The sky falls for ‘Idol's’ Chicken Little

Ryan Seacrest began this week's "American Idol" results show by saying that 35 million people voted this week. Apparently, the people who read Web sites asking people to "vote for the worst" contestant weren't among them.

Kevin Covais, the popular choice of at least one campaign to help an undeserving singer win, became the second finalist eliminated when he got the boot Wednesday night. The result was only surprising because Covais wasn't among the three lowest vote-getters last week, and because he seemed a strong candidate to fill the role of this year's contestant who stays around a lot longer than they should because they just seem so darned likeable (hey, it worked for John Stevens a couple of seasons ago).

Among the contestants themselves, Covais looked like he was one of the more popular figures, probably in part because of the massive age distance between him and the rest of the men. Covais is 16; the next youngest of the six male finalists is Ace Young at 25.

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That made him the obligatory younger brother — old enough to want to tag along with the big kids, but too young to steal any of their girlfriends. A nice guy, but no threat at all. And from day one, that's the persona that he played with the audience.

Simon Cowell said from the beginning that his fan base was 80-year-old women and 11-year-old girls, and he would have to depend on doting grandparents and schoolgirl crushes to keep him in the competition. Seacrest compared Covais to Chicken Little and jokingly said he was becoming a sex symbol.  

Of course Covais played along, because hey, whatever works. It got him out of the auditions and past the Hollywood round. Five teenage men were among the 24 to make the semifinals; Covais was the only one to reach the final 12. He figured out from early in the competition that for him, being the dork with the nice voice was the way to go to survive a voting public that wasn't showing the teenage males a lot of love.  

Besides, how many 16-year-olds are going to pass on being declared a sex symbol, particularly when they're surrounded by women whom any teen would be proud to take to their senior prom?

The problem was that this really wasn't a good year to be the teenage boy crooning songs everyone can hear in high-school talent shows around the country. Covais already looked a lot younger than his age. The distance seemed to grow throughout the semifinals and carried over into the final round.

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