Lisa goes home on a surprising ‘Idol’ night

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Simon says
Sometimes the best part of “American Idol” is the latest sly comment from acerbic judge Simon Cowell. Here are some of our favorites from this season.

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No McPhee-ver?
Instead it was Katharine McPhee who, seemingly out of nowhere, finished with the second-fewest number of votes. The 21-year-old wasn't nearly close to being as good as Christina Aguilera — as Simon suggested she was on Tuesday — but she was certainly strong enough not to be stressed out. Still, they sat her in the back row with the also-rans, which meant she had a good view of Mandisa, Daughtry, Picker, Bennett and Taylor Hicks being given their safe-conduct passes with no drama at all.

When Elliott Yamin got the good news as well, that left four finalists left for the three bottom slots. Tucker was next, and her fate was no surprise. Ace Young followed, and was also in the bottom three. That left McPhee and Covington, and most viewers probably thought that this was just another case of the producers making McPhee sweat before giving her good news.

Not this time. And she didn't even get to sit back down right away, as Young was sent back to safety first. She gave a nice answer when Seacrest asked her how she was feeling, talking about God's plan for her. Her facial expression made it clear, however, that she was very skeptical that that plan called for her to be getting the boot so soon, especially as her roommate Pickler sang a lot worse and skated through anyway.

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Finally, she got her reprieve. Some have survived such a scare and gone on to win the competition. Most tend to find themselves living dangerously every week thereafter and bowing out sooner than later. She and Young will need to be very strong next week, since with the country theme right off Covington's wish list, it's anybody's guess as to who the most vulnerable contestants are.

Craig Berman is a writer in Washington, D.C.

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