“American Idol” waved goodbye to an additional four semifinalists Thursday, bringing the pool of semifinalists to sixteen. There now exists just one more week of gender-divided semifinals before the two groups converge for the top twelve finals.
While “American Idol” eliminations will always spark debate, of this week’s cast-offs, only one could potentially call her elimination a shocker. And given her lack of buzz and fan support, even that elimination could have been foreseen.
On the male side, “Idol” sent John Park and Jermaine Sellers packing. Park was eliminated after an uninspired rendition of “Gravity” that Headline Planet called Tuesday’s worst performance, while Sellers fell victim to an odd rendition of “What’s Going On.”
The female eliminations included Haeley Vaughn for “The Climb” and Michelle Delamor for “With Arms Wide Open.” Vaughn’s take on the Miley Cyrus smash was considered one of the worst performances ever on “Idol,” but Delamor received fairly positive reviews for her version of the Creed hit.
Unfortunately, because Delamor was not one of the absolute best, her performance failed to resonate as one of the night’s more memorable. And since heavily-hyped contestants like Katie Stevens, Didi Benami and Lacey Brown all struggled and appeared in danger Wednesday, they likely hogged voter attention. Without any group of non-Delamor-diehards seeing a clear motivation to vote for the sultry singer, she was unable to cultivate enough support to remain in the competition.
The remaining females–Benami, Stevens, Brown, Crystal Bowersox, Paige Miles, Katelyn Epperly, Siobhan Magnus and Lilly Scott–perform Tuesday, while the remaining males–Michael Lynche, Aaron Kelly, Todrick Hall, Lee Dewyze, Casey James, Andrew Garcia, Alex Lambert and Tim Urban–take the stage next Wednesday.