Michael Becker / FOXAnd another one bites the dust.
Another dream died on the American Idol stage Thursday night, bringing the number of Idol hopefuls in the running down to five. For fans of the show, it's safe to say it wasn't totally unexpected.
So how is the eliminated contestant holding up, what do they really think of the judges advice and why did the audience start boo during Katy Perry's performance? We got all the deets!
There's no way around it, in this stage of the competition everyone has a shot to win, but song choice can make or break an Idol dream. Unfortunately for Elise Testone, Wednesday night's performance, (as Jimmy Iovine would say) "Didn't cut the mustard" and didn't win her enough votes to keep her from being booted her out of the Idol spotlight. Cue sad face…seriously.
We had a definite soft spot for the 28-year-old who didn't appear too rattled when she found out she was in the bottom three. Over the past few weeks of competition, it had become a familiar home and Elise readied herself for the final results during commercial break by sitting on the couch with Phillip Phillips and season 10's Casey Abrams.
While waiting to find out who was going to leave the Idol stage, the audience was getting beyond pumped for Katy Perry to perform. Screaming, squealing and excited chatter was bouncing off the walls. The stage manager and audience coordinator refused to let the crowd in on the secret that the performance was actually pretaped. They kept teasing by saying, "Should we tell them? Do you want to tell them? OK, let's just let it be a surprise."
That "surprise" was nothing but massive disappointment for Katy fans, who began boo-ing the stage and being very vocal about their disapproval of only seeing a pretaped performance. We have to agree with the audience that it was one big Booooo!
However, that moment of deceit was soon forgotten after Elise was eliminated and killed it with her cover of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." Showing no evidence of crushing upset when we caught up with her after the show, she spilled on her reaction to being cut from the competition and what she early thought of the judges' advice.
"I think that my brain is just worried in a way that I just accept everything that happens so as soon as I heard my name, I feel like I heard it before [Ryan Seacrest] said it and I was immediately like, 'OK, now I gotta do my best.' I just want to do my best in every moment."
While almost every contestant on Idol gushes about how helpful the judges advice is over the course of competition, Elise is hesitant to join the club.
"I'd like to say they were, but I don't really feel that," she said. "I'm sorry. I feel bad about that. It's different for me. I'm 28, so I'm young, but I've learned so much. Some of the things they say don't line up with what I feel I have learned on my own, so I don't think it was always helpful. I'm not meaning to sound like I'm the best. Sometimes it was helpful, but for the most part I don't think it always made sense and I think it's hard to judge someone in such a short amount of time in that situation."
That being said, don't expect to see Elise on reality TV ever again!
"If I could do it over again, I probably wouldn't," she spilled. "I just keep going. Remember what you learned. I never really was a huge fan of [reality television] in the beginning and everyone was shocked I did it, but I'm glad I did."
Are you sad to see Elise go home? Who do you think will make it to the finals and be the next American Idol? Do you think the judges give good advice? Let us know in the comments!