Interview: American Idol Judges On Why Kristen O’Connor Was Eliminated

After last night’s elimination show the American Idol judges spoke with FOX Audio Central backstage about Kristen O’Connor’s elimination from Season 13. Harry Connick Jr. opened up about the reality of the competition and along with Keith, Ryan, and Randy offered advice for Kristen’s next move post-Idol.

Kristen O'Connor eliminated
Kristen O’Connor eliminated on American Idol – Source: FOX

While we’re sorry to see any of these contestants eliminated that is how the show works, as Harry explains:

It’s sad to see anybody go.  I didn’t really know her that well because it’s so early in the process. 

It’s only the first results show, but she’s a terrific talent and, you know, it’s sad to see her go, but it is a competition and all 13 of those young people know that it’s a possibility that, you know, 12 of them will be sent home over the next few months.

Harry is absolutely right. Kristen is extremely talented, or else she wouldn’t have made it this far, but we can’t crown a winner if we don’t cut twelve singers from the Top 13.

Keith seemed a little disappointed in how the results panned out, but he’s willing to yield to the voters’ decision and we saw that in the judges’ choice to not use the Save this week.

Look, I mean I never know who’s going to end up in that bottom three and I think there was such a mixed array of performances last night that there’s a few ways it could have gone. 

I think Kristen sang really, really well, particularly tonight I think she did really good, but you know, we have to have a majority rule.

Meanwhile Randy reminded us of his first twelve years as a judge on American Idol. “It was tough,” and “you know.” Yep. Good ol’ Randy Jackson sharing his thoughts on Kristen’s elimination:

I think it’s tough, you know.  It’s the first week.  Ryan and I were just saying that it’s hard because people are just getting used to seeing them and they’re just getting used to this format and the stage and everything. 

So it was tough tonight.  I hated to see her go.  It was a rough bottom three for me.

While Randy thought it was a “rough bottom three” I’d love to know more about who he would have personally selected for the bottom three based on their performances this week. Of course we’re never going to get that sort of honesty from the judges as we’ve learned over the years, but it’d be interesting!

What did you think of Kristen O’Connor’s elimination last night on Idol? Was it the right choice or should one of the other three bottom singers been sent home instead? Share your thoughts!

Source: FOX Audio Central

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4 Comments

  1. Politics is show business for people who can’t sing or dance. And like politics, no one tells the truth in show biz. “Sorry you didn’t get the part, but you did great! I mean that sincerely.” Kiss the boo boo, and see ya, bye.

  2. Kristen should not pursue a sales job as she made the first “NO< NO" by telling everyone that she was a wild card and felt the pressure to take a chance to prevent elimination!

  3. And here we go again with J. Lopez and her distasteful habit of “spotlighting” a contestant. Last night when Ryan asked her how she felt about Malaya being in the bottom 3 she said that “she (Malaya) doesn’t belong there”. I don’t like that. Saying something like that could be demeaning to the other contestants by insinuating that one of them should have been there instead. She did that kind of thing two years ago and even ran up on the stage and declared a contestant to be the BEST and saying that she should be the Am. Idol. Terrible.

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