I can't help wondering if the Vote for the Worst site has any impact on the results. Why else would Kristy still be there?

Kristy is improving and people love contestants that are improving.
Country music is also a very popular style in America, so now that she sing reasonably, she is getting more support. I wouldn't rule out her making the top four now.

It's true - she's the closest they've got to a Carrie Underwood this year, though she isn't a patch on her. She'll be getting the white Republican Vote and the redneck vote for sure.

I think Kristy is there for the purpose she is so far fulfilling. She makes the chosen ones look better by comparison. Even vftw and country music fans who will vote for the songs regardless cannot keep her in to the finals.
She peaked this week, and her best isn't good enough.
I am not a fan of Carrie, but at least Carrie has a reasonably good voice and is a good performer.For a country music singer, she is actually exceptional, comaratively speaking.

Gutted. Michael's one of the few who were left that I could see myself buying an album of. Hopefully will still get that chance though!

I don't know where people get this impression that Kristy's no good. Listen to her voice. When she's on pitch, it's absolutely crystal clear. And she's no more pitchy than any of the other female singers this year.

I think she has a really lovely tone to her voice.

What's more, she's the most presentable of the bunch and is not quite so full of herself as the other female singers.

True, she doesn't seem to have a wide vocal range, but plenty of top singers get by with rather less talent.

I have to agree. I have to put this week's AI result as the most surprising result I can remember in a talent show and that's saying something when you think of some of the gems that the UK public have pulled out of the hat when it comes to voting in a talent show.

I wasn't expecting Michael to win, a non-American is hardly likely to win AI, but I was expecting him to at least make the top 5.

As for an album from Michael. I think that will be a long time coming. I don't see them signing the 8th placed contestant off the back of the show.

Sadly it appears that the series is going to be fought out between two of the least talented out of the last 24.

I agree with your last point. For me a good singer is all about tone, not range. Range seems to be the thing these days but a singer can have a multiple octave range and still have the most unpleasant sounding or emotionless voice so what's the point? If you have both, great.

Brooke doesn't have a huge range but has a beautiful tone.

However Kristy has neither. She has a limited range and a horrible, creaky, grating tone.

As for being the most presentable, well she's definitely not an ugly girl but her thin lips, pointy nose, small eyes and gawky frame put her a distant fourth behind the other three remaining girls in the looks department. Her face is actually quite rodentish.

David A is cute if you like that boyish look, Jason has a beautiful face for a man and as for the sadly departed Michael, well....................................

I can't comment on David C until he stops looking as if he needs a wash.

I agree with National Park and most others, Kristy has only a few notes where her voice is clear and in tune...those same notes get boring to hear after a short while, especially as her voice has nothing to it and is weak...the rest of her limited range is brittle, nasal, and just not good....
For me, a singer needs a great tone first, as well as the musical intelligence to know how to use their instrument, but then a large range helps as it sets them apart from the rest. Plenty of good singers in the world, but few with more than 3 useful octaves. I agree that isn't the most important thing, though.
Brooke has a limited range, but a beautiful and interesting tone, and she is so intuitive and musically intelligent that when she connects with her songs it is fantastic. Kristy just tries to look cute and manage the big(for her) notes in songs.
As for looks, shouldn't matter, but since it was brought up, I agree that Kristy is pretty, but no more so than the other girls in the top7.

I couldn't disagree more. Kristy's voice is not just nothing special, it is downright injurious to the ear.

What's more? Why is it more? Looks are at best a bonus but in comparison to a good voice, an irrelevance.

Having said that, Kristy is nothing special in the looks department either.

Looks may influence the voting of the younger viewers, particularly girls and particularly if the guy in question looks young and potential boyfriend material (though I'm 18 and David A does nothing for me, Michael is far more my type). Sadly it's that sort of thing that led to the worst male singer in last year's AI making the final, to results like that of this year's X Factor and is likely to lead to a similar unjust result in this year's AI.

Michael is one of my favourite contestants ever, if not my favourite, as right now I can't remember anyone else I like so much. I was not expecting him to win, but thought that top 3 was a good possibility, so I'm extremely disappointed that he's out already, seemingly well before he deserved to go. I'm not totally shocked because I know anything can happen, but it's pretty hard to understand how he could have got less votes than each one of the others. I suppose it's just a combination of factors - singing first, an okay but not outstanding performance, being people's second or third favourite, people thinking he was safe etc. I love it, Eminem borrowed from it, though I'm curious as to how well known "Dream on" is in the US?

There are two things in particular I hated. Ryan may or may not contribute to his own script, but he came off looking like a total **** (insert insult of choice) by not clarifying immediately that Michael was out, then with what he said about nobody leaving at this point last year, giving everyone more time to wonder what was going on. It was just awful, a real sour note, particularly after the charity special.

Secondly, they could quite well have rolled the votes over to next week as last year, which would have given him a last chance (which surely he merited, not having even been in the bottom three yet). It's suspicious that they chose not to - guess they were quite happy to get rid of him, seems they probably wanted the general outrage: "any publicity is good". Was he seen as a possible threat to their preferred winner? Maybe. Whatever, the show is the poorer for being without him. You can't say too much about them personally from their brief screen time, but he seems like a really likeable guy and I especially liked his polite but firm, confident way of standing his ground and disagreeing with the judges, such as when Simon told him he was choosing the wrong song. A really terrible result, I'll miss his performances so much. Hopefully he'll go on to bigger and better things.

Hi All...

For some reason my sky link up doo dah didn't work and it only recorded the results program not the actual performance...

My offspring are gutted and I've tried to bring it up on the AI website only to get a 'loading' message in the player window that sits there doing nothing...

Any suggestions please how I can watch the show? I can't find it on ITV Catch Up...

Thank you x

I'm fairly sure ITV2 will show rerun sometime this week but I'm not sure exactly which day, worth checking out their listings

I couldn't agree more, though I did like Bo Bice about as much.

I don't think the decision to eliminate someone was made on the spur of the moment though.

I thought it was a ridiculous result, however they had handled it. Regardless of elimination or not, there was no way Michael should have been in the bottom two but I think some of the factors you mentioned came into play. Having said that, there were at least 5 weaker performances than Michael on the night and how some of the remaining contestants are still getting votes apart from from their family and friends is beyond me.

I couldn't believe the result and I don't think anyone in the theatre could, least of all Michael.

I've really had it with the show. The American public make such ridiculous decisions that they make the British public look consistent, reliable and discerning. The most ridiculous decision though has to be when Michael emigrated from Australia to America.

just caught up-thanks david a for ruining a robbie song you just put the cherry on the cake for crapness

oh and get an asthma pump

I thought as time went on that he may start splitting votes with David C. Plus David C didn't perform well, so some MJ voters decided to chuck loads his way, meaning that Michael suffered.

Mostly I'm of the opinion that TPTB can sling anyone under a bus any time they please. If they'd left Michael in any longer, it might have been harder to get rid of him. I suspect the same thing happened to Danny (love him or loathe him), who had huge support from the fans.

The longer Danny stayed in the competition, the more he was going to split the vote with David A. The longer Michael stayed in the competition, the more, he was going to split the vote with David C, particularly as Michael had just had two good weeks followed by David C's worst.

We can't have any of that because the Davids are the chosen ones.

I'm absolutely gutted. He was the reason I was watching the show of late. The majority left bore me to tears. Ah well looks like it finishes here this year, but I do want to see Cook go on and win it now. I'm praying we don't get boy wonder. His flaying nostrils are really starting to grate.

I feel pretty much the same except that I don't want to see David C win it. They could have had the real deal, why have an also-ran instead?

No, not the spur of the moment, but once the vote was in, they had time to look at it and decide whether to eliminate or roll the vote over since they hadn't announced someone would definitely be going. This was the only week there's really the opportunity to do that, the only other way they can really change things is to have a double elimination. I suspect if David A. had been last, nobody would have left. Plus I think KBBJ in post #167 has a good point suggesting "TPTB can sling anyone under a bus any time they please."!

I absolutely agree about many weaker performances on the night. I prefer David C, David A and Carly to Jason, Syesha or Brooke. I quite liked Kristy too. But the spark has gone out of it since Michael left as he was the only one I really cared about hearing/seeing perform, and making it to the next week. I've just discovered they have a programme called "American Idol Extra", which interviews the leaving contestant - the two seven minute segments should be easy to find on YouT for others missing him!