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American Idol recap: Harry Connick Jr.'s performance is one Idol's parting gift

After Thursday night's results, American Idol trimmed down to a lean ten contestants. Did America say goodbye to another girl?

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Deborah Cannon/American-Statesman/AP
Harry Connick Jr. is interviewed on the red carpet at the Paramount for the opening of 'When Angels Sing' during the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, March 10, 2013.

American Idol host Ryan Seacrest started off Thursday night in a celebratory mood, announcing that since Season 1, Idol has hit 6 billion votes. He then made us all a little nervous by promising that the results tonight may shock the viewers. But of all the things Ryan said on Thursday, the most curious was telling Jennifer Lopez that her headband was the perfect accessory. He clearly couldn't be serious, could he? Or perhaps he figured that between that and the garish hot pink makeup, the headband was the lesser of two evils?

But fashion no-no's aside, the show wasted no time getting to the results. Actually, that's not true; they wasted a bit of time by forcing us to listen to the contestants yammer away in the back of the limo after their performances on Wednesday. And who could forget Harry Connick Jr.'s performance (If I admitted I would like to, would you lose respect for me?) after which, audience favorite Munfarid Zaidi emerged from backstage to sing a ballad while being cradled by Harry once again. Poor Munfarid should have been on the stage every week as a contestant and not just as a way to fill the time during a results show.

Jennifer then introduced us all to singer/songwriter Mali Music and gave some long-winded explanation about why she chose Mali to debut but once we heard that he'd be performing his single titled, "Beautiful," (Jennifer's favorite adjective ever - because 'baby' is not an adjective) it was obvious why she really picked him.

Unfortunately, the time-wasting didn't end there, Ryan gave us a sneak peek into JLo's new single, "I Luh Ya Papi." 

Okay, enough of this nonsense, let's get down to business. The bottom three were announced and the first two, Majesty Rose and Ben Briley, came as no surprise since they were announced in my predictions last night but what did come as a shock was Sam Woolf's inclusion in the bottom. Thankfully, Sam was quickly dismissed from the terrors of the bottom three and although only .07% of votes separated Ben and Majesty, in the end it was Ben who was singing for the save.

Of course, the judges didn't use their save for Ben and he'll be heading home to his beloved wife and beloved Tennessee. Overall, it was a good week on American Idol - better performances and accurate results, even if the anomaly of Sam did prevent a trifecta in my predictions. Join us again next week to see if the contestants continue their upward trend or atrophy back into one of the weakest seasons ever.

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