"American Idol" Season 10: Casey Abrams is Hospitalized & Ashton Jones is the First to Go

The shocking news tonight is that Casey Abrams could not be on the live show. Abrams is in the hospital according to Ryan Seacrest at the opening of the live elimination show. TMZ reported that Casey Abrams was in danger of not being in the top 24 at one point due to an illness that might prevent him from being on the first show. At that time Abrams was given a blood transfusion, after being in the hospital over night, and allowed to go to the taping for the top twelve.

In a not so shocking first elimination for "American Idol" season 10, it was one of the ladies who fell. Ashton Jones was the first to be eliminated. She did get a chance to impress the judges one more time into using their 'save' on her. The "AI" judges chose to let America's vote stand, again not surprisingly.

The night started with a hideous group number. A tribute to Michael Jackson. It was not pretty. As the "Idol" hopefuls sang to a track of themselves they looked more lost on stage than anything else. When you could hear them sing it was not in any kind of harmony. Finally it was over and Ryan Seacrest came out to start the elimination process.

Seacrest was in a weird mood, or maybe the producers told him to whittle down the contestants in an odd way. It seemed a bit cruel to me. The first group called out were Jacob Lusk, Stefano Langone and Karen Rodriguez. Seacrest said finally, '...all of you are safe.... Except, except, except [trying to calm down the squealing threesome] for Karen, you are in the bottom three tonight." The crowd seemed stunned, more because of the way he said it.

Adam Lambert returned to the "Idol" stage to show the new kids how it's done. He performed an unplugged version of "Aftermath," and though it was a little boring... it was still Adam Lambert. His look was toned down appropriately for the song too. Nicely done.

Seacrest took center stage again to call out Lauren Alaina, Ashton Jones and Haley Reinhart. Ryan, or as Lauren calls him, "Peaches" had Alaina in tears when he asked her about her performance last night. Lauren apologized and said she knew it was "bad." Seacrest then reassured her by sending her to safety, leaving Haley and Ashton. The next surprise move was him telling them that both should head to the dreaded stools of insecurity. The first bottom three on "AI" season 10 were Karen Rodriguez, Haley Reinhart and Ashton Jones. All the rest were safe (including Casey Abrams) without having to take the walk with Ryan.

The much awaited performance of Sean "Diddy" or "Dirty Money" or whatever Combs was up next. "Diddy" showed up. He took the gig seriously and gave a solid version of "Coming Home." Great song, and well done tonight. Bonus: after the performance we got to see that Steven Tyler even claps like Paula Abdul now!

If you missed last night's live episode, you can read a full recap on my blog: TV Review. Do you think the right person went home tonight on "American Idol" season 10?