Chikezie First to Go in Top-10 Countdown

Chikezie Eze got booted from "American Idol" last night, taking with him 50 percent of this year's Idolette Top-10 personality pool.

Chikezie's exit was the result of 30 million viewer votes, show host Ryan Seacrest, the King of All Media, told viewers at home. That's the most votes cast in a week this season to date. Ironic, given that Tuesday's show clocked the smallest audience of a performance show so far this season.

Chikezie got done in by the "Idol" vocal coach.

Before his Tuesday performance, he told Seacrest that the first time he sang a ballad he was torn apart by the judges. But the voice coach talked to Chikezie last week and explained he had to follow his heart, which is almost always nonsense.

So instead of listening to the "Idol" judges, Chikezie listened to the voice coach and went with a ballad that "resonated deeply within me." To wit, "If Only for One Night."

That worked out well.

Last night's results show didn't go so well for the judges either. The bottom three vote-getters this week also included Syesha Mercado. And Jason Castro, who, after acknowledging he'd not rehearsed his song much and not performed very well, modestly assured the show's 25 million-ish viewers that his being in the bottom three was intended to be "a shocker."

Grievously, Jason was quickly sent to the Sofa of Safety, leaving Chikezie and Syesha.

Judges Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul also seemed perplexed -- Paula more than normal, we should clarify -- about Syesha's presence in the Bottom 2, because they'd both raved about her performance the night before.

Randy, in fact, called her performance of "If I Were Your Woman" "stellar," "unbelievable" and "blazing hot," while Paula went with "perfect."

Simon Cowell, on the other hand, insisted he'd known all along Syesha was destined for Bottom-2-dom this week.

But, reviewing our notes from performance night, he'd said her performance was "definitely the best" at that point in the show -- and those who'd sung before her included Jason and Ramiele Malubay. You have to keep an eye on that Simon, though he is the only judge worth listening to.