IDOL WATCH: 9 Becomes 8, Scotty McCreery and More!

Tonight's episode of American Idol featured performances from Nicki Minaj and Scotty McCreery, but which contestant went home? Find out now!

First, though, Ryan announces that Aerosmith will be going on tour with a montage of current footage of Aerosmith performing (it's kind of gross). Then Eric Benet briefly visits DeAndre (he starts crying again) and they play another Ford music video (it's pretty much what you'd expect, except with 80s rock outfits).

Also, like it's in in some kind of midlife crisis, Idol is desperately trying to become a trending topic on Twitter - every time they introduce a new topic, they add a hashtag at the bottom of the screen.

But of course the point of the show is the results, and first to learn their fate are Elise, Phillip and Hollie. Hollie lands in the bottom three, but Elise and Phillip are safe for the week.

Nicki Minaj performs "Starships" next in support of her upcoming album, in stores Tuesday. She jokes with Ryan that she'll come back to guest judge, prompting J-Lo to joke that "I don't know that there's enough room for both of us!"

Out of Joshua, Heejun and Colton, it's Heejun who lands in the bottom three, leading into a performance from last year's American Idol. Scotty McCreery seems a million times more confident than he ever did on the show performing "Water Tower Town" - and someone finally coached him not to do that weird thing he did where he held the microphone off to the side, which was a definite improvement. Jimmy presents Scotty with a platinum record (Scotty's debut album went platinum in January).

DeAndre and Jessica are both declared safe, making the bottom three Holly, Skylair and Heejun.

Heejun gets the axe this week, choosing to sing the same song that he sang yesterday (you know, the one that the judges urged him to choose). Steven delivers the news that the judges are not going to use their save.

Okay, so Heejun sang a little like a 1940s club singer, but he was entertaining and I'm disappointed to see him go. Did your favorites make it through? Don't forget to tune in next week as the top 8 perform and the competition gets one step closer to crowning a new Idol!

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