'American Idol' in Dallas: Why did that dark-haired boy steal Neil Patrick Harris' seat?

American Idol producers, what’s in your Coca-Cola cups? Tonight’s Dallas audition episode was going oh-so-swimmingly — from a televised-entertainment perspective, if not from a “there’s the next Kelly Clarkson!” viewpoint — but then on Day 2 you had to go and replace witty/caustic Neil Patrick Harris with teen heartthrob Joe Jonas, who appeared to be under the impression he’d signed up for the role of “Chalk Outline” on an episode of Law & Order. I mean, as far as woeful substitutions go, why not just recast Dreamgirls and give Jennifer Hudson’s pivotal role of Effie to Jasmine Trias? But while I’m two kajagoogoomillion percent sure we didn’t hear any singing tonight from the eventual season 9 champ, I at least got the enjoyment of seeing Simon Cowell meet his match in cantankerous bitchery, and of getting to hear at least a few bars out of the mouths of 9 of Dallas’ 31 Golden Ticket-getters — a far better ratio than we got from last night’s Los Angeles telecast.

What did you think of tonight’s Idol episode? Did Neil Patrick Harris strike you as a good prospect to replace Simon next season? What were your feelings on Judge Joe (Jonas)? While I hammer out my full TV Watch recap (it’ll post early Thursday morning) head on down to the comments section to share your thought. Oh, and if you need a little more procrastination fodder, check out my colleague Kate Ward’s interviews with two of last night’s semi-famous blink-and-you-missed-’em wannabes: Project Runway‘s Daniel Franco and Idol‘s season 6 ”crying girl” Ashley Ferl, take a peek at Tanner Stransky’s breakdown of past musical efforts by Los Angeles auditioners, and by all means, follow me on Twitter @EWMichaelSlezak.