"Idol" Says Sayonara To Sanjaya!

C Goodman

There was a collective sigh of relief across the country last night as Sanjaya Malakar was given the boot from American Idol. After weeks of torturing the audience with his hideous hair and pathetic singing, the popular underdog finally ran out of gas. He can blame country music for his downfall. Tuesday night -- country night -- Sanjaya sang a painfully flat rendition of Bonnie Rait's "Something to Talk About." None of the judges, not even Paula, liked it. Neither did his nine-year-old fans throughout America. For the first time in weeks, he was in the bottom two -- alongside LaKisha. The media had built this kid up so much that at one point you honestly found yourself thinking that LaKisha could be the one to go home. But the Idol gods smiled down on the voting and Simon Cowell couldn't have been more pleased. The smirk said it all. As the video of his Idol journey played, the 17-year-old could be seen crying -- obviously he had bought into the hype and believed he could make it to the end. But it wasn't meant to be. Next on his list of things to do: a duet with William Hung.