‘American Idol’ recap: Jennifer Lopez struggles with giving bad news

If we’ve learned one thing from “American Idol” this season, it’s that Jennifer Lopez is a really nice person. That niceness was on major display in Wednesday night’s double dose of “Idol,” which took us to Las Vegas for a round of Beatles numbers that helped the judges winnow the contestants from 61 to 40, and then back to Los Angeles for the beginning of the judges’ personal meetings with contestants to let them know whether they’d been selected for the final 24.

Facing the contestants she’s clearly come to care about, and in some cases, depriving them of their dreams, proved to be almost too much for Lopez. To drive that point home, the producers repeatedly showed us a clip of the musical/movie superstar breaking down and declaring that telling people they hadn’t made it felt horrible and that she didn’t want to do it anymore. “I didn’t want to tell him no ? I felt so bad,” she mumbled of one contestant through tears -- a tissue pressed to her eyes, face turned away from the camera.

To Chris Medina, the contestant whose ouster prompted J.Lo’s emotional breakdown, Lopez said, she had “so much respect” for him, that she was so happy to have met him, that his story had touched her, and that he should keep on making his music. She gave him a hug. All three judges gave him a hug. And Tyler asked him to give his fiancé, Juliana, whom Medina has been caring for since an accident left her seriously injured, a kiss for him.

Um, Jennifer, can you pass the tissues?