S10E27: I’m sorry, but I think America might be crazy. Last night’s Idol saw the first guy sent home, but it was the wrong dude. Once again we found Haley Reinhart, Stefano Langone and Paul McDonald in the bottom three and while I was positive it would be Langone saying goodbye, Ryan Seacrest delivered the awful news: Paul was getting the axe. I get it. I understand why he didn’t get the votes, but I still think it’s wrong. It really rightfully should have been Stefano, James or even Jacob that got the boot.
Now, I’m prepared to back up a statement like that. We’ve already discussed time and again that Stefano needs to go, James has run his course, and honestly I think Jacob would fare better trying to make it outside of Idol. This may also be true for Paul, but it was so refreshing to see someone like him make it this far on a show like Idol. I’ve shied away from watching so many times because I thought the voices were all so vanilla, but this year we actually have a spread of folks who are interesting and different. Paul carried a great deal of that. I’m sure that I’m in the minority here. I know most folks weren’t surprised — this certainly isn’t a Pia situation — and I wasn’t exactly surprised. I was disappointed. My problem with this show over the years is that we tend to end up with winners that are the most middle of the road. It’s incredibly difficult to be someone unique like Paul and win. And I know that. I know he was never going to win. I just hoped he’d stay a little longer.
Maybe someone will pick him up after Idol, but we’ve seen this before and unfortunately being successful after Idol is just about as easy as being successful before Idol. It’s a total crapshoot. In the meantime, we can take one more look at Paul’s last performance, where he kept his charm going, smiling the whole way through and making it that much harder to see him go.
