At the start of Thursday’s “American Idol” results show, host Ryan Seacrest teased that this week’s elimination would disappoint many of the show’s loyal viewers. While that may or may not true, there were few other ways the voting conceivably could have gone, making Seacrest’s hype appear a bit out of place.
Though the eliminated contestant was a favorite of many successful music critics and artists, this person suffered an early setback that created doubt about whether the voters shared in the excitement. And, after being ranked dead last by Headline Planet after Wednesday’s performance show, it seemed very reasonable that this contestant would go home.
Sure enough, Casey Abrams, the recipient of the judges’ save after Top 11 week, was given the boot by the “American Idol” voters. Though his duet with Haley Reinhart on “I Feel the Earth Move” was well-reviewed Wednesday, it paled in comparison to the “moment” they shared on their previous duet “Moanin’.” His solo version of “Hi-De-Ho That Old Sweet Roll” completely failed to click, and the result was a shortage of reasons for voters to dial, text or click after the performance show.
The elimination was played off as a disappointment, but with James Durbin, Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina viewed as the obvious frontrunners, Haley gaining momentum and Jacob Lusk emerging as a likable underdog Wednesday, it simply could not have come as a surprise.
What might have been surprising, however, is the duo of contestants who landed in the week’s bottom three. Seacrest made a point to stress that the results were revealed at random–no bottom three or bottom two was announced. Speculation from cynical “Idol” viewers is that this might have been done to conceal the reality that one of the aforementioned three frontrunners slipped into the bottom three (alternatively, those who feel “Idol” is out to get Haley argue that the producers wanted to give the impression she was a top vote-getter to slow down voters next week).
As for how the results were revealed, Seacrest pushed Haley and James to safety immediately after showing their recap footage. He brought Casey, Scotty, Lauren and Jacob out for the final cut, first sending Lauren–and then Jacob–to safety. The final announcement saw Scotty and Casey at center stage.
Casey reprised his acclaimed “I Put a Spell on You” for his exit performance.