American Idol: And Then There Were Seven

Goodbye, DeAndre. Last night, on the American Idol results show, DeAndre Brackensick was shown the door, despite Jennifer Lopez's campaign to save him. See, the judges have that one-time save to use anytime before Idol narrows its field to five. And Jennifer has been a long-time and rather vocal supporter for DeAndre. And, after he sang for his life last night, Jennifer voted to keep him, but Randy and Steven disagreed. With that said, the Idol field is down to seven. Our Idol expert Steve Thompson handicaps the remaining field and tells us what to expect next!

From Steve Thompson:

Petulant children who don't get their way often sit with their arms folded across their chests and their lips drooping like a bloodhound. This was a good picture of JLo tonight. Frankly, all three judges seemed to be in denial (and since they're all wet, The Nile works here as well.) How dare Jimmy Iovine speak against the mane event? Well, speak he shall! The man said a few weeks ago he couldn't see putting Interscope's money on DeAndre and evidently most of America agreed.

Then, JLo admits she voted to save DeAndre while Steven and Randy voted against. Voting to save DeAndre when the Chairman of Interscope Records has already said that would be a waste of money seems a bit diminished capacity in my opinion. As a result of this psychotic break with reality, I hereby give a vote of confidence to Steven and Randy.

As of this writing, there has been no word about what the theme will be next week. (Last year at this time it was Songs of the 21st Century. I'm hoping never to hear that theme ever again.) Here's another overview of our remaining contestants.

07. Phil Phillips: It's not the time to get cocky, kid. A lot of people in the chatrooms were ticked off at his attitude tonight. Hey, Phil... These people might decide to vote for you.

06. Hollie Cavanaugh: In dire need of a big comeback next week. I liked that she tried to go uptempo. Now she needs the right song to galvanize the fan base to vote for her again.

05. Joshua Ledet: Seriously. I double dog dare you to try to sing without having a choir on stage. I know there are many of you out there (you know who you are) who delight in this style of music. Speaking for the minority, I'd really like to hear something I could actually vote for this year.

04. Elise Testone: After a huge misstep, its time to get your eyes back on the prize. Jimmy says she was great everywhere except when that tell-tale light came on the camera. Please get your heart back in the game! I want someone to actually root for in this bunch.

03. Jessica Sanchez: Currently winning for the hearts and minds of the voters against the other pageant contestants, Jessica needs to continue onward and upward. The votes are so close in some cases the difference between sixth and fifth place was non-existent according to dialidol.com

02. Colton Dixon: Right now he's the top guy in the competition, but one false move and he could be back at the bottom of the pack. He just needs to continue to make smart song choices.

01. Skylar Laine: After knocking an 80s country ballad out of the park, I think Skylar may have enough audience goodwill to stay near the top a few weeks. It all comes down to the theme, but she's done rather well so far.