American Idol is down to eight final contestants after it was announced last night that Paul Jolley would be leaving the singing competition, having received the least amount of votes from the show’s viewers.

On Wednesday night, in keeping with the Beatles theme, Jolley sang “Elinor Rigby.” When he sang “Alone” for the chance of a Judge’s Save, the foursome was simply not impressed enough to keep him around. Devin Velez and Amber Holcomb made up the rest of the bottom three. While Velez certainly deserved to wind up near the bottom of the barrel, Holcomb’s performance deserved to be in the top three rather than the bottom three.

Along with Jolley’s goodbyes, the night featured performances from past Idol contestants Casey Abrams and Jessica Sanchez. Abrams performed a jazzy version of “I Saw Her Standing There,” which was far more laid back than Sanchez’ single with Neyo, “Tonight.” The guys hammed it up for a rendition of “Got to Get You Into My Life,” while the girls joined forces to sing “Here, There and Everywhere.”

Jimmy Iovine, the music maven who’s been working with this year’s Idol contestants, offered some tough love with his critiques of the final singers. It seems that judge Nicki Minaj’s harsh words about his job with the contestants are starting to get to him. What did he have to say about the departing Idol wannabe? “He’s not ready for prime time… He said he chose the song because of the lyrical content, but, to me that’s where he missed the plot most,” Iovine said.

Jolley, who once stated that he aspired to be the male version of Taylor Swift or Carrie Underwood, ultimately met his undoing when he attempted to showcase the rock quality of his voice on the Beatles’s song. With his departure, it’s now certain that a white male will not be winning American Idol this year – for the first time in 6 Idol seasons.

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