American Idol: Waiting To Exhale.

So last night, after dragging it out over three hours over two nights, American Idol revealed the Top 24. 12 boys, 12 girls. One Asian guy.

Yes, John Park made it! He did!

I'm telling you, I was curled up on the sofa dying of agony. They didn't announce his fate until almost the end. Meanwhile, we had to sit through the fates of all the people with the sob stories.

I know this season Idol wanted to focus more on the people with interesting backgrounds and less on the crazies, but I'm kind of over that now. Seriously over that. I want the people with sparkling personalities and terrific voices. No more poverty, no more Alzheimer's grandmas, no more seizure babies. Please. No more.

And how about that final selection of Andrew Garcia over Thaddeus Johnson? What a bummer. Both are talented, but I just liked Thaddeus better. He had spunk, he has sass, and he would've probably been 10 times more fun to watch than the Danny Gokey lookalike. Alas, we'll never know.

Big ups to Haeley Vaughn*, the country-singing black girl. I'm a HUGE country fan, and everyone I know seems to hate it. Haeley, I hope you go far, because Idol has enough rockers. Let's bring country back!

I also like Didi Benami, the waitress who sang Kara DioGuardi's song, and Crystal Bowersox, the girl with the dreadlocks. Actually, I pretty much like all of them. There is not one annoying one in the bunch.

But until he gets voted off, at which point I will declare "I'm swearing off Idol" but not actually do it, I am John Park all the way.

*I just figured out why this name is so familiar. I used to watch Regis & Kelly all the time, and Kelly Ripa would talk about her time at All My Children, where she played a character named Hayley Vaughan. Random.