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It’s always the saddest part of American Idol: That moment each Wednesday night when Ryan Seacrest announces which contestant has received the fewest votes, and will thus be “voted off” the show. After all, we’ve come to love these people, and now we’ll never see them again. Right?

Wrong. The losing contestants and their fans can take consolation in the fact that there will be plenty of opportunities to continue seeing them on television in the future.

In fact, American Idol itself is one place where they might wind up. Since season two, the show has brought back previous contestants for the season finale, but this year they’ve also begun the practice of filling part of Wednesday’s results show by having a former Top-10 contestant sing.For instance, on the March 19 show, season __ contestant Kellie Pickler was invited back; she sang her new hit single, “Red High Heels.” A week later, on the March 26 show, it was Kimberly Locke’s turn to return to the Idol stage, singing “8th World Wonder” from her debut album, “One Love.” Kimberly was on the show during season ___.

But it’s not just AI that gives former contestants a second shot at TV fame. Many of the contestants, including Pickler and Locke, have made the rounds all over the television dial. For her part, Kellie Pickler co-hosted The View on the January 18, 2007 episode, where co-host Rosie O’Donnell presented her with a gold record symbolizing that her album had gone gold. She also sang her song, “I Wonder” on the episode. . . and then sang it again on the nationally-broadcast CMA Awards.

Kimberly Locke also had a turn as co-host of The View in March, 2007. Before that, though, she got to sit in as a guest host on Good Day Live in August, 2004, and then two times after that. She was a contestant on a celebrity edition of Family Feud in 2005, and she also hosted her own game show, Word Slam! for the Game Show Network shortly thereafter. GSN also broadcast a documentary about the singer-turned-host. And finally, Locke served as a judge and co-host on a 2005 reality show called “The Little Talent Show.

“Oh and then there’s The TV Guide Channel. Since that network seems to broadcast something related to Idol about half of their programming day, both Pickler and Locke as well as just about every other former Idol contestant has appeared there frequently. So you can bet that for the foreseeable future, there’ll be Idol singers galore, all over the TV screen.

Kimberly Locke “Change”