For Scotty McCreery, it was close, but not close enough.
The 'American Idol' season 10 winner's debut single, 'I Love You This Big,' failed to crack the top 10 on this week's Billboard Hot 100 chart, instead coming in at number 11.
After a record-setting 122.4 million votes, it was country crooner Scotty McCreery who was named the winner of 'American Idol' season 10.
The 17-year-old from Garner, NC, beat out 16-year-old Lauren Alaina to become the youngest 'American Idol' winner ever. He's also the fourth-consecutive male to win the reality-competition series, following David Cook, Kris Allen and Lee DeWyze. (The last female to win 'American Idol' was Jordin Sparks, in 2007.)
Though she put on an impeccable show Wednesday night, America ultimately decided they didn't want to see Haley Reinhart in the next week's finals.
The 20-year-old Wheeling, IL, native was booted from 'American Idol' late Thursday night, leaving Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina to battle it out for the season 10 crown.
'American Idol' is down to the final four!
Last night's elimination show started off quickly, with the remaining five contestants performing 'So Happy Together.' After the mandatory Ford commercial, judge Jennifer Lopez took to the stage to sing her hit single 'On the Floor,' before contestants were quickly divided into two groups, where Jacob Lusk and Lauren Alaina found themselves in the bottom two.
And then there were five.
Ryan Seacrest told us at the top of the show that we would be disappointed with the outcome of tonight's results - and he wasn't wrong: In somewhat of a shocker, Casey Abrams was eliminated from 'American Idol.'
Of course, the elimination wasn't totally surprising, as Casey was actually eliminated on a previous episode. (He was then saved by the judges.) Even so, it didn't feel like it was his time to go, especially after his crowd-pleasing performance on Wednesday. Then again, it's a talented group of six, so tonight's results were guaranteed to have at least some shock value.
'American Idol' got its second shocking elimination of the season, only this time, the judges weren't able to Pia Toscano.
In a major surprise, the 22-year-old beauty, who wowed America early on with such performances as 'I'll Stand By You,' 'All By Myself' and this week's 'River Deep, Mountain High,' leaves the competition tonight as season 10 wields down to just eight contestants.
