Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

While her fan base led some to believe that Kellie Pickler would be one of the top finalists on American Idol, her winning streak is over. Last night, fans of the top rated show decided not to pick Pickler, and she was sent home.

It's really no surprise that she left now, although she might have managed to squeeze one more week out of her loyal fan base. Despite early comparisons to Carrie Underwood, she soon proved she had nowhere near the range of the season four winner, turning in passionless, countrified versions of nearly every song she performed.

It was primarily her sunny, quirky personality that carried her this far. People seemed to love her airheaded backstage comments. In fact, there was even a debate over whether she was playing dumb or just being herself. But her personality couldn't carry her all the way, and when she delivered a really poor performance last week of "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", followed by a bland, robotic one this week of "Unchained Melody", there was little doubt she was in danger.

When she and Paris Bennett were in the bottom two, I thought Paris might go home before Kellie, simply due to fan base. But Paris stayed standing for one more week. She certainly has more talent than Kellie, so it was good to see her make the cut one more time.

So now, unless there are some big surprises, the next one to leave will probably be Paris. She's been in the bottom three a number of times, and her precocious little girl act is unlikely to save her much longer.

Fellow perennial bottom three dweller, Elliott Yamin is coming into his own. If he continues to perform at the level he did this week, he'll earn more respect from American Idol viewers and might even make it to the top three.

The top two vote getters of the night were Chris Daughtry and Katharine McPhee, but even hard core Taylor Hicks fans admit he didn't perform at the top of his game this week. It will be interesting to see what changes come in the standings in the final weeks.

More on American Idol:

Musings on American Idol Season 5 (2006)

Musings on American Idol Season 4 (2005)

Musings on American Idol Season 3 (2004)

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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