SHOCK & AWE-STRALIA

Many Americans are still reeling over the shocking elimination of Australian native Michael Johns. From Ryan's classless teasing of Michael over whether or not he would actually be voted out to the judges' dumbfounded expressions, nothing about last night's results show.

The bottom 3, which consisted of Michael, Carly Smithson and Syesha Mercado was expected by many, but the actually ranking was not. Syesha was heavily favored to be leaving after her vocally-good but emotionless version of Fantasia's "I Believe."

Michael said he was surprised, but he went out with class and gave his final performance of Aerosmith's "Dream On" his all. Paula was the most visibly upset judge during the performance, and gave him a big bear hug following the performance.

Before the bad news was delivered, the show went fairly smoothly. The opening number of "Shout to the Lord" was vocally on par with the previous night's performance, and the videos of the three presidential candidates (Barack Obama, John McCain and Hillary Clinton) were more than enough to put the show in a spirited mood. A few more celebrity appearances from Ricki Lake and Michael Chiklis also helped the donating mood carry over from the previous night.

Despite the extremely early exit by Michael, it would be foolish to think he will not find success in at least some capacity in the music industry. The sometimes-rocker and blues artist will most definitely ride his "Daughtry wave" as far as he can, and his multitude of angry fans will make sure his material tops the charts.