Colton Dixon had rough night and paid for it. CREDIT: Michael Becker/FOX

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Two weeks, two surprise results. But this time, there was no save.

Colton Dixon paid for two subpar performances Wednesday night with his “Idol” life.

Dixon, who had a really strong night eight days ago, was someone I thought could end up in the finals. I was wrong. He had never been in the bottom three (like Jessica Sanchez last week) so this was not expected.

Dixon, who didn’t even want to audition with his sister, apologized for his arrogant attitude last night when he said he didn’t care what the  judges thought after he botched both “Bad Romance” and especially “September.”

I thought he was going to land in the bottom three but predicted Elise Testone would go home. Wrong again! Hollie Cavanagh was also in the bottom three but fortunately survived. At least I did predict the proper bottom three.

Based on the polls, all seven of the remaining singers have sizable fan bases so expect the unexpected in the coming weeks. The only person to date who has evaded the bottom three now is Phillip Phillips. But as Colton learned, that doesn’t mean anything.

[My colleague Melissa Ruggieri caught Mandisa, who finished ninth season five, at the Dove Awards at the Fabulous Fox Theatre. Read the kind words Mandisa has to say about Colton.]

[UPDATE: Queen will be the theme next week, with Roger Taylor and Brian May joining in as mentors. The top 8 season five sang Queen, too. Katy Perry and Stefano Langone will perform on the results show.]

Jimmy’s take:

Joshua: “Joshua did a lot of good for himself. He stayed in his sweet spot. He was very very comfortable… he could end up in the finals.”

Hollie: “Hollie did come out of her shell. Giving her ‘Son of a Preacher Man” was very clever. Does it keep her out of the bottom three. I don’t think so. To make it to the finals will be a long road ahead of her.”

Skylar: “Each week, she gets better and better. In my opinion, she’s the best performer we’ve got.”

Elise: The Marvin Gaye song “Let’s Get It On” “caused a baby boom. Last night, no baby boom. Because of that choice, Elise will spend time in her vacation home in the bottom three if not go home. She needs to find the most potent rock songs and sang the way she sang Led Zeppelin” to make the top two.

Phillip: “Phillip did a great job with that Usher song. He really fell into it. He could have written that song. Midnight Hour, I could take it or leave it. That was a pass.”

Colton: ” ‘Bad Romance’ was completely wrong, the way he looked, the way he positioned himself, the way he sang it. The look, I was stunned. It was somewhere between 1985 Billy Idol, ‘TRL’ and Spider-Man on Broadway. He can come back. He’s got to re-group and get better songs. Phillip is picking better songs.”

Jessica: “This girl is singing songs that are too old for her. People are not going to relate… as her mentor, I have to apologize, I should have caught that.”

Other elements:

- A jubilant “Dancing in the Streets” group sing, a pleasant “Vision of Love” by Kris Allen, a sweet tribute to Dick Clark, a ridiculous “Sorry for Party Rockin’ ” by LMFAO and a passably starry-eyed Ford ad.  And Taylor Hicks came on to say he’s going to Vegas, with no details. (On Twitter, he said he’ll have a three-month residency at Bally’s on the strip starting in June.)

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By Rodney Ho, Radio & TV Talk