//American Idol Recap: Results – Season 8 Down To Final Four//

Eliminations at this point in the season on American Idol are always a bit tough, but they’re made especially hard with the level of talent displayed by the top 5 contestants going into Wednesday night’s results show.

Tuesday night’s performance show found the contestants performing Rat Pack standards. The cool, laid back songs didn’t defeat any of the singer — each performed up to par, an admission Simon Cowell made early in the show Wednesday.

But someone still had to go.

As he does nearly every year at this point, Ryan Seacrest broke the group into two leaving one contestant to choose which group he or she believed he or she belonged in. On one side was Matt Giraud and Kris Allen. On the other side was Allison Iraheta and Danny Gokey. Fan favorite Adam Lambert was left to choose sides — literally.

Unlike seasons past where the final contestant remained PC and refused to choose a side, Adam chose to stand beside Gokey and Iraheta based on their strong performances. But he was wrong. Seacrest relocated him to Giraud and Allen’s side, then announced the three guys were the bottom three vote-getters.

Shock rang out through the judges table and audience. Adam Lambert is a favorite to take the crown and there he stood in the bottom three. But the shock didn’t stop there. Seacrest sent Kris Allen back to safety, revealing Adam and Matt as the bottom two.

AL fans, rest easy. It was Matt Giraud, the dueling pianist from Kalamazoo, MI who was sent home. Matt fought his way into the competition through the wild-card round, to a few stints in the bottom three, to being saved by the judges a couple weeks ago. “I’ll definitely remember being the cat with nine lives up here,” Matt said after being handed his walking papers.

The final four compete next Tuesday to a rock and roll theme.

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