American Idol determined its Top 7 Season 16 finalists during Sunday night's two-hour broadcast on ABC, which featured the season's Top 10 contestants performing live nationwide for home viewer votes.
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Adam "Ada Vox" Sanders, Michelle Sussett and Dennis Lorenzo were eliminated at the conclusion of the broadcast based on the results of real-time home-viewer voting that occurred as the finalists performed Disney classics.
The eliminations left Catie Turner, Maddie Poppe, Jurnee Weathers, Michael J. Woodard, Gabby Barrett, Caleb Lee Hutchinson, and Cade Foehner as the seven finalists still in the running to be crowned American Idol's Season 16 winner next month.
The broadcast marked the first time that an American reality competition series aired live nationwide and allowed viewers across the country to all watch simultaneously, resulting in American Idol airing from 5-7PM in the West Coast time zone.
"Welcome everybody, we're coming to you live across the country for the very first time," Idol host Ryan Seacrest noted as the broadcast began. "So much Disney magic for you tonight."
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"We are live in all time zones, and you at home are making Idol history by live voting all across the nation."
Viewers were be able to cast their votes by text, on AmericanIdol.com, or through the American Idol app.
Idol judge Katy Perry also had fun with the show's Disney theme night -- Idol's first-ever, as the show previously aired on Fox prior to this season's revival by ABC, which is owned by Disney -- and dressed in an elaborate Snow White costume.
"We have our very own princess tonight," Seacrest joked after he introduced Perry and her fellow Idol judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie. "I'm totally surprised, that is incredible!"
"Isn't it all so magical!" Perry responded.
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Ada Vox had performed The Lion King's "Circle of Life" during Sunday night's show, while Michelle sang "Remember Me" from Coco and Dennis performed The Lion King's "Can You Feel the Love Tonight."
While Dennis was the final performer of the show, Ada Vox and Michelle performed fourth and fifth respectively, suggesting the finalists' performance order did not play a significant role in the results of the new real-time voting system.
In addition, Ada Vox, Michelle and Dennis had also failed to finish among the top six vote-getters during last week's Top 10 voting round and only advanced to the season's Top 10 when they were selected by Idol's judges, who were allowed to pick the season's final four Top 10 finalists.
American Idol's next episode will air Sunday, May 6 and once again be broadcast live nationwide at 8PM ET/5PM PT.