As it turned out on American Idol, Rickey Smith got shown the door on the Wednesday night show. This was a little surprising; I had him in my bottom three, but he's clearly better than the one person who has no demonstrable skill (Carmen) and perhaps more versatile than the one person who has reasonable talent if he can deep fry the song and drown it in country gravy (Joshua).

Getting back to Carmen and whatever shadowy force is keeping her in the competition (*cough*Mormons*cough*), the subtext with her and Clay that may have breached last night took up low earth orbit when, at the end of a horrific group sing of Lionel Ritchie's "All Night Long," it looked very much like she and Clay had a big ol' smooch. Hard to say given that they took a quick pan away from the group at the end. Arguments for lip lock include the pair not being shown in a closer group shot a little later and a rather animated discussion between Randy and Simon. OK, the latter part is speculation, but it's not like they'd be marveling over the singing on display.

Maybe Carmen thought she was getting canned and thus figured what the heck. As it turns out she didn't even make the bottom three (Kimberly Locke was the only returnee from last week and got sent back to the couches, while camera whore Kimberly Caldwell got to play the waiting game with Rickey). I have half a mind to write the Utah attorney general on this.

Even more frightening was the in-show Ford commerical where Ruben is forced to sing "Get Out of My Dreams, Get Into My Car" to a dozen Carmens. It was like The Boys From Brazil meet Heathers, but with less vocal ability.

Kelly Clarkson was on, too, pimping her new single and her album, which comes out next week. The song is pretty forgettable Britney/Christina pop, and from what Sarah said Ms. Aguilera has a hand in some of Kelly's songs. It would also explain Kelly's hair, which is somewhere in the early stages between Christina's hair in the "Genie in a Bottle" video and her skankalicious 'do of more recent vintage.

Only a half hour tonight, which was perfect. We'll probably get another 3-5 weeks of this before the results show becomes some extravaganza where the few remaining finalists sing even more. At least we'll be through with the Up With People bits.