Lest we forget that American Idol isn’t all fun and Doors covers and sassy contestants, last night’s elimination episode — the season’s first — served as a great reminder that America’s most popular television show is also about pointless montages (this time of the top singers at a photo shoot, set to the tune of a Daughtry song), hammy butchering of famous songs (a dreadful Sixties montage — if that decade was truly about cheesy grins, mod dresses and knee-bend choreography, the drugs make a whole lot of sense), and of course, watching teenage hearts break. Long-haired Garrett Haley was the first to go, then Amy Davis was cut. There was a brief pause for the premiere of Paula Abdul’s “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow” video, then Ryan Seacrest told plus-size model Joanna Borgella and the theatrical Colton Berry their time was up.

Click here to check out the five essential first-week guys performances, and here for the girls.

[Photo: Fox]