Scott MacIntyre Leaves as Flo Rida, Kellie Pickler, and the Top 8 Bomb on American Idol Results Show

The American Idol results shows are usually a 50-50 deal. They can be entertaining. They can also be horrible. They can end in disappointment -- for both the contestant(s) and the audience. They can be a mixture of the aforementioned. But in a week when the contestants had already pulled a 50-50 on performances, the American Idol results show was a glimmer of hope. With Flo Rida and Kellie Pickler as guests, it looked to be at least interesting.

But it wasn't. It was simply bad and predictable. An hour of torture by boob tube...

Here's how it all went down:

The night started off pretty well. Host Ryan Seacrest came out and spoke with the judges panel. Randy Jackson said that the Year-of-Birth Song night had been a "bit off" for him. (Him and everyone else that isn't in denial and/or missed the Adam Lambert "Mad World" finale) Ryan then showed a cheesy photo of Paula's and Simon's heads photoshopped onto baby bodies. He said they'd done some digging and found out Simon Cowell's birth year, then played an old video of Frankie Avalon singing "Venus." A verse into the song and the real Frankie Avalon stepped onto the stage and finished the song. Nicely done. And Simon was simply beaming, although he tried to insist that he was born in 1969, not 1959. Yeah...

Truly, this was the high-point of the night. About five minutes in and the show goes straight to hell.

The group sang. They should either stop doing this or at least never do it live. They performed Kylie Minogue's "I Can't Get You Out Of My Head" (from American Idol's "birth year" 2002) so poorly it was nearly unrecognizable. There were so many off-key notes hit, you would have thought a bunch of pubescent boys had taken control of the microphones. The audience hasn't been tortured this bad since -- well, since Megan Corkrey was kicked off the show. It was -- to borrow a phrase -- "horrendous."

Then they showed the making of the latest Ford commercial video. These are usually so bad that President Obama needs to step and tell them to stop -- oh, wait, he can't. (Ford didn't take any of the bailout money.) But this wasn't too awful. Done to Britney Spears' "Circus," the video and the song was not terrible (like most of them), but nothing to run down to your local Ford Dealership over, either.

Finally, Ryan got down to business. He had Adam Lambert, Kris Allen, and Anoop Desai stand, and, in that order, had the first two sit down. (Like everyone didn't already know that Adam Lambert wasn't going anywhere. That pretense, especially after his performance of "Mad World" Tuesday evening, was simply ridiculous. However, it did give the judges a chance to voice their critiques, which time constraints had stopped them from doing Tuesday night.) Anoop was sent stage left to sit upon one of the three silver stools of uncertainty.

Then Flo Rida, current raging rap artist, performed. Speaking as a person who actually enjoys a well-done sampled song, not to mention someone who actually likes the original "Right Round" by Dead or Alive, Flo Rida's performance was pathetic. Breathless, he stomped around on stage, rapping unintelligibly. And this female singer kept yelling -- not singing, but it was supposed to be -- one line every chorus or so. This definitely sounds better on the radio and on MTV.

After Flo Rida and his posse left the stage, Ryan got back the elimination process. One at a time, he had Danny Gokey, Matt Giraud, and Scott MacIntyre stand. Ryan led Scott over to claim his own silver stool of uncertainty. After his poor performance the night before, you knew Scott MacIntyre was going to be in the bottom three, so it was hardly a surprise.

Then Ryan had Allison Iraheta and Lil Rounds stand. For a few seconds, it looked as if Allison was headed across stage, but Ryan finally announced that Lil Rounds would be the one in the bottom three. (But that's alright; she deserved to be there this week.)

After the bottom three were lined up stage left, Ryan Seacrest introduced Kellie Pickler, fresh from presenting Keith Urban at the 44^th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards Sunday evening. And she looked great. Too bad Pickler didn't sound as great as she looked. Good thing the American Idol Season 5 alum wasn't in the competition; she'd have been sent home. Not one of her better performances. Kellie Pickler sang (debatable) a song she co-wrote with Taylor Swift, who she is currently on tour with as well.

After the commercial, Ryan sent Lil Rounds back to the Safe Sofa. As poor as her performance of Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It?" was Tuesday night, she got lucky not being in the bottom two.

Ryan told us that, after 34 million votes, only 30,000 votes had separated Anoop Desai and Scott MacIntyre. But Scott MacIntyre was the one who received the fewest amount of votes. The only surprise was that Anoop Desai was so close to being eliminated.

But would the American Idol judges Save him? They agreed to consider it and huddled up while Scott sang again "The Search Is Over," which he actually performed better the second time around. He got a little high right at the end and lost the note, but, still, it was far better than his performance Tuesday.

Paula Abdul had begun crying.

Ryan asked the judges if it was more difficult this week than last making a decision on whether to Save the contestant. Simon said that it was, because last week he "genuinely didn't care" about the contestant (Megan Corkrey) because she had given up.

Simon told Ryan that the judges were split 2 - 2. For the Save to count, it had to be unanimous. After a little more huddling, Simon asked a couple times, "Do you want me to make the decision?" Finally, Ryan prompted that a decision needed to be made. And you knew it would be Simon Cowell who delivered the bad news.

He said, "Scott, someone has to make a decision. Sorry." He explained that, given the talent of the Top 7, he felt that they would be better served if the judges waited to use the Save.

Paula Abdul got the last word, telling Scott MacIntyre that: "You are an inspiration to the entire world." She would add, "You are a classy gentleman."

And for once, Paula's overflowing syrup and sugary phrases were appropriate. Scott MacIntyre was and is a class act. Given his talent on the piano, he will no doubt do well. He seems to favor the contemporary Christian style and will more than likely be signed by a major label and five Mandisa and Chris Sligh a run for their money in the future.

But someone had to go. Scott MacIntyre unfortunately was the one who deserved to go this week -- and go he did.

And now there are 7:

Adam Lambert

Danny Gokey

Kris Allen

Matt Giraud

Allison Iraheta

Anoop Desai

Lil Rounds

******

Source:

"American Idol," Fox Television