IDOL BANTER

Overlong? Wednesday’s who’s-out-this-week episode took the sadistic side of “American Idol” to a new low, stretching the inevitable lopping of one head to an excruciating extreme over a full hour, one that required more padding than Lindsay Lohan in a Santa suit. Simon Cowell can be harsh, but as this season of “Idol” continues its redefinition of heroes and villains (first, Sanjaya bad; now, Sanjaya good), host Ryan Seacrest is emerging as the kindest cast member -- if you believe Nick Lowe’s admonition that you’ve got to be cruel to be kind.

This week’s deportee, Haley Scarnato, probably knew she was living on borrowed time after miraculously surviving last week’s competition. But even she didn’t deserve the delight that Seacrest and the “Idol” cameras seemed to take in letting her and her vanquished predecessors twist in the wind before dropping the news of their send-off in the final five minutes. And forcing the losers to bid adieu with the song that got them voted off? That’s plain mean.