AMERICAN IDOL

AMERICAN IDOL 

Ace Young becomes the sixth ‘American Idol 5’ finalist eliminated

American Idol voted out the sixth of its fifth season finalists during last weeks live results show, with Ace Young, a 25-year-old from Los Angeles, CA, being eliminated from the Fox reality talent competition as a result of receiving the fewest home viewer votes.

Ace had entertained the show’s audience by singing "That’s All" during the Tuesday night performance show that featured the finalists singing songs from Rod Stewart’s Great American Songbook series. While the night had featured an unprecedented amount of positive feedback from Idol’s judges, Ace — a one-time oddsmakers’ favorite who had been speculated to be on the elimination bubble in recent weeks — had been one of the few contestants to hear less than completely flattering comments. "It wasn’t bad, it was a little bit nasally in the middle of the song, but it was… a charming performance," judge Simon Cowell had remarked on Tuesday.

In addition to being a member of last week’s bottom three vote-getters, Ace had also been a member of Week 2 and Week 3’s bottom threesome.

Joining Ace in the week’s bottom three vote-getters were Paris Bennett and Chris Daughtry. While Paris had been a previous member of the show’s prior bottom threesomes, the inclusion of Chris — considered to be one of the competition’s strongest singers — was unexpected.

Chris, a 26-year-old from McLeansville, NC, had performed "What A Wonderful World" during Tuesday night’s show. After weeks of prodding from Simon, the song had marked Chris’ first departure from the rock format with which he had admitted being most comfortable — and Simon hadn’t hesitated to take credit for Chris’ strong performance of the song on Tuesday. However, after Wednesday’s broadcast revealed that the performance had landed Chris in the week’s bottom three, Simon quickly changed his tune. "I wasn’t the one who was singing," Simon replied curtly when Idol host Ryan Seacrest asked the Idol judge about the turn of events.

Paris, a 17-year-old from Fayetteville, GA, had sung "These Foolish Things." All three judges had largely praised the performance. "This was a classy, great performance," Idol judge Randy Jackson had remarked, deeming it her greatest performance ever. "I thought it was terrific," normally sharp-tongued Simon had added.

After revealing the bottom three vote-getters, Ryan disclosed that Paris had finished as the week’s third lowest vote-getter, leaving Ace and Chris to face elimination alone.

Ace took his elimination well. "I’ve had a blast and I can’t wait to perform [on Idol’s summer concert tour] with all the Top 10 and see all my fans that have seen me through the TV," he told Ryan after his fate was revealed.

This week will see another of Idol’s finalists eliminated, with the six remaining contestants once again taking to the stage during Tuesday’s 8PM ET/PT performance show and later learning their fate during Wednesday’s 9:00-9:30PM ET/PT live results show.

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