American Idol: The results are in!

American Idol Recap: On Thursday night, the first of the thirteen finalists was sent home. Was it your favorite?

On Thursday night, American Idol stuck to its usual results show M.O. and began with a somewhat corny group performance of OneRepublic's "Counting Stars," and Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive."

Idol then brought back Season 12 winner, Candice Glover who, despite her album's rather dismal opening week sales, is always a powerhouse singer. In fact, the only part of the performance that was a let down was Candice's makeup - whoever applied the heavy makeup that completely distracted us from Candice's gorgeous face should get a tutorial from MK Nobilette's makeup artist, on how to enhance a woman's natural beauty.

The other guest performer of the evening was a Keith Urban recommendation named, Jake Bugg. Jake, a 17-year-old who hails from England, gave a performance of "Me and You," from his album Shangri-La. Usually Keith has pretty solid taste in music but Jake just wasn't all that captivating and talk about lacking a connection with the audience! Jake (whom my other half referred to as a cross between Davy Jones and Bob Dylan) stared at the floor more intently than Sam Woolf and generally didn't come off as affable.

Come to think of it, neither Candice nor Jake Bugg seemed particularly happy to be performing on Idol tonight. Perhaps they see Idol as a sinking ship despite Ryan Seacrest's assertion that the 71 million votes cast this week was a staggering number. Considering there are now at least 71 million ways to vote, the number on its own doesn't really mean all that much but Ryan can make anything sound impressive.

You may recall that during each week's performances we predict who the bottom three will be based on our hunches about the way America thinks. (BTW when I say "we", I really just mean me but "we" makes it sound like I have a team of Idol Recap staff and we have a debrief after each episode.) Last night, the predictions listed CJ Harris, Jena Irene, and Kristen O'Connor, which would have been a sad lineup since of those three, it was really only Kristen who seemed expendable.

When the actual bottom three were announced, things became even more stressful. Although neither MK Nobilette or Malaya Watson made it into the coveted "When can we see each other again" category, neither of them deserved to be eliminated. Of course, had Wednesday been the first time America "met" Malaya she would almost certainly have been the one to go. So it was with a deep and satisfied sigh of relief to learn that Kristen, the only contestant who was accurately predicted to be in the bottom three, was the one to be eliminated. It makes being wrong about the other two so much easier to bear.

The judges pretended to deliberate about using their save but no one ever believed they would use it this early and/or for this contestant. Let's hope Malaya's dance on the dark side impressed upon her that acting like a clown on Idol is never a good thing, otherwise Nikki Minaj and Mariah Carey would have been asked to return. 

So, America, your task for the week has been completed and it was a job well done, indeed. Go ahead, take the rest of the week off; we'll meet back here next Thursday to review the performances of the top 12. Until then . . .