American Idol, April 23: Love Didn't Lead Them Back

The Results show begins! People are applauding and happy. Ryan Seacrest brings them down by pointing out that this is a sad show because somebody will be going. Indeed, I am quite sure it will be Trenyce, so I'm sad for all the Trenyce fans. (Why am I so sure? Read my recap of last night's show to find out.) But then it's time to roll the tape of last night. Since you just clicked on that link, you already know what happened last night, so there's certainly no reason to go through it again.

However, it is interesting that the voiceover of the recap's end says the star of last night was, "without question," Kimberley Locke. Hmmm. Interesting. And here I thought it was the viewers who decided who was the star. Considering that I put her third (though in a tight race), I'd say there was, in fact, some question. (Yes, I got plenty of e-mails saying I was crazy; I'd have gotten plenty saying I was crazy no matter which of those top three I put as number one, though.) All in all, I was not impressed by their decision to tell us who the best was last night.

Moving off of my soapbox… Ryan says they got 21.5 million votes. That breaks their all-time record. Now I know, with absolute certainty, that Trenyce is leaving. All those extra votes came from Carmen and Joshua fans, and she's toast. If I were a betting man, I'd have opened up my wallet and emptied it at the window - "Put everything on Trenyce to go."

After that, it's time for the group performance. Tonight, it's a song written specifically for them by Diane Warren, last night's guest judge. Not surprisingly, it's a power ballad. The first line, which is sung by Carmen, says, "They'll try to make you feel that you're not good enough." Hmmm. I don't think it's a coincidence that she's singing that line. From there, it becomes obvious that the song was indeed written for them as in really about them, not just for them to sing. It's called "Shine" and is all about how "they" (whoever "they" are - the judges? the viewers? I dunno) can't take away your shine even if they try to break you down, etc. Oh gag. It's like taking Paula's "judging" and putting it to music.

Enough of that. Now let's get to somebody who really is shining. We see an all-too-brief tape of Kelly Clarkson finding out that she has the #1 album. She gets some flowers and a note telling her, and then jumps up and down. Where is she? Dunno. Who are the flowers from? Dunno. That's it. Oookay. Now, if you're still wondering if you should get her album, make sure you check out my full review. Oh, and incidentally, there were reports yesterday and early today that Kelly was taking a lead role in the sequel to the movie, Starship Troopers. Yeah, I found that kind of hard to believe, too. I did a little looking and it turns out that the reports were in error. Phew. You can read all about it here.

Getting back to the show itself, it's time to give Trenyce - er, somebody - the boot. We begin with Carmen. She's in the bottom three. No surprise. Ruben looks so damn scared as he waits to find out where he is. He must really be taking it to heart when Ryan keeps saying that nobody is safe! Calm down, Ruben, you're safe! So is Clay. No surprise in either case. Up to Trenyce. Guess what? She's in the bottom three! Obviously, I'm not surprised.

Commercial time! We have an embedded one for Ford again, in which Carmen is driving a car to a diner to meet her two friends - Trenyce and Kimberley, while the three guys are working there and, of course, everybody is singing. It seems Carmen's daddy is taking her T-Bird away. Poor thing.

OK, we're back. It's Kimberley or Josh as the final person in the bottom three. Oh come on. Josh has to know that he's in the bottom three - especially with the voiceover earlier declaring Kim the star of the show. And yes, he is.

Woohoo! I picked the bottom three. This may be the first time I got 'em all right.

Okay, okay, so it's not like it was all that difficult. I gotta get my props where I can.

So, what do the judges think? Randy says only one person deserves to go home tonight - Carmen. Wow, a direct answer! Who'd have thought it was possible? Paula says it's tough. One the one hand if Carmen goes tonight, she's leaving on a high note. But then, she'd still be leaving.

Simon says that not one of the three standing there have a chance of winning based on the previous night. It doesn't matter who goes tonight. But whichever two remain really need to raise their games.

OK, time to send somebody back. It's…

Trenyce!

Um. What? No way! I mean, do I think Trenyce should have been sent back to the couch? Yes. I put her in fourth. Obviously, though, that's not how I thought it would turn out. Good job, Trenyce fans! You outshined the Josh and Carmen fans and showed everybody that you could call in as well as - or better than - anybody. I tell ya, just when I think I have the game figured out…

OK, back to Joshua and Carmen. Now it's obvious that the support for Marine Joshua has waned with the war being pretty much over. So obviously he's going home tonight, right?

Nope!

Carmen is actually going home! My first thought is, "No freaking way!" Actually, that's my second, third, and fourth thought as well.

Ryan asks her how she would describe her trip through the show. "Incredible." She says it's a big stepping stone. From there we look at a taped version of her journey where she says several times that it's been a "dream come true."

From there, we actually have enough time for her to sing us to the credits, unlike the last couple of send-offs.

So, yes, I was wrong. Big-time. Trenyce fans proved me wrong. I'll discuss more about why Carmen lost in my usual column on that very topic over at Foxes On Idol. But I do have some insight as to how Trenyce stuck around.

I received two e-mails indicating that the TV station in Memphis, Trenyce's hometown, made a big push for votes on her behalf. One person relayed a post from a message board to me (sorry, I don't know which board):

Not only is there a piece on Trenyce on the Memphis news after every "Idol" broadcast, but now for the two hours following "Idol", there is a commercial during every break urging people to vote for Trenyce and showing the number to call NOW! Last night on the news, they really laid it on thick saying that Trenyce was in real jeopardy of being cut from the show if we didn't act NOW!!!! to save her.

Sorry to prove you wrong. The citizens of Memphis, Tennessee are behind Trencye. She does have a big fan base and we're out to prove it. We proved it tonight. Our T.V. stations are promoting her and her call in telephone number all night.

We may yet see Carmen again. She's cute, she's bubbly, and she does have some talent. She's not the American Idol - love for her didn't lead enough voters back - but that doesn't mean she's gone for good.

Keep checking back at Foxes On Idol, as I know we'll have a number of new articles addressing all different viewpoints of the results for this week!

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at rno@pobox.com.

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