TVSquad

According to the comments here and here, I was not alone in my assessment of Sundance and Antonella's poor performances this week on Idol. Many of you thought those two would be going home. And perhaps they would have -- if Vote for the Worst didn't champion them both this week.

To me Antonella and Sundance represent two of the biggest disappointments this year. They both received quite a bit of early buzz and way more exposure than some of the other semifinalists. And yet, both have given lackluster performances since hitting Hollywood.

Yes, it's early. Yes, they could still wow us next week or even the week after that. Yes, I'm sure they are good singers (they got this far), especially when singing in the shower, or along with the radio, or in the choir, or in comparison to their friends or to the rest of us who can't carry a tune. But we can only judge them on what we've seen on TV. And so far, it has not been great or even good -- especially when compared to their competition.

According to dialidol.com (which didn't completely get the results right), Sundance received the most calls for the guys and Antonella received the second most for the girls. Vote for the Worst (VFTW) believes this is their doing and they are celebrating a victory. And honestly, how else can you explain it? I thought perhaps Sundance and Antonella would be spared this week by their loyal fans, but I also believed that they had to be closer to the bottom four than the top two favorites.

Is their popularity really all VFTW's doing? Let's not forget that personality counts in this competition. Sundance has a very distinctive look and an AWESOME name. We were all calling him by his first name two minutes after seeing him on TV as if he were already a star. He also had an amazing initial audition which many of us refuse to forget. And he's got the whole famous daddy thing, which makes his story interesting.

Antonella certainly sparkles on camera, and has probably been helped by the naughty photos circulating on the web, rather than hurt by them. As for my personal feelings on those photos? Listen, they're not all that scandalous. Tacky? Perhaps. Trashy? A little. Pornographic? No. Have you people never been to a frat party? In my day, we didn't document our drunken college parties by snapping digital photos (because we were smart and we didn't have digital cameras). And I'm sure lots of people are thankful for that now. Of course, this whole "girls gone wild" thing also wasn't around when I was in college. Ah, the good old days.

UPDATE: Since I wrote the above, new dirty pics of Antonella have emerged and suffice it to say, it's not an image I'll get out of my mind anytime soon. I'm not linking to the dirty pics because this is a TV site, not a mature-audience only, porn site. Google it yourself if you MUST see. I'm not gonna pimp this trash.

As for Vote for the Worst -- why do they do it? According to their website, they do it because, "American Idol is not about singing at all, it's about making good reality TV and enjoying the cheesy, guilty pleasure of watching bad singing. We agree that a fish out of water is entertaining, and we want to acknowledge this fact by encouraging people to make an even funnier show by helping the amusing antagonists stick around."

Antonella and Sundance have clearly been given a second chance. Will they use that chance to wow us next week and change our minds? Or does it even matter, now that fans and non-fans will be voting to keep them around?