It was inevitable that another guy would be gone, gone, gone.  Question: is Lazaro being barely okay enough to keep him around or will Devin's singing skills carry the day?

In the end, it was the former. Devin didn't make the cut, edging Lazaro Thursday night on "Idol." (The vote count was merely 26 million, far lower than the numbers I recall from past years at this stage of the competition, reflective of lowered enthusiasm for the show in general.)

Despite a better-than-average save performance with Perry Como's "It's Impossible," Devin didn't get the save.

There was really nothing he could do to earn the save.

While he is a solid technical singer, he is unable to translate that into being an artist, someone who could connect with the viewer or listener. It's one of those things you either have or not. Devin simply doesn't, no matter how hard he tries.

There were no results until 45 minutes into the show after "Idol" squeezed in four performances into one hour. In no particular order, the five who were first safe were Kree Harrison, Candice Glover, Janelle Arthur, Angie Miller and Amber Holcomb. Hmmm.. the women.

The bottom three, as Jimmy Iovine predicted, were the guys. Burnell came in sixth, no surprise.

This leaves five ladies and just two guys. The mismatch is more marked this year than any other year in terms of gender differentiation. It's become a bit of a joke. I'm sure the producers wanted to load the deck this year with women but they may have done their job too well.  No good male eye candy means a lot of missing eyeballs.

Jimmy Iovine's thoughts:

Candice: "Every candidate could benefit from watching Candice's performance. She was natural. She had feel. She's not going anywhere but the finals."

Janelle/Kree duet: "Nicki had it right. Kree was a pro. Janelle was an amateur. Singing harmony is key. Janelle needs to work on the harmonies."

Lazaro: "I must say Lazaro did much better than last week."

Janelle: "Janelle really redeemed herself with this song. She murdered it. It was so transcendant of anything she's done. I'd put it on her album, it moved me so much."

Devin: "Compared to everyone else, he came up short."

Angie, Amber, Candice trio: "I loved this trio last night. They sang together well. They supported each other well."

Burnell: "Did he understand that song. Absolutely. He went inside the song and delivered it to all of us. He did great."

Angie: "I'm not sure if these kids should be picking their own songs. This was wrong. The presentation was wrong. The feel was wrong."

Amber: "Amber did exactly what Smokey and I asked her to do. Be great. I bet she isn't in the bottom three this week."

Burnell, Devin, Lazaro trio: "We have a new boy band in town. Wrong Direction. This was terrible!"

Kree: "She's unique in the top register. Most sound like they're screaming. She sounds like she's pleading. It could lead her into the finals."

He predicts Lazaro could got home. (Most people in polls wanted him to go home but more people believed, correctly, that Devin would.)

Other aspects of the show:

- Group sing (Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock-n-Roll," in homage to Detroit) - Again, the men are swallowed whole by the women. And there is about as much rock and roll in this Brady-Bunchy crew as Donny Osmond.

- Colton Dixon's 'You Are." He looks great, song sounds fairly generic to me. But I can see the appeal.

- OneRepublic/Kat McPhee. "If I Lose Myself." Rumor is Kat is already distancing herself from "Smash," which is stumbling into oblivion after a promising start. She appears in the second verse sitting with the contestants.  It's a solid, catchy pop tune, though the OneRepublic lead singer Ryan Tedder is dominant.

- Keith Urban "Long Hot Summer." This is going to probably be another No. 1 country hit for Urban, who has many of them. It's good to see a male who could grow facial hair on stage, too.