After more than 29 million votes were cast Tuesday night, David Hernandez became the first top 12 contestant to leave American Idol.
“Things happen for a reason,” Hernandez told Ryan Seacrest on Wednesday’s live broadcast. “We all have a plan, and on top of that, you know, you’ll see me at the top … this isn’t it for me.”
The final results were announced at the end of the hour-long show, with Seyesha Mercado and Kristy Lee Cook also in the bottom three after Tuesday’s Beatlemania.
“I’ve never seen a stronger bottom three. That’s the truth,” judge Paula Abdul said. “[But] did America get it right? Yes, they did.”
Simon Cowell agreed: “America got this absolutely spot on,” he said, unsurprised.
On Tuesday, after Hernandez sang “I Saw Her Standing There,” Randy Jackson called the performance “overdone” and Cowell said it was “verging on desperate.”
Hernandez had better moments on the show, but facing reports that he was once a dancer at Dick’s Cabaret, a male strip club in Phoenix, Ariz., wasn’t one of them.
Despite the reports, Hernandez was allowed to stay on the show.
“We’re never judgmental about what people do to earn a living,” Idol executive producer Ken Warwick said at the time. “If there’s a stretch of the public that thinks, ‘Oh, dear, he was a male stripper, I’m not gonna vote for him,’ then that’s the luck of the draw.”
Tell us: Did America make the right decision?
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