It's almost two months into the new season of American Idol, which means that fans are already choosing their favorites, and a few hearts across America broke when singer Jermaine Jones, 25, was dismissed from the competition when it was discovered that he had concealed a criminal past, as well as four warrants outstanding for his arrest.
The vocal instructor and top-12 finalist was disqualified from Idol in a pretaped segment with executive producers Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick, which was aired during the show. "You were incumbent to tell us the truth about all of this, and it appears you just haven't on any level," said Warwick in the uncomfortable clip. Jones had apparently not disclosed his legal troubles, and the show is not allowed to features singers with outstanding arrests.
"With the cooperation of law enforcement, we discovered information that left us with no choice but to eliminate one of our own from the competition," said host Ryan Seacrest in his characteristic dramatic tone. "When you're doing a live show, anything can happen."Seacrest solemnly added that Idol will "miss Jermaine's talent."
The show must go on, however. The rest of the 11 finalists were tasked with singing songs that came out in the respective years they were born, with female favorite Jessica Sanchez hitting with "Turn the Beat Around" (a cover of the Gloria Estefan cover of the Vicki Sue Robinson disco tune). DeAndre Brackensick wowed with a rendition of "Endless Love," and Phillip Phillips fought kidney stones to deliver "Hard to Handle" by Otis Redding / The Black Crowes.
The night really belonged to Joshua Ledit, though, who stunned the audience and judges Randy Jackson, Steven Tyler, and Jennifer Lopez with his rendition of Michael Bolton's cover of Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman." Lopez called the performance the "best thing I've ever seen on American Idol," and the rarely effusive Jackson called it "crazy, crazy, crazy good."
While Ledit is most definitely in, Jones is out. "I didn't want to get penalized for anything that happened in the past," he said of the criminal allegations before he quietly left the show. "I didn't want to get judged." Someone should have let him know that 'judging' is what American Idol is all about.
Watch Ledit's performance here:
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This is awful, but honesty is always the best policy.