Mike Hughes on TV

If you ever wanted to see a look of pure Joy, you could have glimpsed Megan Joy in tonight's "American Idol."

On Wednesday, Joy -- she was Megan Joy Corkrey, before jettisoning her ex-husband's name -- had given a performance that Simon Cowell correctly called "a train wreck." She seemed properly astonished tonight to not be in the final three. During the Stevie Wonder medley, she squeezed little Allison Iraheta and had the look of a serial killer who had received a reprieve due to a typographical error.

Scott MacIntyre, who had a so-so week, finished third-lowest. Matt Giraud -- a terrific (if uncharismatic) siinger from Kalamazoo -- was second-lowest. Michael Sarver was voted out, to the surprise of no one ... including Michael Sarver.

He sang "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" one more time, but he really is too proud to beg. This is the sort of guy most of us would aspire to be -- a strong, solid, Texas family man. He's not nearly good enough to be near the top of "American Idol," but people like him. He can go home for a few weeks, be with those daughters, then return for the tour. Hey, at least he won't have to be oil-roughnecking again for a while.

Five other comments; please add yours:

1) I forgot to chastise Kara DioGuardio on Wednesday for saying she had just six words for someone and then saying eight words. Don't they teach math at Duke?

2) What were all those numbers on Kris Allen's shirt Wednesday? Will this turn out to be like Nicolas Cage's new movie, where they all add up to the destruction of the world?

3) Ever since winning, Ruben Studdard has never managed to impress me. He didn't again tonight. I'm a half-step from arbitrarily deciding that Clay Aiken or Kimberley Locke won Season 2, after all.

4) I can thank Allison Iraheta tonight for this one: After decades, I've finally reversed my flat-out policy against red stretch pants. 

 5) And please notice that after saying I would have five comments, I commented five times. They did teach math at Wisconsin.