Farewell, Elliott

No one could really be that surprised that Elliott was voted out tonight--he didn't have a great night Tuesday and was considered the underdog even before the performances. What was surprising was how close the vote was. Although it doesn't seem quite as close when you translate the percentages into raw votes (the .2 percent margin between Elliott and the second place finisher when applied to a total of 50 million votes is 100,000 votes), the fact that Katharine and Taylor are separated by less than a percentage point means, despite Taylor being coronated the strong favorite, this competition isn't wrapped up yet (then again, they were separated by 400,000 votes, which does seem like a lot to make up, so maybe I'm being too dramatic.) And of course, because Idol has, as far as I can remember, never told us the percentage breakdown among the top three before, maybe every year has been this close, so I shouldn't get too excited. (It's kind of amazing--the more information American Idol provides, the more questions it raises.)

Considering that the show was an hour tonight, it was relatively painless--except for the ridiculous promo for X-Men 3 with Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romaijn giving the singers a copy of the movie to watch on their trips home. Will this promotional blitz ever end? Will next week's finale feature Halle Berry singing or something? I wish one of the Idols had said, "I'm not sure I'll really appreciate this--I missed the first two." And that Clive Davis commercial for the records of American Idol winners or whatever was just odd and uncomfortable and seemed like it took three hours. And maybe just a little too self-congratulatory--so Clive Davis was being thanked by American Idol for producing the records of the Idols, and he was thanking American Idol for creating these new recording artists and sort of thanking Americans for buying the records and... my head hurts.

But the rest of the show wasn't bad. We got to see the three singers perform not songs we heard them do last night, but songs they did (and did well) three months ago, which was different. And we got to see those trips back home, which was a great note on which Elliott could go out. The head-shaking, in true Jewish mother fashion, of Elliott's mother when she realized how big the crowd lining the streets was for Elliott was priceless. And all the home visits (OK, Katharine's was kind of lame, but Taylor and Elliott's) illustrate one of the things that, throughout all the controversies and frustrations of this show, make American Idol special. It's kind of moving to watch thousands of people line the streets of Richmond for Elliott, or see all those people pack into a mall in Alabama to see Taylor, considering that four months ago, hardly any of those people knew who Taylor and Elliott were. And yet this week, Taylor, Elliott and Katharine are three of the most famous people in the United States. There's something about watching this show, knowing that everyone else in the country is watching it and becoming obsessed with it, discussing it on Wednesday and Thursday morning at work, etc. that is just exciting and special. I think I could probably express that idea better, but I can't quite come up with the correct words right now--the hardships of trying to blog.

To illustrate my point, a quick story from when I talked to Elliott's cousin a couple weeks ago. He happens to be friends with Steven Spielberg's sister, who lives in the Washington area. So when he was in L.A., he went into her mother's restaurant and introduced himself and told him why he was out in Los Angeles. And he said she responded, "Wow, you're Elliott Yamin's cousin!" Yes, Steven Spielberg's mother was really excited to meet Elliott Yamin's cousin.