Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Copyright 2007, Fox Broadcasting

This week on American Idol many thought there might be an unpleasant surprise in the bottom three, but perhaps the only real surprise was that Sanjaya again stayed out of it.

Of course, he had performed last the night before, which tends to get more votes.

With an hour-long program to play with, host Ryan Seacrest had more time to mess with people's heads, including having Sanjaya stand several times before he finally told him he was safe.

In the bottom three, he pulled out Phil Stacey, Haley Scarnato and Chris Richardson, all of whom have appeared in the bottom three before. After telling Chris he was safe, he made Phil and Haley sweat it out until after the performance by guest Jennifer Lopez, who showed exactly what the performances the night before had been lacking. Her performance, in Spanish, was emotional and filled with passion.

Standing on the stage, though, were Phil and Haley, whose passionless and just plain stagey performances had presumably left viewers cold. Haley learned she was the next to go, and showed how professional she can be. Despite a few tears while she watched the video tribute to her time on the show, she performed her song from the previous night, "Turn the Beat Around" with an energy it had lacked the night before.

I didn't see too many close-ups of fellow contestants crying over Haley leaving, which makes me wonder if the whole crew is getting used to these eliminations.

While many people are asking, why not Sanjaya, the answer is easy. Though he might still be the weakest contestant, he has been fearless about taking chances and actually turned in a passably good performance the night before. In contrast, Haley has relied more and more on her sex appeal. And let's face it, that only gets you about 50 percent of the votes.

Illuminating last night was a vox pops segment that Ryan did with people outside the theater, many of them there to see the results show, asking them what they thought about the performances the night before. One of them could remember an outstanding performance by LaKisha but not her name! Another one, who has a little kid, liked Sanjaya, presumably because he's so sweet and inoffensive, therefore deemed family safe.

At this point, he's a run-away train. He's got name recognition, he's got a winning personality, he's good looking and he's got several different groups voting for him. He's likely to stick around for at least another week or two. Let this be a lesson to all the other finalists: they've got to produce the "wow" factor next week if they want to be safe.

More on American Idol:

Musings on American Idol Season 6 (2007)

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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