It's the first elimination show of the year! Generally, it feels like a huge loss when four contestants are eliminated all at once, but based on the lackluster performances by both the girls and the guys, I have a feeling that unless there's some huge shakeup, few tears will be shed.

But before we get to all that, we have a (lip-synced?) Top 24 performance, and 'Idol' winner Kris Allen makes an appearance, along with runner-up Allison Iraheta. We also get to see Kara's husband and one of the contestants in a bathrobe, so let's get started!

After a gender-crossing group performance of Estelle's 'American Boy' in which both the guys and gals traded verses, four contestants were eliminated from the 'American Idol' top 24. Not surprisingly, some took the news better than others.

Watch the eliminations after the jump.

I don't know about you all, but I was severely underwhelmed by the girls' first performance, so my main hope going into the Top 12 guys' performance is that it won't bore me to death. I also hope that I can get back in sync with the judges a little more tonight, because my opinions differed wildly from theirs.

Two hours later, one of these things happened. While the guys had more high points than the girls, they were generally underwhelming. However, the night was not without its funny moments and mini-heartbreaks, and at the end of it, Kara DioGuardi realized she needed to hire a lawyer.

Last night, we had roughly 30 minutes of content spread out over two hours, so for this hour-long episode of 'American Idol,' 15 minutes of actual stuff sounds about right. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the pace with which we sped through the remaining contestants. There wasn't a lot of hullabaloo, just people sitting in chairs and discovering their fates.

There were a few surprises, but for the most part, the people you thought were going to make it did. What really worked for me in this episode is that the focus was on the people who got in, with a relatively short amount of time devoted to watching the rejected contestants cry. 'Idol' has a tendency to linger on peoples' pain a little bit too much, so it was nice to see that they refrained here, for the most part.