Last night’s “American Idol” featured what may have been a surprise, or maybe not, depending on your allegiance. The episode began with host Ryan Seacrest announcing the first of two group performances–Train’s “Hey Soul Sister,” by Jacob, Stefano, Haley and Lauren. That was really pretty bad. Then Scotty, Casey and James sang Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” and just killed it–including some truly stunning harmonies.

On to the results…..Casey, safe….Jacob, Bottom 3. I had thought Jacob could be in danger, but then again, we’re getting down to the wire. Then David Cook sang his new single….was it really three years ago that Cooki was competing on the Idol stage? Wowl. Anyway, the song was good but not great. After that, they showed the Idols having fun–at a Dogers’ game, bowling and then getting spa treatments.

More results…..Lauren, safe; James, safe; Steafano Bottom 3. One spot left between Haley and Scotty. I thought for sure it was finally time for Scotty to be at risk, but alas, I was wrong. Haley, Bottom 3, again. Scotty, safe, again. So with automatic bids to continue, you had James, Scotty, Casey and Lauren. Then Seacrest apparently felt bad for making Haley suffer again and sent her back to safety.

So then we were down to Jacob and Stefano. But first, a weird performance from Katy Perry, “ET.” Weird, right down to the rap banter with Kanye West. Finally it was time for the result.

Stefano has been in the bottom serveral times now but he keeps fighting throgh it. And Jacob was not great on Wednesday. But in the end, it was indeed Stefano. I really thought Stefano did a nice job the other night, but in the end he went home, maybe a good month after we thought he would.

So we’re down to six..Lauren, Haley, Jacob, Casey, James and Scoty. Who do you like? Thanks for reading folks, see you next week…..