America Idol Top 8: Elimination Night, Judges Save Used.

This week, the entertainment was provided by Daughtry, with Season 5’s Chris Daughtry (4th place) heading up his self-titled bank, performing “Waiting for Superman.”

Ryan Seacrest reminded Chris Daughtry about his own elimination night and said he will never forget the look on his face. That video is over here. The look was caused by a Seacrest sucker punch, leading Daughtry to believe he would be safe. Well, Daughtry took it in good spirits tonight.

After all but three were sent to safety, the Bottom Three were Malaya, Sam and CJ, who have all been there and back before. OK, we were wrong about seeing a new face in the Bottom 3. Don’t rub it in. It’s those screaming Sam fans that led us astray again. Apparently, the screaming leaves them too exhausted to vote.

Malaya and CJ were sent to safety and Sam had to perform, while his fans screamed Save! Save! Save! The judges, for the most part, were actually watching him as he sang “Babylon” in an underwhelming way. We’re not knocking the kid, but there is no denying that he’s the lightweight of the group. Still, we did not think he would be or even deserved to be the lowest vote-getter. But there he was and this was his third time and we did not think they would use the save — the inevitable as we have said before. Ain’t no way he’s even got a shot at the Top 5.

But save him they did, which means that whoever gets the lowest votes from now on will be going home and the judges can watch their last performance without conferring because they have no power to save anyone from this point forward.

We’re left to wonder now if two will go home next week or just Sam if he gets the lowest votes again and also, whether we should even bother making predictions anymore. We were astounded to see Malaya in the Bottom 3. Her talent impresses us so much, we thought she was ahead of Jessica.

So we’ll see the Top 8 again: Alex Preston, CJ Harris, Caleb Johnson, Dexter Roberts, Jena Irene, Jessica Meuse, Malaya Watson and Sam Woolf – 5 guys and 3 girls.

Dexter and Jena have been in the Bottom 3 once, CJ and Malaya twice and Sam, three times!