Scott Booted!

From EW:

Maybe pride really does goeth before a fall.

After boldly stating during his Tuesday-night postperformance interview that he needed to start selecting his songs for next week — and then misguidedly thinking Ryan Seacrest had told him he was safe during Wednesday's results show — Scott Savol got a rude awakening from American Idol viewers, who gave him the lowest number of votes among the final five contestants. Was that a collective sigh of relief from EW.com readers we heard around 9:29pm EDT?

Indeed, while many of you noted that Scott's performance of ''On Broadway'' was his best in weeks — and certainly no worse than Anthony Fedorov's abysmal ''Poison Ivy'' — our message boards reflected a feverish desire to see Scott eliminated, mixed with concern that either Anthony or Vonzell Solomon would get the ax instead.

Apparently, Scott also felt that the others were more likely to be rejected. When Seacrest sent the surly Ohio native from center stage to sit on the couch alongside A-Fed, Scott looked to the sky, blew a kiss, and thanked God. What he failed to realize, though, was that the Idol host never said he was safe, and in fact, Scott and Anthony were the week's bottom two.

Debbie in Glen Burnie correctly predicted the outcome, arguing that while Anthony isn't good enough to win the competition, this week was Scott's turn to go home. ''His sad stories have carried him far enough,'' she said, referring to the contestant's early-season revelation that his father never thought he'd succeed as a singer.

Many readers said their goodwill toward Scott evaporated when he began mouthing off to Simon and giving hostile looks to the judges' panel whenever they offered him a critique. ''Even though Scott's singing makes my ears hurt and my dogs howl,'' wrote Miztaz, ''it's his crummy attitude that really hacks me off.''

Ohiogal027, meanwhile, said Scott's vocals were all the reason she needed to root against him. ''Singing like Scott on national TV should be illegal,'' she wrote. ''Heck, it should be illegal in your own home!'' GaryRSA probably wouldn't argue against that opinion, but he was secretly rooting for Scott anyway: ''There is a perverse part of me that wants to see Scott Savol win it all, if only to watch his inevitable and atomically spectacular fall from grace. I get giddy just thinking about it.''

A few of you, however, felt the big guy on the Idol campus genuinely earned another week in the competition. ''There were many weeks Scott should have been the one to go, but this is not one of them,'' wrote Ally. ''He showed personality and performed well.''

One conspiracy theory popular with readers was that the votefortheworst.com website had played a role in Scott's success to date. A less accepted idea was that Simon's prediction last week that Scott would be eliminated had created a groundswell of sympathy votes for him. Joe, in fact, thought the irascible British judge toned down his anti-Scott rhetoric on Tuesday ''in hopes he would not set off [another] backlash.''

If Scott had somehow managed to avoid elimination this week, most EW readers were worried Anthony (who gave a much-improved performance during the results show) or Vonzell would pay the price, driving some to drastic measures. Joe said he voted an estimated 650 times for A-Fed, but Joe had nothing on VA Fan, who racked up more than 1,000 votes for the Eastern European singing sensation. ''I could complete and redial a call in 7.5 seconds,'' VA Fan wrote, ''so you do the math. I did get 60-100 busy signals though.''

One reader theorized that Simon worked on Vonzell's behalf on Tuesday by warning her fans that she was potentially at risk of elimination. ''Do you remember when he told Jasmine Trias that all of Hawaii had better vote for her?'' asked We Love The Vonz. ''They did. I love and support Vonzell and hope her people called in last night!''

One such person, Laverne, did exactly that, but not for the reasons you might expect. ''I never vote, but I voted for [Vonzell] last night,'' she wrote. ''Why? She sang well. But she looked incredible. I live for the way that brown dress fit her, the hair and makeup. Flawless! What's wrong with a little glamour?''

Absolutely nothing. And Baby V was certainly in fine vocal form during the group rendition of ''Bridge Over Troubled Water'' on Wednesday. My only question: How come Ryan Seacrest attributed the song to Michael W. Smith when everyone knows that it's Simon and Garfunkel who sang it first — and best?

What did you think of the results show? Have we heard the last of Scott Savol, or does he have a future? What do Anthony and Vonzell have to do to contend with the current front-runners, Bo and Carrie? And who do you think deserves to win the whole darn thing?