Colton Dixon Gets the Boot from IDOL

Last night on the American Idol results show, the words "ANOTHER SHOCK" flashed across the screen as the opening credits rolled. Were we really in for another surprise elimination? Well, the producers of Idol obviously thought viewers would be blown away by last night's result. But here at WBKR, our Idol expert Steve Thompson called it. And Colton Dixon, Tennessee's resident spiritual rocker, was sent home. And now, the Idol field is down to six and Steve shares his thoughts about who is currently in the lead for finale.

This morning on The WBKR Waking Crew, Steve and I shared out thoughts about Colton's exit and the remaining contestants. Listen!

From Steve Thompson:

First things first. If you find yourself singing on a talent show, you might not want to pick anything by Earth, Wind & Fire. A quick perusal of the American Idol Database at whatnottosing.com clearly shows that anything by EWF seems to be the kiss of death. As soon as Colton sang the emocentric version of September he was toast.

If you are setting yourself up to be a Christian artist after your run on a talent show has ended, you might not want to alienate your fanbase by singing anything by Lady Gaga. I'm only half serious. I saw several postings online by people who claimed to be Christian who were "disappointed" by Colton's choice of songs. (This is the same kind of mentallity that drives those dipsticks in Westboro.)

So why was Hollie Cavanaugh in the bottom three? Thanks for asking. I actually think people will have to be reconditioned to want to vote for her. She went so early in each round the attention deficit disorder that affects the texters and the speed dialers causes them to vote for the more recent singer. (Very seldom does the singer who is last get voted off.)

So why was Elise Testone in the bottom three? I think she lives there. I wouldn't be surprised if she stays in the bottom three until there's only three singers left. She needs to go back to her Led Zeppelin cover and try to find songs that will not only cause people to vote for her again but blow the roof off the dump as well.

Here's my take on our final six...

06. Jessica Sanchez needs to start connecting with her songs. Jimmy Iovine is correct (which is not unusual, this is how he makes his living) to say she's been singing songs that are too old for her. Maybe if she can find a song to connect with, her detractors won't be so vocal.

05. Elise Testone needs to start singing songs that fit her style of music. I think she would be better served by changing the songs to fit into her style rather than trying to change her style to fit her music. Hey, I'm not a professional singer by any stretch of the imagination but I know that not every song you sing is a good fit for your voice. That's true in karaoke as well as singing special music in church.

04. Phil Phillips needs to stay as far away from Dave Matthews 2.0 as possible. His best songs this year have been the ones where you don't hear a DMB riff or vocal tic. But he does need to walk a thin line. Colton proved just how far you can fal when you have a bad night. (Remember: just last week I placed Colton at the top of the list because of his great cover of Love the Way You Lie.)

03. Joshua Ledet is the frontrunner acording to the various polls (TVLine.com; EW.com; Mj'sBigBlog.com; USA Today's Idol Chatter...) He can't afford to be complacent. He's not runing away with the prize just yet. I'm still not convinced he can win, but he's definitely in the final four at this stage. It will all depend on song choices. I'd be interested in seeing some categories that might challenge him, but I think this current regime is trying to avoid those kind of pitfalls for their favorites.

02. Hollie Cavanaugh is back on track. This week was her best overall week since very early in the Holywood rounds. If she can keep up her consistency she could potentially be the dark horse in the race. (I realize she was an early favorite, but continuing the analogy, she hasn't won that many races lately.)

01. Skylar Laine is in the driver's seat. She seems to be able to sing anything and make it sound like it's her style of music. I didn't think we'd have another country artist so soon after last year's tandem of Scotty and Lauren, but here she is. She's getting the country fans and the Bible Belt voters (the biggest groups that actually take the time to vote) so she would have to completely jump the track to be in trouble again. (I was worried about her this week, but she is solidly in the top three every week in the voting.)