Canadian Idol: Down To The Final 10

As the old saying goes, second place is the first loser, which makes 11th place the 10th loser. Pretty shitty, huh?

Needless to say, none of Canadian Idol's 14 remaining competitors on Wednesday night wanted to be the 10th loser. But if you're going to bake a cake, you need to break some eggs — unless it's one of those powders where you just add water. But those are never as light and fluffy. And if Canadian Idol is about one thing, it's light fluffiness.

Fluffy-haired host Ben Mulroney approached the evening's eliminations by singling out a few performers at a time. Out of the first group — Sarah Loverock, Tyler Lewis, Keith Macpherson and Kati Durst — Lewis and Durst seemed like great candidates for termination.

Despite a strong Tuesday night performance, Lewis' over-emoting rock 'n' roll hoser schtick is pretty tired. Durst, a consistently mediocre performer, dropped the ball on Monday night with an uncontrolled rendition of the Black Crowes' "She Talks To Angels."

Meanwhile, judge favourite Macpherson has proven himself to be a strong balladeer, even if his Tuesday night up-tempo version of Squeeze's "Tempted" failed to excite. As for Loverock, her porn star name and XXL voice make her one of the competition's best performers. Thankfully, the public recognized this, inviting Loverock to the top 10 along with the unexceptional Lewis and Durst. Macpherson, on the other hand, had to pack his bags.

Next, Mulroney singled out Ashley Coulter, Rob James and Ashley Coles. Coulter has a pretty voice and a pretty face and, though she often picks irrelevant blues-rock numbers, she has serious Idol potential.

Ditto for James (the potential part, not the pretty face bit). His endearing nervousness has occasionally hurt his performances, but the guy has pipes and personality.

Coles, on the other hand, was probably the most expendable of the three. Apparently, Canada agreed. Coulter and a shocked James entered the not-losers' circle while Coles choked back the tears.

The third and strongest group consisted of Chad Doucette, Craig Sharpe, Nancy Silverman and Eva Avila. None of these four deserved to go home, but Avila seemed like the most likely bet after her unexceptional vocal performance on Tuesday night. Nevertheless, the axe fell on Silverman, prompting disappointed judges Jake Gold, Farley Flex and Zack Werner to stand and applaud the performer.

Finally, Mulroney turned his attention to Brandon Jones, Steffi D and Sheldon Elter, all three of whom seemed to be likely candidates for elimination. While Jones has some youthful JTT-type charm, he might be the competition's worst singer at this point. D, on the other hand, has a good voice, but is probably too quirky to actually win this thing.

As for Elter, his days have been numbered for a while. Every week the singer winds up in the bottom four, only to squeeze through at the last moment. But this time, the charismatic crooner had no such luck. As Jones and D entered the top 10, Elter graciously smiled it off. Meanwhile, his brother wept in the crowd.

Cheer up, brother, you can still watch complete strangers compete. Next week, the top 10 will perform for the first time with a full band behind them. Plus, the "promiscuous" Nelly Furtado will serve as a guest judge. You already know that she's all yours. What you waiting for?