By Victor Balta Wednesday, Mar 18 2009, 10:14 PM
Host Ryan Seacrest teased us big time Wednesday night on "American Idol," saying that the results he held in hand "may shock" us. Then he reminded us that the judges have one save they could use until the Top 5, and said that they could be pulling it out this week.
The person eliminated Wednesday would go home knowing his or her "Idol" experience would be cut short and that person would be the last one to not make the tour.
Could it be true, or is that something he'll say every week?
After an extended recap of Tuesday night's performances, we were forced to sit through a group performance of Travis Tritt's "T-R-O-U-B-L-E," and then the Ford commercial. For a little more fluff, we got a look at what happened after last week's elimination.
Finally, we got to some results. Ryan asked Danny Gokey to stand up and welcomed him to the tour -- he was safe. Lil Rounds stood up and sat right back down. She was safe.
Anoop Desai, who Simon Cowell on Tuesday said "went from zero to hero," had that notion confirmed by the voters. He was safe.
Allison Iraheta and Michael Sarver next stood up together. Ryan asked Paula Abdul who she thought would be in the bottom three. She said she couldn't believe it. Simon kept telling her to answer the question and Paula finally said that based on the judges' critiques, Allison probably would be in the bottom three.
Paula was right. Allison was in the bottom three, and rather than expressing sadness or disappointment, she seemed genuinely surprised. Michael hugged her and sent her off to the middle of the stage, but he wasn't off the hook yet. Ryan asked him to stand up again, and join her in the bottom three.
After a performance by Brad Paisley, it was back to it. Ryan asked Scott MacIntyre to stand and he was safe. Megan Joy (hold the Corkrey) stood up next and was safe. Matt Giraud up, and safe. Kris Allen, check. Safe.
So it was down to Alexis Grace and Adam Lambert -- one of them would take the final spot in the bottom three. Ryan reminded Adam that Simon called his performance "horrific, indulgent rubbish." Ryan asked Simon if he thought differently after watching the show back on TV, and Simon said, "Absolutely not, it was even worse."
The person in the bottom three was Alexis.
Ryan quickly sent one of them back to safety -- that was Allison. That left Alexis and Michael in the bottom two. Hmmm... weren't those the two singers I said last night were "in serious trouble"?
Before finding out the results, we were treated to Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood and this week's mentor, Randy Travis, performing a duet of "I Told You So."
Before the commercial break, Ryan asked Simon if the judges would use their save on either Alexis or Michael and said, "Yeah ... we just had a conversation. One of them we would consider saving."
Ryan announced that after the nationwide vote, Michael was safe.
Alexis' fate was suddenly in the hands of the judges.
"You were the one we were thinking about saving, so it's all going to come down to this performance," Simon said.
The judges huddled and the drama intensified as Alexis sang for her life. Simon said the judges were kind of unanimous in believing "that was good, but not quite good enough."
I agree that the judges shouldn't have used their save on Alexis, but this results is an absolute travesty. Yes, her performance on Tuesday was average, at best, but Alexis was a front-runner in this whole competition and did not deserve to be left out of the Top 10.
Subject: 'Idol' Shocker; Did Judges Envoke Save? 
Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:58 am
