Last night’s season finale of “American Idol” had a bit of everything. It even had another somewhat surprising ending, at least from where I sit. Ryan Seacrest promised that there would be a few tributes to outbound Simon Cowell during the night, and there were. But here is how the rest of the show went down, and we’ll sum it up as quickly as we can:

The Season 9 Top 12 sang Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” and once we saw the school kids dressed like Alice Cooper we knew the man himself would make an appearance and he did. But he didn’t sound very good.

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It’s hard to believe we’ve reached that time of year, but here it is. The “American Idol” two-part finale is next Tuesday and Wednesday and we’ve got your two finalists. But first, unless you just scroll down, we’ll make you wait just like the producers make us wait.

The show began with Casey James being whisked back to Cool, Texas, which looks like it’s a suburb of Fort Worth. He even went back to the hospital where his life was saved after a motorcycle accident seven years ago to thank his doctors for keeping him alive and giving him this opportunity.

Then Travis Garland performed. This kid is a signing of celebrity entrepreneur Perez Hilton, who was on hand to help Ryan Seacrest announce him. He did his new single, “Believe,” which wasn’t bad, but there were too many dancers on stage that were really distracting. Why can’t these pop acts just sing?

Then Crystal Bowersox went back to Toledo, and she appeared to have more fans than Casey. Hmmm. Anyway, that was cool. But Lee’s visit back to Chicago seemed even cooler for some reason. He finished by returning to the paint shop where he’s worked.

Then Justin Bieber performed two of his new songs, “You Smile” and “Baby.” That kid is pretty talented too for a teenybopper.

Finally, it was time to find out who was going home and who would compete for the title next week. First in, Lee Dewyze. No huge surprise. Down to Casey and Crystal. Crystal Bowersox, in, Casey James, going home. That’s how I saw it, and I’ve thought it was Casey’s time for weeks anyway. And that’s how it should be…Crystal vs. Lee for all the marbles.

So there you have it…..I think last season we thought it would be Adam Lambert crushing Kris Allen, and the year before David Archuleta crushing David Cook, but both turned out to not be the case. So while I think Lee will win, Crystal absolutely deserves to win just as much. It should be interesting, and an entertaining ride. See you all then!

At this stage of the season on “American Idol,” you know who wants to win and who could care less. You hope that they all want to win, and probably do, but some just want it more than others. Last night that was made perfectly clear during both rounds of performances. No mentors this time around, just two performances each from Casey James, Lee Dewyze and Crystal Bowersox. They would choose one song, and one or two judges would pick the other. Here is our recap of how it went down, and we’re going to do it differently this week…we will break it down by performer and grade them at the end of our analysis:

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For the contestants who have made it this far on “American Idol,” going home has a different meaning than being eliminated. That’s because the top three finalists get to go home and enjoy a special day in which they perform in front of fans in their city, appear on radio and TV and usually have the mayor of said city give them a “key” to said city. Pretty heady stuff. But as always, it took the producers an hour to tell us the result that they could have delivered in a few seconds. And without DVR, it would have been excruciating.

To kick things off, Season 3 champ Fantasia performed her new single, “Bittersweet.” It was pretty good and she no doubt has a remarkable voice, but other than that, the performance was sort of bland.

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To the contestants on “American Idol,” if you’ve made it to this week’s Final Four, you’re either on the verge of winning it all, or of being a pretender and fading into the show’s collective oblivion soon. Mentor Jamie Foxx signified as much when he had t-shirts made up that said “contestant” and “artist,” and told each one of them that they had to earn their artist shirt this week to prove they are ready. Corny, yes, but effective and correct. The theme this week was songs from movies, which is about as vast a catalog as there is.

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Well folks, we’ve reached the Final Four of “American Idol,” and we’re now just a few weeks away from finding out who this year’s champ will be. Are you all bored with the season and the fact that the talent is way watered down than in previous years? Apparently the ratings have dropped a bit too, as people miss Paula Abdul’s unpredictability and Adam Lambert’s screams.

Last night, the results show was excruciating. And if it weren’t for our DVR, I’d have pulled out what hair I have left on my head. Really, FOX? Did that show HAVE to be an hour long? There was enough banter between Ryan Seacrest and the judges to last an entire season.

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On “American Idol,” we are really getting down to the wire, with five contestants remaining and the countdown to the grand finale later this month. So they broke out the big guns last night, with mentor Harry Connick, Jr. on hand to mentor the Idols and to even accompany them on piano, a first on the show. Dude even arranged the songs for each singer, and gave them exceptional advice…something you absolutely couldn’t say for most of the mentors this season. The theme was the king of crooners, Frank Sinatra, and his two daughters were on hand to commemorate….in fact, they presented Simon Cowell with a monogrammed handkerchief because they knew he was a big fan. Very cool.

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It’s getting down to the wire on “American Idol,” to the point where it gets to be a bit unpredictable who might be sent home. I admitted yesterday that I had no idea who would be getting cut last night, and I was mildly surprised by the outcome. However, I did think this person was the worst of Tuesday night.

The show began with the first of many performances, as country superstars Rascal Flatts performed their new single, “Unstoppable.” I’ve never really understood why this band is so huge, and that was confirmed again last night….I don’t get the appeal. The song was pretty bad, too. But okay.

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I didn’t think I’d be writing about something like this in Season 9, but here it is. No one on last night’s “American Idol” gave a performance worthy of getting booted off the show. In fact, now more than ever, you could point to the judges’ save of big Michael Lynche a few weeks ago as being premature, because they surely are going to want that save back tonight. Why? Because everyone brought it last night, to the point that the judges and host Ryan Seacrest wondered out loud how anyone could be eliminated. But it has to happen. So let’s look at the way it all played out, and this week’s mentor was country superstar Shania Twain. You may remember Shania was one of the judges for this season’s initial auditions. Now she had the pleasure of watching the contestants perform her songs. Would they butcher those songs or make her proud? Let’s read on….

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They’ve done this before, right? On “Idol Gives Back” night, they say they are going to eliminate a contestant and then they say they can’t on a charity night, and eliminate two contestants the following week. But not last night. Last night after a heartwarming (and I’m sorry, most of the time, DRAGGING) 2.5 hour show, Ryan Seacrest announced that one of the contestants was going home…..in effect, they were “giving one contestant back,” right? At least that’s how I was looking at it.

Anyway, before we get to the results, here is a blazing fast summary of guest appearances and funny moments…

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