No more picking Pickler

A record breaking 47.5 million votes were cast last night for the six remaining “American Idol” contestants. That is the highest number of votes ever cast on a non-finale night. Judge Simon Cowell apologized to Katharine McPhee for his harsh critique of her on last night’s show, and was treated to a dazzling, white smile from Katharine.

After a performance from Andrea Bocelli, it was time to get to the difficult portion of the evening: the results. Host Ryan Seacrest split the contestants into three groups of two and told viewers that these groups signified the two with the most number of votes, the two with the least number of votes and the two in the middle. Chris Daughtry and Katharine McPhee comprised group one, Elliott Yamin and Taylor Hicks comprised group two and that left Kellie Pickler and Paris Bennett in the final group.

He then released Taylor and Elliott to be seated; they were safe. One of the two remaining groups had the most number of votes and the other had the least, but which was which?

Katharine and Chris were pleased to hear that they had received the most number of votes and that they too were safe. For Kellie and Paris, it was sad news. One would be going home. Ryan didn’t make the girls wait much longer as he told Kellie that her journey on “American Idol” would end tonight.

What followed was the traditional video recap of Kellie’s experience on Idol set to an acoustic version of the now popular song “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter. It was time for Kellie to go. She had a nice ride, but in the end she was the right choice. Good job America, good job.