Mike Hughes on TV

Sometimes, it's good when "American Idol" doesn't have a surprise.

Chris Daughtry, Tamyra Gray and LaToya London each finishing only fourth? Jasmine Trias and Nikki McKibbin finishing third? Michael Johns and Carly Smithson being bounced early? Those were surprises, and nasty ones.

By comparison, tonight's results show was sort of what was expected. I'd predicted that Danny Gokey would top the men and Alexis Grace would top the women, with Anoop Desai finishing third; but I'd said Michael Sarver could get that last spot. Sarver did, in a tight one; according to what Ryan Seacrest said tonight, he edged Desai by less than one-percent of the votes.

There were no real surprises, but we should note that:

1) Tatiana Del Toro, lost in her private dreamland, seemed shocked that she wasn't advancing. Maybe she wasn't paying attention.

2) Gokey had switched to fancier glasses. Does that count in the clothing budget?

3) Shortly after going with fun, multi-hued hair, Grace covered it up with a fedora. Hey, why not give the hat to a bad-hair person?

4) The show proved again that this tiny stage, for its preliminary rounds, really can't hold a 12-person production number.

5) Sarver quit his habit of switching his microphone hand with maddening frequency.

6) A long commercial string was interrupted by -- well, sort of a commercial for the "Idol" exhibit at Disney World.

7) This may not be a year for electric personalities. Tatiana is gone; so -- after a rather awful performance Tuesday -- is Jackie Tohn.

8) Producers had to feel bad about this: Their two prettiest people, Casey Carlson and Desai, are both out.

9) Then again, there will still be a second-chance round, when three rejects will be added to the final 12. I'm guessing Desai will be back.

10) And the producers have got to be tickled with the fact that, so far, each finalist has an interesting story. There's a widower, a former teen mom and a burly oil roughneck with a wife and two kids. It will be interesting to watch them.