American Idol Loses One

When much of the nation was trying to keep an eye on both “American Idol” and the college basketball, the battle between two of the lowest vote-getters looked an awful lot like an opening-round game between mediocre teams in the NCAA tournament.

Msnbc reports it was Karen Rodriguez and Haley Reinhart who found themselves under the uncomfortable center stage spotlight. The former wasn’t great in either English or Spanish on Wednesday, while the latter has spent the past three weeks flailing to find her comfort zone.

It was Rodriguez who received the lowest number of votes and had the task of singing for her show survival. She did well enough in her last-chance performance Thursday to have judge Jennifer Lopez lobby the other judges for her, but not enough to earn the save.

“My mom believes in me!” Rodriguez said at one point in her final plea. But as she also said, “I know it’s all about the votes,” and she got too few to avoid finishing in 12th place.