"Idol" Says So Long to Little Lisa

Because of you, America, 16-year-old Lisa Tucker was voted off of American Idol Wednesday night.

After underwhelming the 31.5 million-strong audience that tuned into Tuesday's performance show with a cover of the Kelly Clarkson hit "Because of You," the Anaheim, California, native became the latest Idol hopeful to take a final bow. Tucker may have had impressive pipes for one so young, but apparently they just weren't big enough.

"The truth is, Lisa, is that the song was too big for your voice," Simon Cowell, Idol's resident truth-teller, told Tucker. "There were parts during the performance where it was actually painful."

Ouch.

Although Randy Jackson said that it was an interesting way to start off the night, his final verdict was, "It was an okay version, just alright for me, man."

Paula Abdul had little cause for disagreement, but of course she framed her critique with a silver lining. "There's no doubt you can sing your butt off," she said, adding, "But you've gotta take a twist on the song and make it completely different so that there's no comparison whatsoever."

Tucker had been one of the bottom-three vote-getters for the past two weeks, as well, but this time host Ryan Seacrest couldn't tell her she was safe. Instead, she told Seacrest that she was "happy with the decision."

Joining Tucker at the bottom this week was Ace Young, who is proving that while a pair of pretty eyes can't keep you from getting a low number of votes, they can keep you from being voted off, even after you've sung a dreadful version of Train's "Drops of Jupiter." Even Abdul didn't have anything nice to say about his off-pitch performance.

And in a surprise twist (well, a surprise to us, at least), some viewers seem to have been cured of their McPheever as top contender Katharine McPhee found herself in the bottom three for the first time. Although Cowell called the 21-year-old's rendition of Christina Aguilera's "The Voice Within" the best performance of the night Tuesday and said she was "almost as good as Christina," he revised his opinion Wednesday.

After rewatching the show, Cowell said McPhee's performance wasn't as good as he had thought. When Seacrest asked the judges if they were surprised, Cowell said, "Any of this lot could have been in the bottom threeÂ? I have absolutely no problem with this bottom three at all."

Nevertheless, even Bucky Covington looked dumbfounded when McPhee's name was called. Covington was probably expecting to hear his own name after Cowell called his performance of Tim McGraw's "Real Good Man" "very unimpressive."

On a night devoted to 21st-century songs that saw most of the contestants striking the same sour note, no one was safe from scathing feedback. Even one of Cowell's favorites, alt-rocker Chris Daughtry, got a few sharp words after singing Creed's "What If."

"For the first time, I'm going to be negative with you," Cowell said, calling Daughtry's performance "indulgent." (This will be the second time," Daughtry reminded him.) "Creed wouldn't be caught dead on this show," Cowell continued. "You can't keep doing the same thing week after week."

This coming after the razor-tongued Brit praised Daughtry last week for being the only contestant to never compromise. Oh well.

Speaking of last week, American Idol nipped any ill will surrounding Daughtry's controversial cover of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line" in the bud Tuesday night.

When Seacrest sat the 26-year-old down to chat before he took the stage, Seacrest said to Daughtry, "So you sang 'I Walk the Line' last week. And that was Live's version, right?"

Daughtry, who took heat in message boards for not saying that he was singing Live's revamped version of the Cash classic, confirmed it and said that Live's Throwing Copper was the first album he ever bought. (He previously told Rolling Stone that the alt-rock outfit was his "all-time favorite band.")

So that settles that.

Amid all of the cold, hard truths being thrown around, rapper Wyclef Jean and Latin pop star Shakira were on hand to heat things up, performing the Colombian singer's latest single, "Hips Don't Lie," from her 2005 album Oral Fixation, Vol. 2.

Meanwhile, now that young'un Lisa Tucker has left the show, the nine contestants left to lasso it out when Idol goes country next week are Ace Young, Bucky Covington, Chris Daughtry, Elliott Yamin, Katharine McPhee, Kellie Pickler (who is VotefortheWorst.com's attraction of the week now that Kevin "Chicken Little" Covais is out of the picture), Mandisa, Paris Bennett and Taylor Hicks.

Watch yourself, Idol hopefuls. As Jackson said Wednesday night, "You're never really safe."