On Tuesday night, instead of bumping off Lil Rounds (who certainly deserved it and would’ve been spared no sympathy from the judges), a cruel nation carelessly voted to send home Matt Giraud, ruining the next few episodes of American Idol for everybody (but especially us). On last night’s results show, Ryan Seacrest had nearly sent Matt back to work in a piano bar, when the judges announced they were using the season’s one and only save to bring him back for another week.
Of course the judges were going to save Matt. With Lil Rounds’s interminable performance of “The Rose†on Tuesday, followed by her obnoxious blowup at Simon afterward, there was really no honest argument to be made for why anyone else should go home (not even Kris Allen, who turned in an experimental version of “Falling Slowly†sung using only wrong notes). Anyone who voted for Lil Rounds this week surely knew what was going to happen. And, as you’ll recall, the only reason Matt made it to the finals in the first place was because the judges brought him back on the wild-card round after America voted him off for singing a Coldplay song — so there was totally precedent for this.
So now the judges’ save, the only thing making this season interesting, is gone forever. And not only will we never again know the sweet, hilarious thrill of seeing a poor contestant humiliated twice, next week’s results episode will crown two losers, meaning Lil’s and Matt’s (or Anoop’s, maybe) likely eliminations — in which they’ll only be given devastating news one measly time — will have to share a spotlight and probably only feel a quarter as satisfying as they should’ve. Thanks a lot, America!