'American Idol' ousts Lacey Brown, reveals 'The Judges' Save' return

American Idol eliminated Lacey Brown and revealed last year's "The Judges' Save" twist will return for this season's finals during Wednesday night's live results show broadcast on Fox.


Brown, a 24-year-old event coordinator from Amarillo, TX, became the first finalist sent home from American Idol's ninth-season finals after she received the fewest home viewer votes following Tuesday night's live performance episode broadcast that saw the Top 12 finalists perform Rolling Stones songs.

"That's alright, thank you.  I had a blast," Brown said after Simon Cowell announced the judges had unanimously decided not to use "The Judges' Save" to prevent her elimination.

"I had a lot of people tell me maybe [I should] go the country route or something like that.  I'm willing to keep working. I'm not going to stop singing. I'm going to keep singing for my fans and for myself because I love to do this, so I'm excited for the future."

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American Idol host Ryan Seacrest matter-of-factly announced the return of "The Judges' Save," which the judges can only use once during the entire finals, at the beginning of the results show broadcast.

"I was going to ask you about The Judges' Save, because we start that this week.  Can you explain that to America?" Seacrest asked Cowell.

"The Judges' Save is we can save any contestant, as you know, up until the Top 5 but it's got to be unanimous [among all four judges]," Cowell replied.

Brown's had performed "Ruby Tuesday" to lackluster reviews from the judges during Tuesday night's live broadcast.

"Definitely very interesting," Randy Jackson said.  "I wasn't jumping up and down about it vocally because it wasn't one of those 'Wow' moments, but I actually was pleasantly  surprised."


"It was a tiny bit sleepy for me but I'm a fan of yours," Ellen DeGeneres said.  "I thought it was weird that in the slowest part of the song you were standing and moving and then when it started kind of building you sat down."

"It was 50/50 for me.  Hearing your voice right up clear is great and I love that you've been doing that the last few weeks.  But there definitely were some issues where you didn't hit the notes right.  And I think you can do better, I think you have it in you,  I kind of like the drama you were trying to give, but I think you could have out more into it," Kara DioGuardi said.

"There is a slight issue with you, which is that you perform like an actress.  Everything is really, really precise.  Picking up on what Ellen said, it's just very, very thought through,' Cowell said. 

"[There was] nothing wrong with the vocals.  The song was okay.  But I kind of feel with you now you've just got to stop over thinking this, let yourself go a little bit, because you're in danger of doing the same thing week after week.  You're overthinking it.  But there's nothing wrong with the vocals, as I said."

Prior to Brown's elimination, Paige Miles, a 24-year-old from Naples, FL who currently resides in Houston, TX, and Timothy "Tim" Urban, a 20-year-old college student from Duncanville, TX, were revealed to be the other members of the first finals week's bottom three vote-getters.


Seacrest then asked the judges if any of the three were worth using "The Judges' Save" on.

"One of them.  One of them is worth saving," Cowell replied.

"One of them," Jackson agreed.

Seacrest then revealed Urban -- who managed to make Idol's finals despite being a last-minute replacement semifinalist -- was safe, leaving Brown and Miles facing possible elimination.

"I'm not surprised to see [the two of] them there, it's tough right now," Jackson told Seacrest before the Idol host revealed Brown would be eliminated from the competition unless the judges saved her.


Brown had previously made it to American Idol's eighth-season Top 50 but failed to make the season's Top 36 semifinalists cut.

"I had a dream to get further in the competition this year and to finally get over that hump was just amazing," Brown said in a video montage that played after her performance of Brandi Carlile's "The Story" didn't convince the judges to save her.

"I'm just going to keep doing what I love to do, no matter what."

Last year, "The Judges' Save" went unused until the season's Top 7 -- the week before the judges' last chance to use it -- and was used to prevent the ouster of Matt Giraud.

Afterward, Cowell gave a less-than-enthusiastic endorsement of Giraud's worthiness.


"You've got to start working out in your head who's going to be [in the bottom three] the following week. You kind of go, 'Well [Anoop Desai's] going to be there probably again.' And I wouldn't have wanted to save him, so this is probably the only time we could have chosen it well.  It worked out fine," he said before reiterating he still didn't believe Giraud had a shot at winning the eighth-season title.

Giraud was subsequently eliminated two weeks later, finishing fifth.






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