I felt like I had to see this AMERICAN IDOL thing through, so I tuned in for the results show. Wow, is it possible to pack in any more dull filler material to pad out a show? Footage of the hopefuls clowning on a plane? Really? Ryan kicked off the "festivities" with a group sing-along that massacred Steely Dan's "Reelin' in the Years." David Archuleta was not the person you want to kick off a rock song; he looked awkward and sounded worse. Clearly he was waiting for the camera to zoom in for his adoring extreme closeup. Syesha was no better as second voice. David Cook was the only one who acquitted himself well during this number. The mid-tempo song meshed well with his rocker aspirations and limited vocal power. However, the choreography was rudimentary and the warm-and-fuzzy arrangement made the finalists sound like an antiseptic school choir. It was like they were sanitizing Steely Dan for the audience's protection.

Eventually, sanity prevailed and Jason was sent packing. Apparently, the beatdown Simon administered after the previous evening's debacle did not engender a flood of sympathy votes. I had to laugh as he flubbed his farewell song. He forgot the words to a mangled arrangement of "I Shot the Sheriff." Way to prove viewers made the right call.

As a sports fan, I tuned in to CSI:NY because this week's crime dealt with a basketball fan dying at center court during a game, but I found it difficult to focus because, although the procedural is set in New York, the interiors are clearly filmed elsewhere. Flak and Danny were supposed to be watching a professional basketball team called the New York Empires, but the team was clearly not playing at Madison Square Garden (which bills itself as "the World's Most Famous Arena"). It's also one of the busiest, so clearly the-powers-that-be were not able to book the Garden for filming.

BTW, if you thought the "N.Y. Empires" name was familiar, then you (like me) need to get a life. But you're not wrong. The Empires was the nickname of the fictional baseball team in CLUBHOUSE, a short-lived series about a bat boy that ran on CBS during the 2004 season. The best thing about CLUBHOUSE was that it featured GENERAL HOSPITAL's Kirsten Storms as a willful, trouble-making teen before she took on the role of willful, trouble-making Maxie.

You'll get no more trouble from me until the next Night Shift.