"Idol" tried to pull a fast one on the many Scotty McCreery fans tonight. Throughout the finals, host Ryan Seacrest has always named the bottom three finalists on results night. He then sends one of them to safety, leaving the bottom two -- one of whom goes home.
But if you tuned in late tonight, you saw Scotty and Casey Abrams in what appeared to be the bottom two. Oh no! McCreery Nation could barely breathe. Was our man Scotty really in trouble? Probably not. Did you catch that little disclaimer that Seacrest threw in? Tonight's results were in random order. So for all we know, Scotty could have been the highest vote-getter this week.
Either way, he was safe. It was Casey -- the goofy, jazzy, growling oddball who could easily be a Zach Galifianakis double -- who was sent packing. Already saved by the judges once this season, Casey, below right, finally saw his luck run out.
As all his "Blue Crew" schoolmates gathered at Garner High School to show support, Scotty advanced tonight to the Final Five of this season. In the 10 seasons of the popular Fox show, only three other North Carolinians have made it this far — Fantasia Barrino, who won Season 3; Clay Aiken, who finished second in Season 2; and Chris Daughtry, who came in fourth in Season 5.
For Carole King week, Scotty sang two King songs that had been covered by his Tar Heel homeboy, James Taylor. Scotty's solo of “You’ve Got a Friend” won raves, but his duet on “Up on the Roof” with fellow contestant Lauren Alaina was just so-so.
On tonight’s results show, all six finalists performed a tepid King medley. (Which again raised the question of why exactly "Idol" went with a theme that seemed so old-fashioned. If this were 1971, then, yes, Carole King would be extremely relevant. But it's, uh, 2011, "Idol" producers.) In the medley, Scotty got a solo on “Go Away, Little Girl,” surrounded by teenage (not-so-little) girls.
We got a taped piece on how the finalists went to a pre-royal wedding party at the British consulate. Scotty liked the fish and chips and showed off a fairly good British accent.
He also was asked about previous jobs and mentioned working at Lowes Foods (he can still remember the code for Granny Smith apples) and helping out at his mom's tanning salon. Anyone know why Seacrest has suddenly taken to referring to Scotty as "Scotty the Body"? He seemed a bit embarrassed by that moniker.
Crystal Bowersox, who finished second last season, came out to sing "Riding With the Radio" and make us wonder again how she lost to that guy What's His Face. (Oh, yeah, Lee Dewyze.) And Bruno Mars sang the great "The Lazy Song," complete with a lazy dog on the stage.
Now that Casey's gone, we're down to Scotty, Lauren, James Durbin, Jacob Lusk and Haley Reinhart. (Seriously, how is Jacob still in this thing? He should have been eliminated for last night's oufit, left, if nothing else.)
If I was betting, I'd pick Jacob, Haley and maybe even Lauren to leave ahead of Scotty.
The Final Five will next perform on Wednesday night’s live show. The contestant receiving the fewest viewer votes will be eliminated next Thursday night. Seacrest, you're on notice. None of your "random order" trickery next week!
Thad Ogburn is The N&O's Metro Editor, overseeing most local news reporting. His previous jobs have included editor of North Raleigh News and Features Editor, during which he learned that comics attract more reader response than just about anything else we do. His guilty pleasure is reality TV, which he finds not very real at all. That's assuming, of course, there is room on his DVR amid his daughter's "iCarly" episodes and his wife's daily installments of "One Life To Live."
