American Idol 2008 Results – Top 10 Announced – March 19

The American Idol Results show for week 5 of Season 7 live performances concluded the top 11 and gave us our Top 10. The Top 10, of course, are the 10 luckiest Idols of all because they get to go on the Idol tour where they do tons and tons of concerts in a very limited amount of time for what I can only assume is a very small remittance.

Anyway, on Wednesday night we got our first true surprise (shocker) of the season. I was guessing that there might be one but I didn’t correctly guess WHO it would be. Of course, we also said goodbye to one of our Top 11. If you missed the performance show on Tuesday night you can always watch the performance videos and read our recaps right here:

• American Idol 2008 – Top 11 Performance (3/18/08) Recaps

I did pretty well in picking my bottom three this week as I chose two of the three who were in the bottom three. The third was a shocker who I’m guessing not many people picked at all. If you’ll recall, I placed the Top 11 performances in this order:

1. David Archuleta – The Long and Winding Road
2. David Cook – Day Tripper
3. Syesha Mercado – Yesterday
4. Carly Smithson – Blackbird
5. Jason Castro – Michelle
6. Brooke White – Here Comes the Sun
7. Michael Johns – A Day In The Life
8. Chikezie – I’ve Just Seen a Face
9. Ramiele Malubay – I Should Have Known Better
10. Kristy Lee Cook – You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away
11. Amanda Overmyer – Back in the U.S.S.R.

Even though I thought Ramiele, Kristy, and Amanda gave the worst performances, I knew (from getting burned last week) that Ramiele has a lot of support within the Filipino community (and maybe elsewhere) so I didn’t pick her to be in the bottom three on the show. I bypassed her and said that Chikezie would end up in that spot. I was wrong, of course, because of the HUGE upset that the judges were not at all happy about.

My pick to be voted out was Kristy Lee Cook. As it turned out, the bottom three turned out like this:

• Carly Smithson
• Kristy Lee Cook
• Amanda Overmyer

Despite the surprise of seeing Carly in the bottom three, I was fairly certain she wasn’t going home. I wasn’t surprised at all that Amanda and Kristy were in the bottom three, of course. I was, however, quite happy, excited, overjoyed, jubilant…well, you get the idea, when the announcement was finally made and Amanda Overmyer was the contestant voted out of the competition. Finally.

Why Carly Smithson and Kristy Lee Cook Made The Bottom Three

• Carly Smithson – Carly is a wonderful singer. There’s something about her, though, that I don’t care for. I’m not sure what it is exactly so it’s hard for me to know for sure why others might not like her either. If I were to conjecture, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do, I would guess that this bottom three appearance had a lot to do with her song choice, her presentation, and the way she was dressed. Stick with me, here.

  The song kind of stuck, first of all. She sang it well, but it was boring. Not good. That hideous shirt she was wearing…ridiculous. Those stupid tattoos on her knuckles…absurd. Then when she tried to defend her song choice she just sounded silly…and she reminded everyone of one very important factor that we simply cannot dismiss on American Idol…Carly isn’t American! Her Irish accent is very pronounced. Yeah, I know how we love people from all over and Michael Johns is Australian and yada, yada, yada, but when Carly speaks…well, I think her accent is a handicap. Those tattoos are a handicap as well.

  Carly wants to come off as a sweet girl who’s going to sing love songs for people as they dance and fall in love, but when people see her and hear her speak…they just don’t see it… It’s all a bit trashy for my taste. If I were Carly I’d cover my tats, speak words as little as possible, and just let my singing do my talking. Be humble and don’t defend yourself to the judges. I know this sounds harsh, but that’s how I see it.

• Kristy Lee Cook – Well, Kristy has the same problem as before. She’s not connecting with the audience at all. Simon has called her out on it a couple of times and she seems incapable of finding a way to do so. It’s not just about song choice for Kristy anymore because she’s being overshadowed by much more dynamic personalities in the competition. She now has to come out and wow us with a great song, a great performance, and somehow convince us that she’s a really cool person. A tough order for anyone. Oh yeah, I’m no fashion expert but I don’t think those boots went with that dress.

Why Amanda Overmyer Lost American Idol

As I’ve stated several times, Amanda was a one trick pony. You can’t really win American Idol as a one trick pony. If you want to try you better have one heck of a trick. Amanda didn’t. I was of the opinion that she couldn’t even sing or really even carry a tune. She wasn’t a great singer or performer and she didn’t really show any great personality that would win over the critics. She never had a chance to win this competition no matter what her fans (if there are any) might think.

The reason she lost this week in particular had a lot to do with circumstances. Her song was awful as usual, but that in and of itself probably wasn’t enough. She also went first in the line-up which definitely didn’t help as people tend to forget about you by the end of the two hour show. They also showed a clip of Amanda before she sang in which she uttered a curse word. Now, I’m an adult and you’re probably an adult and chances are most of you didn’t even notice. However, there are a TON of kids watching American Idol and a TON of parents watching American Idol and that little slip up is just the sort of thing that will lose you votes in a show like this. You might say it doesn’t matter, but I guarantee you Amanda lost votes because of it.

Last week American got rid of the gay strip club dancer and this week they got rid of the rocker chick whose sexuality was, can we just say it, ambiguous, and who said a curse word. Who knows, maybe next week they get rid of Carly for having too many tattoos? Maybe the little kids and grandmas are the only ones voting and David Archuleta really has already won American Idol.

The American Idol Top 10

• David Archuleta, 17, Murray, UT
• Jason Castro, 20, Rockwall, TX
• David Cook, 25, Tulsa, OK
• Kristy Lee Cook, 24, Selma, OR
• Chikezie Eze, 22, Inglewood, CA
• Michael Johns, 29, Los Angeles, CA
• Ramiele Malubay, 20, Miramar, FL
• Syesha Mercado, 21, Miami, FL
• Carly Smithson, San Diego, CA
• Brooke White, 24, Van Nuys, CA
• Amanda Overmyer, 23, Mulberry, IN (Top 11)
• David Hernandez, 24, Glendale, AZ (Top 12)

If you’re keeping score with the little side contest Jeff (from Static ThinkBox) and I have going… Jeff and I both picked Kristy Lee Cook this week so we were both wrong. This is one time I can’t say that I really mind being wrong. The current score is below.

American Idol Pick Off 2008: Jeff 8-6 Jason 7-7

For a quick recap from a slightly different perspective, swing by Static ThinkBox and see what Jeff has to say about the ousted contestants.