American Idol Down to Single Digits

Thu., Mar. 26, 2009 6:05 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

Ray Mickshaw / FOX

More than 36 million votes were cast—an American Idol Top 10 record—and when all was said and sang, another hopeful was sent home.

The identity of two of the three of the finalists who found themselves waiting it out did not come as a surprise. But like last week, when spunky little Allison Iraheta inexplicably landed in the bottom three, the third behind sitting in those bum-cupping white stools belonged to somone more deserving of a ticket into the Top 9 than anything else.

So did the judges finally have to exercise their one-time-only veto power to compensate for America's wonky voting ways?

Nah.

It was a rough night for the roughneck as Michael Sarver's Idol journey came to an end following a subpar tribute to Motown last night.

Unsurprisingly, redoing "Ain't Too Proud to Beg"—as fitting as the subject matter was—didn't help his cause any, and Idol's resident quarrelsome quartet politely dismissed him—but not without making him squirm a bit.

Michael Becker / FOX

"We haven't decided," Simon Cowell said, laughing, when Ryan Seacrest pressured him for an answer right away.

But the answer ultimately was no. However, the 27-year-old married dad will be back for the Idols Live tour and we'll probably catch him wearing all white and singing a medley or something on the season finale.

Maybe it was because he sang first last night, but Matt Giraud, who left the stage in need of a squeegee after his steamy rendition of "Let's Get It On," was voted into the bottom three, taking the place of a more deserving Megan Joy, whose butchering of "For Once in My Life" made for a most unpleasant listening experience Wednesday but who was improbably in the clear tonight.

Golden boy Scott MacIntyre spent a few minutes knowing what being in the bottom three feels like before being spirited off to safety ahead of Stevie Wonder's performance, which filled the time before Seacrest lowered the guillotine on Michael's Idol run.

If Matt had gone, it would have been quite a shock—at least to the betting types out there. The odds of the dueling piano player from Kalamazoo, Mich., being dismissed were 15 to 1, as opposed to Michael, who was practically already out the door at 6 to 5 (courtesy of America's Line oddsmaker Benjamin Eckstein).

Meanwhile, of the nine photos in Tyra Banks' hands, the first name to be called out belonged to...wait, wrong show.

But the equivalent of that honor went to Adam Lambert, who was the first to be called safe after showing "The Tracks of My Tears" who was boss last night.

Joining him were Kris Allen, Lil Rounds, Allison Iraheta, Anoop Desai, Danny Gokey and, finally, Megan.