Bucky fat-bottoms out with Queen song

LOS ANGELES -- So it's an hour-long "American Idol" results show Wednesday, which means, among other things, that we're subjected to something we haven't had to deal with in several weeks: the group sing.

If you thought the songs of Queen sung individually by the eight remaining contestants was tough to take ... but oddly enough, it pointed up at least three songs the final eight might have been better off singing Tuesday night. Why did no one choose "You're My Best Friend," which is both more melodic than "We Will Rock You," which Ace shouted his way through, or "Under Pressure," which is not quite the vocal workout Elliott had with "Somebody to Love"?

I do think Bucky made a decent choice with "Fat Bottomed Girls," although his performance was just so-so. The voters apparently thought even less than that, and the 28-year-old North Carolinian became the fifth of this year's finalists sent packing.

(Oh, and yeah, the headline on this story is a touch obvious, we know. But really, it was hard to go with anything else this week.)

But what's done is done, and besides, we're reminded of What's Really Important tonight, as messages from friends and family pad the hour (hey, it's better than another medley). Several people miss home cooking, Bucky and Katharine miss their dogs, and Elliott and Chris remember to talk about their families.

The taped greetings from home also serve to drag out the results, as Seacrest introduces a piece of tape before telling each contestant the results of the vote.

And some 45 minutes into the show -- 15 minutes longer than it usually takes to wrap up the whole business -- we finally discover who's in the bottom three: Elliott, Ace and Bucky. Elliott gets the bad news first, and then Seacrest springs a surprise sing on him. Ace is next, and he's all broken up from the hometown video (aww...), but he sounds even flatter on "We Will Rock You" than he did last night.

It's a good thing, in fact, that the judging isn't based on tonight's performances, because when Bucky's called to the stage, he sounds a good bit better than Ace. But it's not based on tonight, or even entirely on who's the best singer. Ace's popularity carries him through another week, and Bucky will be headed home.

Which means he won't be around for next week's Rod Stewart theme. After three rough weeks, his catalog may bring some respite to our weary ears.