'American Idol': And then there were three

"We hate to break up the Idol family," Ryan Seacrest said at the start of Thursday's American Idol results show. "Unfortunately, we must do just that."

All four singers will go home in the next few days, three of them for hometown celebrations. The other, as Jessica Meuse noted during a conversation with fellow contestants Caleb Johnson, Jena Irene and Alex Preston, "is going to go home, but not go home. That sucks."

Meuse's comment may have been more prescient than she realized at the time. After two of her three performances Wednesday failed to wow the judges, she wound up at the bottom of the voting results.

"Last night, Jessica had very mixed results, and then, at the very end, she nailed something great for her, and (Lady Gaga's You and I) was a great song for her," said the always-encouraging Randy Jackson. It just wasn't great enough for the voters to keep her around.