American Idol: Adam Lambert triumphs, Ashthon Jones departs
There's a certain cruelty about the America Idol results show, and none more so than the first.
The contestants are led into a huge house, the kind of which they have only dreamed. Within an hour, one of them has to leave, which seems remarkably inhospitable.
On this night, it was Ashthon Jones, who had taken a Diana Ross song, "When You Tell Me That You Love Me", and, Wednesday night, made it disappear like a magician's assistant.
"I'm in a mansion on Beverley Hills," she said at the beginning of the show, and then she wasn't.
As Heidi Klum is so fond of saying on "Project Runway", one day you're in and the next day, your name is mere ribbons and dust.
Ryan Seacrest tried to string out the drama for as long as he could. Though even he couldn't allow Lauren Alaina to suffer any longer after she had admitted that her performance had "sucked".
Before the final elimination, Adam Lambert showed what originality and self-belief can do for an Idol contestant-- even if, in his case, he didn't actually win his series.
Looking strangely clean-shaven and spectacularly healthy, Lambert delivered an acoustic version of his "Aftermath".
Its power lay in the controlled manner of Lambert's delivery and in his eyes, which, by now, have become more piercing than that of any Bond villain or blockbuster assassin, but in a good way.
Dirty-Diddy Money and Skylar Grey offered a pleasing and ultimately portentous interlude of their hit "Coming Home."
Because then it was left to Haley Reinhart, Karen Rodriguez and Jones to face the executioner.
Jones was given another chance to sing. Strangely, she chose to perform the same Diana Ross song that she failed to master the previous night. (Or, technically, Tuesday, which was when the show was taped.)
She had already admitted this was a poor song choice. What could she hope to change? Only the date of her plane ticket.
She seemed to know that she had done no better. She was not offered the mercy card by the judges and her elimination was a surprise only to those closest to her.
While judges Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson did their best to resemble Easter Island statues, Jennifer Lopez wept like a departing tourist after a blissful honeymoon.
"I was rooting for you, baby," she said. But sometimes rooting is mere tooting.
Perhaps the most disturbing news of the night was the absence of Casey Abrams. Reports suggest that Abrams, by far the most pulsating performer, is suffering from stomach bleeding brought on by stress.
This isn't his first hospitalization of the last couple of weeks and one can only hope that somehow he can return, perform and charm some more.
His departure for health reasons would be cruelty beyond measure.
The best of the first night: James Durbin, Casey Abrams, Jacob Lusk
The bottom three: Naima Adedapo, Scott McCreery, Ashton Jones
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He is also the author of the popular CNET blog, Technically Incorrect.
