Hanging on by a Thread

As I mentioned yesterday, I was fully expecting Sebastian Pigott to go home last night on the Canadian Idol results show.

I had planned, prepared myself - I was going to be OK with it.

So when Sebastian was brought down into the Bottom 3, I certainly wasn't surprised. I was a little surprised to see Amberly Thiessen down there, though, after I thought she did a beautiful job with Bob Marley's "Redemption Songs". However, with this talented crop of contestants this year, as one of the judges said, someone had to be down there with Sebastian & Katherine St-Laurent.

(In this picture, I love Amberly's look of complete disgust. It's as though she's looking out at the Canadian public and saying, "What the F&$@ is wrong with you people???")

But c'mon, people. The missing piece of that Bottom 3 puzzle was not Amberly. Mark, Mark, Mark!!! Why is he NEVER THERE??? Arghhhhh!!!

In any case, Amberly was quickly sent back to the safety of the couches, leaving Sebastian and Katherine left to face Ben's final verdict.

After watching the re-cap of the night before, I had decided that Katherine was my only hope at keeping Sebastian alive in the competition. The judges have taken such a severe hate for him, and to be fair, he wasn't among the elite on Monday night. But I didn't think he was nearly as bad as they painted him. Katherine, however, wasn't exactly a stand-out either, but mainly because, of all the Joplin tunes she could have selected, she picked one I didn't even know, and I had the feeling maybe other people would feel the same way. At least Sebastian's take on Elvis' "Love Me" was recognizable (and hot).

So finally, it was time for Ben to make his announcement. He began by saying: "Sebastian..." and then he followed it up with a long pause, during which Sebastian put his head down and waited to be sent home. The pause grew longer...and longer...and longer...

And somewhere inside my head, a little hopeful voice cried, He's safe!!!

...and then Ben said the magic words himself: "You are safe!!"

Sebastian's head popped up and, as half the crowd screamed with joy and the other half booed in dismay, there was a look of complete bewilderment on his face. I don't think anyone was as shocked as Sebastian that he was staying and Katherine was going.

So while I did my little happy dance and squealed with glee, Katherine did a graceful job of accepting her fate, smiling and nodding as though she knew all along, and hugging Sebastian before he headed back to the couches.

Her safe Idol counterparts did not do such a smooth job of hiding their disbelief. They stared at each other in shock, mouths hanging open. Atta make a guy feel good about himself, eh?

In any case, I'm thrilled that he's been given another chance so that he can go "unplugged" next week with Gavin Rossdale. And there's something gratifying in knowing I didn't waste 45 minutes the night before hitting redial for Sebastian. Makes me feel like I accomplished something!

The only other note I took on last night was that at the end of the show, with the Idol music playing and credits rolling, they showed the remaining competitors taking turns giving good-bye hugs to the departing Katherine. When she finally got to Sebastian, he held her close and was whispering something in her ear, and she kept nodding and smiling through her tears - I have no idea what Sebastian was saying to her, but all I could think was: Man, I wish I was her right now!!!

And here's the Top 8 of '08!! (One more thing - Kenny mentioned yesterday that Sebastian was singled out on E!Talk as the worst dressed of the contestants. Yesterday, I completely disagreed - I've loved Sebastian's style all along - but that hideous teal blue blazer last night? Me no like. Good thing he's hot enough that I was able to ignore it. )