s Out” with Slash on the guitar. They are definitely singing live tonight. Allison gets the great “No more pencils…” section. When Adam joins in for the harmony, it just takes it to another level. This was definitely one of the better Group Songs this season. Even if Slash did look like a hat with hair.

Danny admits that his final note last night was excruciating. (At least we’re all on the same page.)

Time for Paula Abdul! For once, I loved watching the filler package. The song is called “Here for the Music” and it premiered on Ryan Seacrest’s KISS FM morning show yesterday. I’ve already listened to it more times than I’d like to admit. The vocals are definitely electronically enhanced, and I’m pretty sure she’s lip-synching most of it tonight, but I’m totally okay with all of that. Love the lighting and the fog. The beat is infectious, and I can totally see this being very popular in the dance clubs. I would have loved to have seen more dancing, but what I saw was amazing! (I can’t wait for the video!!) Pretty impressive when you think she put this performance together in 3 days. My favorite part was the dive off the platform and the bounce back up! My thoughts on it overall: LOVED IT! (Like you didn’t see that coming.)

No Doubt is here to do one of their first hits, “Just a Girl”. Oh, how I’ve missed No Doubt! I loved Gwen solo efforts, but hearing this makes me remember how much I love this group. I wanna see that tour! Then a new cd! Severely excited!

Finally, results. There were over 64 million votes last night. The finalists will be announced in random order. (Skipping over footage of past Idols going home.) Seacrest goes over all the judge’s critiques from last night. (Blah, wasting time.) The first person to join the Final 3 is… Kris Allen? Ugh. Well, as long as Danny goes home, all will still be fine. (Very worried for Allison though.)

Daughtry is here, and we’re reminded that he went out 4^th in his season as well and went on to superstardom. I think that has more to do with his talent than with where he went out on American Idol. Daughtry is debuting the first single “No Surprise” off their 2^nd cd. (Is it just me, or was his guitar gigantic? I’m waiting for him to tip over holding it.) I really like this song. I was not his biggest supporter when he was on Idol, but I’ve loved the music that he’s released so far.

We have 6 minutes left in the show, and 3 contestants still have yet to learn their fate. Better rush it, Ryan. The 2^nd person to make it to the Final 3 is… Adam Lambert-Martin! Yay! Now, down to Allison and Danny. After 64 million votes, Danny Gokey is… safe? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That means Allison is going home. This is so wrong. This is not how it was supposed to be. After last night, there is no way that Danny should still be around to sing another week. In all fairness, to all the Danny fans out there, I guess you are entitled to your opinion… even if it is your wrong opinion.

Well, that’s our show for tonight. All the wonderful feelings I had about Paula’s performance were dashed when Allison was sent packing. I really wanted an Adam vs. Allison finale. That would have been something to see. Let’s all take a moment and think good thoughts for Allison and her future career. All I have to say now is that it better be Adam and Somebody in the finals, because if Adam doesn’t make it there… well, I won’t say what will happen, but it won’t be good. Tune in next week for more performances and to see who makes it to the finale. Same Steve Time. Same Steve Channel.