'American Idol' Top 6 Results: Casey Abrams Goes Hi-De-Home

Thursday night on FOX's "American Idol" it was the end of the road for one of the competition's most eclectic performers. 20-year old Casey Abrams, who often came on stage accompanied with an unusual musical instrument in tow (a melodica, an upright bass?) was given his walking papers for the second time this season. But this time, the judges simply couldn't save him.

Abrams was previously ousted by viewers back in March, but the judges shockingly (to him, anyway!) used their coveted one-time-only "save" to keep him on the show. Abrams' free pass helped him sail through the comp for six more weeks, but after Wednesday's performance of Carole King's "Hi De Ho," it was time for him to go.

American Idol Top 5: Why Casey Abrams Didn't Survive

Ryan Seacrest teased that a lot of fans were going to be disappointed with this weeks' results. Right away Scotty McCreery fans started panicking, especially when the country crooner was the last man standing with Abrams in the not-so-necessarily bottom two. But why did Abrams get the boot and not, say, Jacob Lusk? Here are some theories:

Fans may not have known what to make of him. Not sure what type of fan base Abrams is going for, but he went in so many directions on this show that it may have been dizzying for fans. While he did pull out some tunes from his own generation (last week he sang Maroon 5's "Harder to Breathe"), Abrams also went against Iovine's recommendation and back to the 1940s archives for a quirky Nat King Cole song, "Nature Boy." This on Movie Week, a week where he could have picked practically any song that's ever been on a movie soundtrack.

He may have scared America away. Okay, let's keep the angry leprechaun jokes to a minimum. But Abrams does make some faces when he sings. "Idol" Season 6 runner-up Blake Lewis even said, "I like Casey, [but] I think he's been scaring America... He looks like he's going to punch a baby. I want him to smile. ... each week he's been screaming."

He growls. A lot. In-house mentor Jimmy Iovine dissed Abrams' incessant growling this week, saying "The family dog does not vote on this show." Could fans have tired of all that grrrrrrrrring? But if we're talking about growling, does that mean Abrams' girlfriend, Haley Reinhart, will go home next?

Next week on "American Idol," the Top 5 sing songs from Then and Now. Now that's a theme that would have been right up Abrams' alley!

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Source: "American Idol," April 28, 2011, FOX Television