Wednesday's Idol: Sayonara to Sanjaya
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Episode 31
Sanjaya Malakar, probably the most controversial singer in American Idol's history, was finally ousted on Wednesday night's elimination episode.The 17-year-old from Washington state probably knew his fate was sealed going into the show's final 20 minutes: By then, Ryan Seacrest had announced his name as one of a bottom three that would have been unthinkable only the night before. The other two were the far, far superior LaKisha Jones and Blake Lewis. Simon Cowell, who never tried to conceal his annoyance at Sanjaya's endurance despite pitchiness and a series of lackluster performances, all but licked his chops as he said, "I'm beginning to sense something here."
When his name was called, Sanjaya cried, but his departure was dignified. His time on the show, as everyone knows, was not.
Outside the audition room that earned him a ticket to Hollywood, his vocals proved unstable, unreliable and, to many, downright unlistenable. But he was telegenic in ways that the judges consistently underestimated; had a sense of style that was misguided and over-the-top but somehow also forgivably puppyish; and was good-natured about being treated by the judges as a kind of monstrosity, a sort of singing teen Elephant Man. Was the anti-American Idol brigade what kept voting him in week after week? No, I think it was the pro-Sanjaya vote.
The show will be less fun without him. Although it will sound better.
For more from last night, see AOL's Idol coverage.
