Simon Cowell may be leaving American Idol after this season, but beware anyone who crosses him while he's still around.
"Want to get the eyeballing out of the way?" he pointedly asked Ryan Seacrest at the start of Wednesday's show, criticizing the Idol host for his "aggressive behavior" last night. (Indeed, Ryan has been going to bat for the scorned contestants more often this season.)
"I just thought that you needed to be a bit more constructive with them," Ryan said innocently.
"Do you want my job?" Simon asked. "Because it felt like an audition." ("Very hostile," Randy Jackson could be heard saying off-camera.)
All this drama, and Ryan hadn't even set about naming a bottom three yet!
But once Ryan and Simon had smoothed things over—"We're friends, right? Just don't ever do it again," the Brit warned him—Ryan got down to business.
First off the couch, Paige Miles landed in the bottom three, to be followed by Tim Urban and Lacey Brown, who did not give a bottom-three performance of "Ruby Tuesday."
And yet the 24-year-old from Amarillo, Texas, was eliminated from Idol tonight after what we thought was her best night of the competition.
Her quirky monotonic yet pleasant voice that could go either the country or alternative route apparently didn't win over the folks at home, though.
"That's OK, I had a blast," Lacey said after Simon informed her that they wouldn't be invoking the once-a-season save in her case.
David Cook, Oriantha and Ke$ha (who sang a real future classic called "Blah Blah Blah") all performed.
Eleven hopefuls remain and will do it all over again next Tuesday, singing songs made popular by teen idols.
Do you think the right person went home? Spill your guts in the comments section.
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That other vote-for-your-fave show Dancing With the Stars premieres next week. Check out how rehearsals are going for one celeb right here!