Oh No! American Idol gets it wrong...again!

Well, Melinda Doolittle was eliminated from American Idol tonight in favor of perky Jordin Sparks and the Howard Jones of beatboxing Blake Lewis. Doolittle had been the front runner throughout the season as she delivered one impressive performance after another. Doolittle had excellent vocal control, tasteful (some might say too tasteful) song selections and a craftsman approach to her performances (she understood the songs she sang, portrayed the emotion she needed to project and had a nuanced style to her singing). Plus, she was genuinely nice to others and took criticism well. So what went wrong?

What went wrong was, through no fault of her own, she was too perfect. Doolittle never had a bad performance, never trashed others or had any scandal. This made her very easy to admire but impossible for America to love. America likes comeback stories they can identify with and if you never fail you have nothing to comeback from. The remaining Idols performances veered from pathetic to mindblowing while their open personalities won fans. In Rocky IV terms, they were Rocky to Doolittle's Drago.

So Melinda Doolittle goes the way of Latoya London,a great singer who loses because of too much talent and not enough personality. Even when her elimination was announced, Melinda Doolittle was gracious and then delivered another impeccable performance. As great as her performance is, a few months from now people will forget about her. It's sad to say, but if Melinda had thrown a petty fit and then cried her way through the last song she would have become a star. And if she had done it a few weeks ago, she would have been the next American Idol!

A last note, I hope this ends the "this is a singing competition" claim American Idol makes every year because it is so clearly not. I'll watch the finale, but let's face it-this contest is already over.