It was going to happen sooner or later, but this week turned out to be Haley's time to go on "American Idol." [0]. Good thing, too, or she might have come out naked next time around. She seemed prepared — after all, she'd been in the bottom three almost every week — and I was happy that she kept her composure enough to have fun with her final song. Well, as much fun as you can have when you've just been booted off the biggest TV show in America, I suppose. It bears mentioning that Haley was was wearing her most covered-up look yet for her elimination, with long sleeves and long pants.

Joining Haley in the bottom three were Phil and Chris, which really didn't surprise me. Phil hasn't been clicking these past few weeks, and he was my pick to go home [0]. I didn't think Chris was very good this week (though the judges praised him effusively), and since this is his second appearance near the bottom, I'm starting to think his fan base isn't very strong.

I still wish "Idol" hadn't expanded the results show to an hour — even at its most drawn out, the actual elimination takes maybe five minutes — but they did make a good attempt to keep our attention on Wednesday. Among the added features: bonus footage with the singers chatting with J.Lo (Sanjaya: "Maybe I'll get her number later"), a man-on-the-street segment where Seacrest asked people in LA what they thought of the contestants, and a jokey fake audition bit with Tony Bennett. To see what I thought were some of the best — and most ridiculous — moments,

• Here's when I knew Sanjaya was safe: During the intro, Ryan stood next to him as he solemnly said one of the contestants would be going home. "Who will it be?" he said, sending a faux-meaningful glance Sanjaya's way.
• Group sing is back, full of flubbed words and awkward duets. It's so cheesy and awful, yet I kind of love it.
• "That's nothing to you, is it, rich boy?" — Seacrest to Simon, on the topic of the $10,000 "Idol" challenge jackpot. Of course, the challenge question was once again too dumb to discuss.
• The songwriting contest has already gotten 5,000 entries, Seacrest said. This week brought in 35 million votes, the highest so far (even though the ratings are fading).



• J.Lo's never done much for me as a singer, but her performance had all the passion and energy she kept telling the contestants Latin songs need. I'm not sure what was going on with the bottom half of her outfit, though, and I was surprised she left most of the dancing to her backup crew.
• The pimpomercial used that technology from Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video to morph one "Idol" contestant into the next. The freakiest part: realizing how much the new shorter-haired Sanjaya looks like Melinda.
• J.Lo said she comes from "the Paula school of criticism." I assume she meant accentuating the positive, not acting drunk and incoherent on national television.




• We got a sneak peak of Idol Gives Back tonight, with footage from the crew's trip to Africa. Some little girl put man-boobs on the picture she drew of Simon. She's my favorite person in the world right now.
• Next week: country week with Martina McBride.

Photos courtesy of Fox [1]