‘American Idol’ elimination shocker: Jessica Sanchez gets the scare of a lifetime

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Save, and a beauty!

For the first time this season, “American Idol” showcased some serious drama as teenage powerhouse and season frontrunner Jessica Sanchez was revealed as this week’s low vote-getter after a superb performance Wednesday night.

The drama was short-lived however, as Jessica was no more than a few bars into her “sing for your life” song before Jennifer Lopez, Randy Jackson and Steven Tyler hopped on stage, yanked the microphone from her hand mid-word and informed her of what fans across the country must have assumed — they were saving her.

It has become standard “Idol” procedure of late that the judges are given an ace in the hole each season, one save they can use to keep a worthy contestant in the competition despite their receiving the lowest number of America’s votes.

After blowing the judges away week after week and launching herself to what appeared to be the near-top of the “Idol” heap, Jessica was an obvious choice for the save.

Following the judges announcement, a visibly shaken Jessica returned to her smiling “Idol” cohort, likely unable to fully process what had just occurred. Perhaps in her dressing room she will realize how close she came to being the centerpiece of arguably the largest upset in “Idol” history.

Also in the bottom three were Joshua Ledet — also a surprise — as well as Kinnelon native Elise Testone, who gave a mediocre performance Wednesday night.
The judges were outraged by the bottom three and urged, as Randy put it, to “vote for the best” every single week.

Notes:
• With the save out of equation, next week should be full of suspense as well since whoever gets the ax from voter nation goes home no questions asked.

• After being sandbagged by judges for the last few weeks, Hollie Cavanagh climbed out of the bottom three abyss, something I didn’t think she would be able to do. Good for her.

• The girls apparently still love Phillip Phillips, despite his recent stagnation.

But this is just my rambling. What did you think? Comment below.

Note: This post was written by Bobby Oliver/The Star Ledger Read the full story here: ‘American Idol’ elimination shocker: Jessica Sanchez gets the scare of a lifetime.