Canadian Idol: So Long Castelli

Iconic motorcycles apparently don't do it for all Canadians. Adam Castelli's Monday night Harley Davidson gimmick couldn't save him from being the first person cut from Canadian Idol's top 10 on Tuesday.

Following usual Idol protocol, the show was dragged out and caused more pain than necessary — both for viewers and contestants. By 8:15 p.m., we still didn't know who was in the bottom three, let alone the chump who'd be sent home.

After sitting through an extended recap of the previous night, the remaining 10 candidates performed David Bowie's "Golden Years," "Changes," "Fame" and "Modern Love."  They were pretty solid performances. The only wannabe who overtly sucked was Amberly Thiessen. She sounded terrible every time she opened her mouth.

When the bottom three were finally announced, it came with a sigh of relief, but was also accompanied by slight bitterness. Castelli, Mookie Morris and Sebastian Pigott all accumulated the fewest viewer votes. Even though Morris and Pigott failed to deliver their most impressive performances on Monday, I was still surprised that Canadians thought so little of them. It could be because Morris and Pigott are both from Toronto, where people have better things to do than watch Idol and then phone in for their favourites. There are a limited number of contestants who I can stand to listen to, so things weren't looking too good with two of them landing in the bottom three. The judges weren't taken aback by who was in the bottom three. They agreed that both Morris and Pigott are capable of delivering much stronger performances than what they offered on Monday. But Castelli's position didn't surprise them.

Though the Hamilton rocker started as one of my favourites, he became increasingly more serious and anxiety-ridden each week, which took all the joy out of watching him. Rock 'n' roll is supposed to be fun and carefree — two things Castelli wasn't.

And so, another one bites the dust. I still don't understand how Mark Day keeps getting votes. Newfoundland doesn't have a large population. Who else could be voting for him?

Idol returns on July 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Hopefully next week will bring Day's exit. They're calling it Rock 'N' Roll Heaven Week, which sounds classier than "nine amateurs tackle material by vastly more talented dead people." Speaking of dead (at least from a music career perspective), season five Idol runner-up Jaydee Bixby will perform on the July 22 results show.