American Idol: One more contestant leaves singing the blues

On Thursday night, after a somewhat tumultuous night of rock performances, one more Idol is sent home. Has another boy fallen by the wayside?

As is customary, Thursday's results show really began with Jimmy Iovine recapping the contestants' performances and as is also customary, Jimmy wasn't afraid to speak his mind. He was perplexed by the contestants struggling with the rock genre since the majority of contestants are either blues or country, which he stated rock has roots in. But, he boiled down the less than stellar performances to bad song choices.

That Jimmy had nothing nice to say about Lazaro Arbos, aside from him being "reasonable," won't come as a surprise to regular viewers. Of course, Jimmy could have said that Lazaro's performance was a gift from the vocal heavens and it wouldn't have mattered much since Jimmy then went on to not just predict that Lazaro would go home but that if America got things right, he was the only choice to go home. Jimmy really should have attended the live taping last night; had he, he would have heard the woman who was nearly hoarse from screaming praise and encouragement for Lazaro, her voice tinged with the kind of fanaticism that isn't bred in isolation. Oh no, this woman was but one voice in a legion of Lazaro fans who would do anything to keep him in the competition.

Jimmy may want to temper his comments; nothing unites a group better than a common enemy.

Later, after a double-dose of country music from past contestants Carrie Underwood and Casey James, American Idol switched things up a bit by revealing who the judges thought would be the top three contestants. Apparently they also switched things up on Nicki Minaj, who said she had no idea that her pick for the top three would be revealed to viewers. Yes Nicki, they pay you approximately 15 million dollars a year because they really value your input - it has nothing to do with using your fame to promote the show. 

Three out of the four judges picked Kree Harrison, Amber Holcomb, and Angie Miller to be their top three. Mariah Carey was the only voice of reason on the panel who put the phenomenal Candice Glover in her top three; where she rightfully belongs. But the judges, as well as Jimmy, seem to be infected by this idea that Amber is incredible. Jimmy actually stated that there were not three better singers on the stage. Huh? Kree, Angie and Candice are all superior to Amber and I suspect that somewhere deep down inside, Nicki knows this to be true since she continues to say that she's not sure that America is going to embrace her.

In the end, it turns out that all the judges and Jimmy were wrong. With Kree and Angie being sent to safety, no doubt Randy Jackson, Nicki, and Keith Urban were all feeling pretty confident in their predictions - that is until Ryan Seacrest announced that the third person safe was Lazaro. One could almost hear the cheers erupting from the compounds of Lazaro lovers at undisclosed locations across the country.

Amber and Candice were then ushered to safety leaving Burnell Taylor and Janelle Arthur in the bottom two. Considering Janelle's sugar-sweet appeal and the fact that the Idol demographic can better relate to a small-town, country girl with sparkly cowboy boots than they would to Burnell whose underdog status is fueled by the fact that he is pretty far from mainstream, made the final announcement anticlimactic: Janelle was safe.

Burnell then went through the motions singing for a panel of judges that everyone knew would never opt to save him; had they had any inclination to do so, Burnell's hideous vocals when he sang for his life certainly took care of that. 

With his departure, there is but one, lone boy remaining in American Idol. Considering the rabbits that Lazaro continues to pull out of his hat week after week, people shouldn't have been too quick to say that it was a girl's season.