American Idol Crowns Two New Sanjayas -- Jason Castro and Brooke White

You know American Idol is headed into new territory when the singers who gave the two best performances of the week land in the bottom of the voting.

It's not that I didn't expect Carly Smithson to eventually get bounced from the competition -- she suffered from Phil Stacey syndrome, where she never really figured out what kind of artist she wanted to be until it was too late. Still, her version of Jesus Christ Superstar was easily one of the best performances of Tuesday night -- highlighted as such by none other than the snippy Brit, Simon Cowell himself. She hardly deserved to leave the show tonight.

Instead, Cowell was left to make lame excuses for why viewers voted for Jason Castro, whose take on Memory he said reminded him of a child forced to sing at a wedding, and Brooke White, who screwed up her song onstage for the second time. (Ialso love how he made Carly's ejection about himself, noting that he complimented her on the week se was ejected).

Syesha Mercado gets my Hillary Clinton award for making more comebacks than any singer this season, landing in the bottom two or three multiple times, only to evade ejection in the last moments.

These results are a bit unfortunate, because American Idol is so clearly not a singing competition anymore. And unlike last year, when Sanjaya Malakar was squeaking ahead of singers only marginally better than he was, White and Castro are besting some people who could have gone the distance, particularly if voters were choosing contestants who could actually sing.

It will be interesting to see if this dynamic busts up the two Davids, Archuleta and Cook, now still heavily favored to land in the top two. Because, if Idol voters aren't really picking the best singers, then what do the contestants do to stay in the game?

Decide for yourself -- compare Carly's performance and Jason's below

Comments

[tina]

Difference is Jason had three showstoppers, Daydream, Hallelujah and Over the Rainbow. Brooke had one decent performance Let It Be

[Eric Deggans]

Perhasp. But those showstoppers were a while ago. His last couple of tunes have been decidedly not showstoppers -- at least, not in a good way.

[Meredith]

Unfortunately, it seems to come down to the ability to cultivate a fanbase rather than actual talent and performance. This article from the Dallas Morning News explains one reason the top two performers of Tuesday night were on the chopping block Wednesday - http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/042208dnguicastro.3b4a62c.html

[Eric Deggans]

True enough -- though Idol fans have always gathered in singers' hometowns to do the mass calling thing. But when you've got vote totals at 30-million and above, its hard for any one group of peopel to vote enough to swing the results....at least, that's what Idol producers say...

[DJ]

Every week, someone else is the "new" Sanjaya. Can't you writers come up with any original ideas other than the same old bashing on Sanjaya? Giving Syesha the Hillary Clinton award was much more original, so kudos for that.

[Eric Deggans]

Dude, if the faux-hawk fits...you gotta shake it.

Other writers may have deployed the Sanjaya smart bomb before now, but this was the first time I officially handed the crowd to anyone on Idol.

And i stand by my designation...

[Neil]

I really disliked Jason Castro early on, but he has started to grow on me. He has this laid back attitude I really enjoy. I didn't think his performance was that bad. I definitely don't think he did as well Carly. Carly can out sing almost anyone in this competition but she really didn't have much of a fan base.