American Idol: On a broken wing and a prayer

Ah, yes, the unpredictability of reality TV.

Tuesday night: Carly Smithson walks the line (sorry, Daughtry) between undercooked and overheated on the Beatles' ballad 'Blackbird,' and does it beautifully — with a nifty combination of vocal power and emotional restraint. Not an easy line to walk.

Wednesday night: She's in the bottom three!

Yes, indeedy. Have to confess — didn't see that one coming

On a night when there are so many legitimate candidates for the Gong Show losers' circle, how could one of the previous night's most accomplished performers find herself in the Idol crosshairs?

This is one of the joys of reality TV. It's what happens when you let the TV audience decide — not that there's anything inherently wrong with. It's that sense of fan ownership that makes American Idol the crossover cultural phenom that it is. Why, no less an expert Simon Cowell said as much, at a TV critics' press conference last year.

But when you let the audience decide, strange things can happen. And so, Carly Smithson — the Irish lass and former Carly Hennessy, who gave Simon as good as he gave it out Tuesday — finds herself in the bottom three.

and 48 hours after St. Paddy's Day, too. Is nothing sacred?

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