American Idol 2, April 9 - Corey Clark: The Aftermath

Suddenly, Ruben is on a couch, while Carmen is in a studio, practicing cage dancing. What's this wavey video thing? Ruben is in a tux, singing "Get Out Of My Dreams, Get In To My Car" (ugh!) to a ball-gown clad Carmen! The horror! Maybe if he were singing, "Hit The Road Jack"... Not surprisingly, the "car" in question is a Ford.

So, there stands Kimberley, Kimberly, and Rickey. Ryan points out that all of them have been in this hot spot before. Kimberley Locke is buying a condo there. One of them is safe... Kimberley Locke! Kimberley is greeted with hugs from Trenyce and Carmen, who still have the horror fresh in their pretty minds.

One of them have to go. Based on the last two weeks, it has to Kimberly, who never got past "pretty good." Rickey blew up in front of Earth Wind and Fire's Verdine White and Lionel Richie, singing their own songs!

Eliminated Idol number five is... Rickey Smith.

You heard me.

We get a curiously packaged goodbye type video from Rickey. Rickey's family, especially his little sister, have tears in their eyes. Trenyce does too (some producer pops in with a tacky zoom lens cut-in on Trenyce, so we can see her bawl up close). Before we can adjust to this shock, the show is over. Ryan's waving goodbye.

Rickey should send a dozen black roses to Corey. Why am I blaming Corey? Because, last week, Kimberley, Carmen, and Trenyce - and their fans - knew they were in the bottom three. No one was eliminated. You can be sure that Trenyce's and Carmen's fans were burning up the phone lines (they were completely clear of the bottom three this week!). A friend of mine tried calling Trenyce's number for the whole two-hour allotted time and couldn't get through once. She didn't care about Carmen. This gave those three ladies something of an advantage.

While the fans of Kimberley, Carmen, and Trenyce were working overtime, Rickey's fans didn't see the urgency and he fell victim. Why did all of this happen? Corey Clark. Fox shares some blame for this. Doing a results show with no results was unfair to middling contestants. Ruben and Clay will be in the final three, no doubt. The others are still trying to survive. Fox could have just as well done a show without the results drama since they knew no one was being eliminated. I think a show as a "report card" from the three judges, spelling out what they like and don't like and what they want to see from each contestant, would have been more interesting than leading us to water and letting us thirst!

Rickey has charmed America, and I'm sure he will be signed by someone. Simon seemed only lukewarm toward him, unlike the love he heaped on Kelly and Tamyra last year. Good luck to him.

The ultimate moral of this story is, do not sleep. No the show is not fixed. Rickey didn't get as many votes. There are reasons why that don't all point to his performances. That is the sad thing. (This is discussed in more detail by David Bloomberg in his "Why Rickey Lost" column on Foxes On Idol.)

Sting7 can be reached at stingseven@yahoo.com.

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