American Idol Top 6 Results

Who should have been eliminated: Lazaro Arbos
Who I predicted would be eliminated (but saved): Amber Holcomb
Who was eliminated: Lazaro Arbos

All's well that ends well in this regard, but the entire episode felt uncomfortable as everyone was just waiting to see if this result would actually happen.

America finally got it right in sending Lazaro home, and based on the groupings, they seemed to have all the results right for this week's round.

Had Simon Cowell still been on the panel, he would have told Lazaro that he should just sing his farewell song, as it was already decided he would not be given the save. While everyone in the entire building knew that Lazaro would not be saved, he went ahead through the technicality of singing "Feeling Good." It definitely was not great, but it at least was nowhere near as bad as some of the other performances he had done. Just like that, it was over for Lazaro though, and the Final 5 will be all female. The winning streak for males on American Idol is now, tonight, officially over.

I imagine the "save" is still in place for one more week, and the judges will probably feel the need to save someone, just for the attention that will garner. So in a sense, next week may really be an exhibition game, and then the week after, two of the ladies might be sent home, if the rules from past seasons are still in place.

As for Lazaro, he will now embark on a media tour, which will be difficult for him in some ways. While I believe he has demonstrated both positive and negative personality traits on this journey, you cannot help but feel sort of bad for him over the past few weeks. He likely had no idea what he had signed up for and what would ultimately happen when he auditioned. Hopefully, he will not get negative reactions on tour this summer, and will use all these opportunities to grow as someone who may want to make their living as a singer. On this media tour, I would not be shocked if he becomes one of the rare Idols to admit that he is gay. It would certainly generate a lot of media attention for him and likely change the subject away from his poor singing on the show, and his stuttering. I doubt anyone will ask him though if he has been stuffing his pants. (That's what people are searching for on Google and coming across this blog for, even though I have never directly mentioned it.)

Lazaro seemed to handle his elimination in about as mature a fashion as can be expected and hopefully will learn from all of this.Whatever happens to him in the future as far as being a singer is not nearly as important as his life as an adult in general. He was dealt quite a bad hand as far as his stuttering was concerned, but he certainly has to find a way to function in society, as people who have disabilities do.

I just really wonder if he has truly taken all the steps possible in order to explore all options in alleviating this condition. There was something written about him when he was 13 years old in a Florida newspaper about some sort of device that was helping him to stutter less. What ever happened to that? It is really his business only, but the public platform he had and will continue to have would allow him to have influence over many others who may also be suffering from speech problems.

For his own sake, I hope Lazaro is able to and willing to take any reasonable financial or medical steps in order to improve the way he speaks. That way, he can maybe come back to Idol one day as a returning alum as a true and inspiring success story.