4/10: Top 8 Idol elimination night: Michael Johns out!!

post from American Idol Blog on 10 April 2008 09:01:48 PM. © American Idol Blog

Mark me stunned. Biggest shocker of the year: Michael Johns is gone! Ryan almost brought his hopes back, mentioning how they didn’t eliminate anybody the week of “Idol Gives Back” a year ago. But then he said he’s gone anyway.

“I’m definitely surprised,” Johns said. “I enjoyed singing that song. It’s a song about Dreams. [“Dream On” by Aerosmith]. If there’s a song to go out on, that’s not a bad one.”

“Based on the performance, it wasn’t the right song,” Simon Cowell said. “It wasn’t the right song. You have to learn a lesson. I’m going to miss you. You’re a very good and a very very nice guy.” He gets a big hug from Paula after singing “Dream On” out near the judges.

For the first time this season, I got the bottom three correct: Syesha, Carly and Michael. But I thought the former Buckhead denizen was safe.

“It’s freaking shocked as hell,” said his friend Jason Ergle. “I don’t know what else to say.”

Going first didn’t help Michael but I’m seriously surprised he was cut out after having never been in the bottom three and gaining what I thought some currency Dolly Parton week with a great version of “It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right.”

Well, I’ll be calling his buds tomorrow and getting their reactions.

If you skipped last night’s charity event (and a good number of you did), “Idol” provided a quick four-minute summary tonight, including Fergie upstaging Heart and Kimmel ribbin’ Simon’s nips. Some leftover pleas were thrown in that didn’t make the cut last night. And they repeated the lip-synching bit with celebrities from last year using “I’m a Believer.” Seen this year: Eddie Izzard, Rob Schneider, George Lopez, Zack & Cody, Dr. Phil, Kobe Bryant, Michael Chiklis, Cat Deeley. Also: a rather lengthy Forest Whitaker video from Angola is featured midway through. And the Presidential candidate videos pop up tonight instead. (Nice joke, John McCain!)

Over 31 million votes came in, the most this season.

Up first: Brooke White. She’s safe and will probably miss her sister’s wedding. David Cook is safe, too, despite using up some his goodwill Tuesday. And David Archuleta came up third and shockingly, he’s safe, too. And the girls scream incessantly.

At 8:40 p.m., they get to Jason Castro, who is also safe. So now they’ve got four people and only one is not in the bottom three. Kristy Lee Cook comes in at No. 5 and she’s also safe.

For the first time this season, I got the bottom three correct: Syesha, Carly and Michael.

Amount raised so far: $60 million. Not quite as much as last year - the lower ratings certainly didn’t help. But all the extra pushing tonight should move it ahead of last year’s $76 million.

In the performance from last week of Chris Brown with Jordin Sparks doing “No Air” proved why Jordin won last year. The song is within 8 to 10 days of hitting No. 1 (though “Bleeding Love” by U.K. star Leona Lewis might pass her before she gets the chance). The song has also passed 1 million in downloads. Her CD is now past 630K. And “Tattoo” has surpassed 1.5 million downloads.

There was some controversy that the lines of last night’s finale song was censored to omit the word “Jesus,” using the word “shepherd.” This time around, in a reprise, the word “Jesus” was uttered loud and clear. The song ends with Syesha and Carly, which might be how the end looks in about 40 minutes.

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