Hey, they just changed the rules!

Let it never be said that the producers of “American Idol” don’t understand the keys to their own appeal. For the “Idol Gives Back” show they were faced with an impossible task: blending two hours of compassion for the planet’s most wretched and downtrodden with their weekly results show, an exercise in the slow-motion torture of their own contestants. One can imagine the despair the producers felt as they rolled up their sleeves and tried to puzzle out how they would raise concern for HIV-affected African children living 13 to a dirt-walled room, and then cut to the tears shed in the Idoldome as a contestant is sent home.

But in the end, “Idol” managed to have its cake and eat it too, and, as usual, eat everyone else’s cake on top of that. By both spooling out the tension and brazenly rewriting the rules to grant a week’s amnesty to all contestants, they delivered a huge feel-good happy ending to the event. Well, except for that cruel, cruel shock to the system of Jordin Sparks, who for an unimaginable few seconds seemed to be the one who had been voted off, before she realized she had been punk’d, and no one was going home yet.

We mere linear-thinking mortals live in a world of concrete boundaries, laws and social regulation. But if you are creating an Entertainment Universe in your own image, none of those trivial earthbound concerns need weigh you down. Which is to say, if you are an “Idol” producer and the rules of the game stand in the way of entertainment, you change the rules.

Before the show, I spoke to a representative for one of the beneficiary organizations, someone who has been involved in major media charity events in the U.S. for decades. He described how in recent years, among 9/11, the Iraq War, the Asian tsunami and Katrina, the American audience has suffered from mega-disaster fatigue, and the effect of old reliable benefit TV shows has markedly declined. If that is the case, it’s about time someone turned to the only folks in entertainment who seem to have a consistently successful formula for capturing the national attention. They managed to create this special event in the middle of a tightly regimented season, and to make it an event that both serves its charitable cause and enlarges the show -- gives it, dare I say, tints of gravitas. But now the first show in the season’s final stretch takes on double meaning, as we will say goodbye to two contestants next week.

In the Idoldome it was a highly charged scene, as emotions veered from pathos to icy tension. For the special event the house was filled with an inordinate number of men in power suits, causing much hyperventilation among the CBS pages as they struggled to break up the schmooze sessions in the aisles and herd people to their seats. Most notable in the audience, the suit di tutti suits, Mr. Rupert Murdoch himself, showed up with wife, family and studio boss Peter Chernin in his court. Murdoch’s group added to the enthralling spectacle of Hollywood’s biggest power players sitting politely as Bill the Warm Up Guy called up audience members to sing and dance to “Rapper’s Delight” for the crowd.

Watching live, the announcement at the top of the show -- that this would be “the most shocking ‘Idol’ result ever” -- cast a layer of tension over the heart-rending appeals for donations, the mostly successful comedy bits and musical numbers. The Final 6, however, had the painful task of trying to look alternately concerned, amused and awestruck, sitting on the benches for two hours as Angel of Death Ryan Seacrest flitted in and out of their ken, nonchalantly releasing them one by one from doom “at random,” he said. All the while, the “shocking result” promise hung in the air.

In contrast to earlier weeks, when camaraderie seemed to carry the contestants through the results nights, the Final 6 looked truly in pain the entire evening, with minimal banter during the show. The days of foolery are behind them. The long road ahead was only emphasized by the return to the Idoldome of Sanjaya Malakar. The contestants in their agony gazed across the audience as Sanjaya, to all appearances after his weeklong press tour the happiest man alive, signed autographs for the kids and joked with Simon, Randy and Paula. Looking at the one who crossed over, some small part in each of the Final 6 must have yearned for defeat’s warm embrace.

Postscript: Many are wondering how the Celine Dion/Elvis “duet” looked live in the Idoldome. Sadly, that piece was prerecorded, so we in the Dome watched it on a big TV screen like everyone else.

richard.rushfield@latimes.com

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