Despite looks, JPL's no 'Idol'

Turns out that being cute wasn't enough to keep Jon Peter Lewis on "American Idol." The BYU-Idaho student got booted last week when he received the fewest number of phone-in votes from viewers.

Not to be rude or anything, but, given his recent performances, Lewis' ouster was justified. He made it a long way on relatively little talent.

But being cute sure didn't hurt.

That's not just my opinion. It's the opinion expressed repeatedly by Simon Cowell, who has clearly demonstrated that he's the most honest of the "Idol" judges. Abrupt — even rude, perhaps — but honest.

Remember, even Cowell admitted that the winning contestant isn't necessarily the most talented. "This is not a perfect science, because, if we were choosing the winners, the public wouldn't like the show," he told TV critics back when this season of the show premiered. "And if you let the public make the choice, weird things happen. There's nothing you can do about it."

Weird things can and do happen. Just look at Carmen Rasmusen, the Woods Cross teen who was a finalist on "American Idol" last season.

The fact that judge Randy Jackson was so incredibly cruel to her with his assessments almost every week may have helped keep her on the show until the final six of Season 2. It seems there was a certain group of voters — linked by the Internet — who campaigned (and voted) to keep her on the show just so they could see if Jackson would make her cry.

Cruel? Of course. But, hey, whatever works.

Ask any of the remaining "Idol" contestants if they'd take a few million votes from people who want to see them cry on TV and is there any doubt they'd say yes? Of course not.

Every contestant gets a lot of votes from his/her hometown fans. Votes that come regardless of how well that contestant performed.

And there are a lot of other agendas out there among voters that we are doubtless unaware of. (Like that Carmen thing.)

It says something about the current "American Idol" that the most familiar personality to come out of it so far is William Hung — the horrifically untalented "singer" whose utter lack of vocal ability has made him a star. And reduced "American Idol" to the level of bad karaoke.

Yes, the race to be the first "Idol" contestant to release a CD is already over. The 21-year-old Cal-Berkeley engineering student sings (and I use that term loosely) the song that made him famous (or is that infamous?) — "She Bangs" — as well as his own special stylings of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," "Circle of Life," "Hotel California," "I Believe I Can Fly," "Rocket Man" and "YMCA" on the Koch International release titled "Inspiration."

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