Sanjaya Bye Bye. Hair Man Gets a Cut from American Idol

American Idol is cut down to six contestants. After a bevy of opening badinage and a star turn by guest artist, Fergie, Idol contestant Melinda Doolittle is carved from the pack and anointed with "You're Safe." Host Ryan Seacrest suggests that she move into the group she thinks is the "safe" group. Will the safe group consist of Blake Lewis, LakKsha Jones and Sanjaya Malakar or will it include Jordin Sparks, Phil Stacey and Chris Richardson? Melinda's professional training and tact kicks in as she chooses to sit down on the floor between the two groups. No way is she choosing.

After a moment more of chit chat, Ryan lines Melinda up with Jordin, Phil and Chris. Good. Glad to see Phil hanging around for another week. A bit surprised to see Blake on bubble, rather than Chris.

Sanjaya, LaKisha, Blake. Randy is surprised that Blake is up there on the stage with the bottom three contestants. Paula says Blake's grandmother is in the audience. Heart strings. So who will be heading home.? " Fight over it during the break," quips Seacrest, but there are 23 minutes left in the show. One wonders how Ryan will string out the remaining time before the ax falls on the next victim of American capriciousness.

On Tuesday, was there a turning point for LaKisha? According to the judges, the lady with the big voice stumbled a bit with the country format. Although her big voice is suited for gospel and diva songs, perhaps it lacks the versatility of an American pop idol.

A fun little filler chews up five minutes as the contestants take a stab at voice-over acting with clips from Shrek 3, (promoted simply as The Third). To sweeten the obvious plug for Shrek 3, Antonio Banderas, the character voice of Puss n' Boots, is live in the American Idol studio. Deftly he explains that he voted seven times, once for each of the final contestants. Ah, Latin charm.