More than 45 million votes were cast Monday and the voters apparently thought better of Matt Giraud—despite his not all that great rendition of "Stayin' Alive," they threw enough support in his corner to put him in the Top Five.
But when one is saved, two must be sacrificed.
Or so went this season's new rule, which mandated that the American Idol judges could save one otherwise out-of-luck contestant whom they felt deserved another chance. But as Matt's fellow hopefuls rallied around him last week, they knew full well that two heads would roll tonight.
Disco night played host to several truly great performances, leaving little room for error among the quickly dwindling group.
And the love ran out for Lil Rounds, who after several imitative performances in a row was finally given her walking papers. To her credit, she sang the guts out of "I'm Every Woman" after hearing the bad, yet probably unsurprising, news—an encore that elicited a "Why didn't you sing like that last night?!" from Paula Abdul.