Talk about not going down easily.
Following two consecutive weeks of surviving the bottom three, it seemed Marcus Canty was destined for elimination this week. None of the other contestants–Josh Krajcik, Rachel Crow, Melanie Amaro and Chris Rene–had landed in that bottom group, so was there really any chance he would pull more votes than them?
And, if not, and he landed in the bottom two, was there any chance the judges would keep him around for a third time?
But proving he’s “Mr. Invincible,” Canty survived yet another scare. He indeed ended up in the bottom two, and he was joined by young Rachel Crow, whose audition performance of “Mercy” was all over the initial promotional campaign for “The X Factor.” She was arguably the least talented of the remaining finalists, but as America’s sweetheart, was she really going to be overlooked for Canty?
The answer is yes. After the two performed their “save me” songs, the judges split the votes. LA Reid naturally voted for Canty, while Simon naturally supported Crow. That left Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger, who had no real stake in the outcome.
Abdul argued that Rachel earned the right to stay with her survival performance and voted Marcus out of the competition. An emotional Scherzinger, however, did not want to be the one responsible for sending an act home–and she brought it to deadlock by voting out Rachel.
So it came down to America’s vote totals. And since more votes came in for Canty than Crow, Rachel Crow leaves as the fifth place finisher.