Last year, I praised a So You Think Can Dance results-show performance by a then-relatively unknown pop diva named Lady GaGa. I was going positively gaga for this albino-wigged, Crystal Carrington-shoulderpadded, Jane Fonda-leotarded, lightning-bolt-faced, LCD-spectacled show-woman, and I predicted big things for her.

See my original blog here.

However, judging from the message board activity that evening way back in July, my readers did not share my gaga enthusiasm for GaGa. Comments included:

"Lady GaGa???????That's a lady??? My, how times have changed. It's no wonder the 'kids' are all screwed up these days with something like that to look up to. Terrible, and she can't even sing. WEIRD. She made me want to VOMIT. I hope SYTYCD gets better, or should I say, normal guests next season. That was really disgusting."

"Thank God I have a DVR...that was just too strange for me..."

"Katy Perry was better then Lady GaGa, she is no David Bowie."

"Miss GaGa is something I have to get use to.

When Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew held its own Michael Jackson Night back in season 1, it was a real thriller. But tonight, when Randy's "other" show American Idol went with a Jacko theme, it was kind of just, well, bad. Sure, some contestants tonight were pretty young things, but many others just needed to beat it. And some performances were such carnage-laden trainwrecks, they almost left blood on the dancefloor, so to speak. They were less wacko Jacko and more just plain old wack.

The less-than-thrilling performances tonight should come as no surprise to longtime fans of either AmIdol or Michael Jackson, really. Remember the Beatles performances last year? Producer Nigel Lythgoe spent six seasons lobbying for Idol access to the Fab Four's (ironically once Michael-owned) catalog, but then when the contestants finally had the chance to tackle such iconic, classic material, their performances weren't so fab. George Harrison and John Lennon subsequently spun in

Ryan Seacrest described tonight as a "very special episode of American Idol," but he didn't mean that in a sappy Lifetime Network or Afterschool Special sort of way, or like that one disturbing "very special episode" of Diff'rent Strokes with Dudley and the creepy old man in the basement.

There were some sappy moments, and some creepy moments, however, in this...the all-important, very special Wild Card Episode in which the judges "wrested back a little control" (Ryan's somewhat foreboding words) and handpicked three more reinstated contestants to round out the final top 12. Kudos to Simon Cowell for being honest and saying the judges wouldn't be basing their decisions solely on who sang best, but would also look at this as a "casting" opportunity and therefore make sure to add some interesting "personalities" to the mix. That was fine with me...just as long as Tatiana Del Toro wasn't one of those personalities.

Tatiana would sing later, of course, but performing first was Jesse

So after a typicallyterrible group performance of Katy Perry's"Hot & Cold" that left me, well, cold (please, Idol producers, do not make the contestants warble the phrase "PMS" ever again!), RyanSeacrest wasted no time in sending Lil'Rounds through to the top 12 tonight. Well, duh.

Lil' seemeda lil' surprised herself--butfrankly, nobody else was. Lil' Roundswas probably the only of last night'scontestants that was considered a bona fide shoo-in. The other two slots were still very much up up for grabs.

The nextresults announcement was equally unshocking: The elimination of Arianna "TheLoser Does Not Take It All" Afsar. The Abba-mangling also-ran barely evenblinked upon hearing the news, and went straight back to her stool.

TaylorVaifanua seemed equally unfazed by her own subsequent elimination. Guess Taylorand Kara DioGuardi will never get that chance to go shopping together, afterall.

Then it wasjudgment time for the unabashedly dorky Alex Wagner-Trugman. In aresponse to Ryan's