If it hadn’t been nearly 10:30pm last night when we finished watching the results show last night, I would’ve come down here to the office to do my reaction post because I was surprised to say the least.

I have to hand it to American Idol…as we were going through the results last night, Christy reminded me that last year during “Idol Gives Back” Week, they didn’t send anybody home in the spirit of ‘giving’…or something like that.  What they did, if you’ll remember, is carry the vote totals over from that week into the next week, combining those votes with the votes from the next week and eliminating two contestants in one show.

Well, as the contestants were called out this week, I started to think that might actually happen again this year.  And I especially thought that when Kristy Lee Cook was not in the Bottom 3.  To see Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, and Syesha Mercado in the Bottom 3 was 33% of a surprise.  I really didn’t see Michael Johns being in the Bottom 3…I thought he had enough of a fan following to push him through on what was not his best night.

Boy was I wrong!  Not only was he in the Bottom 3, but he is the one with the least number of votes, and I have to say, they pulled a bit of a gut-wrenching move there with Ryan reminding everyone that last year on Idol Gives Back Week they didn’t eliminate anyone, but this year they are saying goodbye to Michael Johns…unbelievable!!

I guess Syesha and KLC have more of a following than we think.  Michael Johns is a very talented musician and singer, and I definitely see big things for him.  And he gets to tour with Idol this summer, and there’s no telling what that could do to further launch his career.  But as you could tell from the many reactions on stage and in the crowd…last night’s verdict was a stunner.

So we’re down now to our Top 7.  I still think there are potentially two more lame ducks in the crowd (Syesha, KLC) and the rest are all (IMO) frontrunners.  So we’ll see how it all shakes out next week!

So what did YOU think about the results?!?!