American Idol Results 04/16/08: The Safe Six

The music of Mariah Carey was featured last night and it was clear that some folks were out of their element. I agree that the guys had the easiest time, as no one was going to compare them to Mariah. The women – well, the comparisons were inevitable. Interestingly enough, the best among the females was the one deemed the choice of VFW, Kristy Lee.

Rather than doing straight-up eliminations, they decided to split the contestants into two groups. Jason and David Cook started the two separate groups, which I immediately began thinking were the bottom three and the top group, respectively. Jason really did a poor job last night. Carly then joined Jason. Given that she performed a well-known song and didn’t do a bangup job, I thought my previous characterizations were correct. Kristy Lee then joined David Cook. OK. I’m still on track.

Next up was a performance by Richmond’s Elliot Yamin, who recently lost his biggest fan, his mother. This was Yamin’s first performance since her death and he did a great job.

Back to the contestants. Joining Jason and Carly was diva-wannabe Syesha. I had thought that Syesha would get a pass this week, because there were clearly worse performers. Then Brooke came out – and was put with David Cooke and Kristy Lee. At this point, I was wondering WTH? Brooke was horrible last night. She butchered Hero, one of my favorite songs. I was sure that she was going to end up in the bottom 3, but not David Cooke or Kristy Lee. Could I have my groups wrong?

Before we could find out, we had to suffer through some more of the inane phone calls. Can we please cut these out?

And then there was a performance from Mariah herself. She did a great job and showed how to be a diva without acting like one.

The last contestant is David Archuleta, who is declared safe. Then Ryan has David Cook swap groups with Syesha. So we have David Cook, Jason and Carly on one side and Kristy Lee, Brook and Syesha on the other side. Archuleta is asked to join the group he thinks is safe. He sits on the floor. Ryan then goes over to one group and has them join Archuleta. That group included Cook, Jason and Carly, meaning they were all safe.

So the bottom three: Kristy Lee, Brooke and Syesha. Sent back to safety was Syesha. It was the end of the road for Kristy Lee, who sold her horse in order to audition for the show.

I think the fans made a mistake. (No, I didn’t get to vote. I TiVo’d the show – it was April 15th, after all – and didn’t get to watch until well after midnight, by which times the lines were closed.) Kristy Lee has a future. I’m not so sure about Brooke.