American Idol season 7 - top 16 revealed

Tonight AI whittled down the contestants once again, and 3 of the 4 were pretty predictable, while one was a minor surprise (I never saw it coming). Robbie Carrico (plus his wig) and Jason Yeager were summarily dismissed. Alexandrea Lushington was put out of her misery, she just never found her groove, and lost her spark. The surprise was held for the end when it came down to Kady Malloy and Alaina Whitaker. Kady was resigned to be going home, and then Seacrest called out Alaina's name, Kady was given a week's reprieve, but Alaina was destroyed for a few confusing seconds, and wanted desperately to be anywhere but the stage, and protested to singing her song once more. AI is kind of cruel in having dismissed contestants sing the song that got them booted on results night, but it's part of the show, and the contestants know it's coming. After some overly syrupy platitudes of a bright future in music offered by Paula, Seacrest offered Alaina the choice to sing or not, and Alaina stiffled her initial flight response, and gave the audience one more performance, backed by all the rest of the gals still in the show. I don't recall ever seeing such an emotional response to being sent home by any other AI contestant, but Alaina's still young, just 17, and the speedily delivered news from Seacrest just sent her on tilt and provided a somewhat rather true emotional moment of disappointment on AI. That's reality TV for ya.