No more escapes
for Idol’s ‘Houdini’

Savol may have had delusions of grandeur, but Fedorov has known for weeks that Ryan inevitably plays the role of the elementary school bully who forces him to leave the popular table and go sit with the outcasts in the corner every Wednesday.

And he was right. Ryan left the three most-popular singers — Carrie Underwood, Bo Bice, and Vonzell Solomon —  standing on the stage, and had the bottom two sit down instead.

Of course, despite the lack of any noticeable popular support, Savol had managed to avoid the bottom three last week despite Simon’s telling him to pack his bags. He had to be more confident after a week that featured what Simon called probably his best performance (which caused Ryan to ask Simon on Wednesday, “are you awake during the show?”).

However, Simon was once again less than perfect in predicting Savol’s future. Maybe he figured than if put-downs caused Savol to get enough sympathy votes to stick around, perhaps he could kill him with kindness instead.

Literally, no finalist has come a longer way than Fedorov, who as everyone knows by now was born in Ukraine before emigrating to the United States as a child.  But figuratively speaking, Savol traveled a lot farther than anyone.

That was apparent at the end of the show, during the customary video montage honoring the departing contestant. Savol said on Tuesday’s show that his favorite part of being an Idol contestant was the fashion consultants who helped him with his wardrobe, a comment that lends itself to a hundred and one possible punchlines since Savol is still much closer to “What Not to Wear” than “America’s Next Top Model.”

However, compared to how he looked at the Cleveland auditions Savol has grown by leaps and bounds. He still looked out of his league when compared to some of the more polished performers, and he can’t expect to have record producers beating a path to his door. But the surly Ohio native who told the judges at their first meeting that his father said he’d never amount to anything proved his dad wrong by making it far enough to keep his dreams of a musical career alive.

When Ryan asked Paula to comment on Savol’s performance, she said simply “However [the voters] take it is how they take it. Scott knows who he is.”

During the montage, Savol closed with “I just want to be remembered as the guy who everybody loved.” Clearly, he came far short of the mark on that one – he was the guy everyone couldn’t wait to see leave the party. But as he sang “On Broadway” as his swan song, at least it was possible to imagine that Savol could make it at least in community theater, which is a long way from his future before the show.

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

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