Chris Richardson, Phil Stacey Axed From "Idol"

What a shocker the elimination of Chris Richardson and Phil Stacey is. Not!

Following a charity event "Idol Gives Back" when the producers decided to let all top-6 contestants move on to the next round, Justin Timberlake lookalike Chris Richardson and military man Phil Stacey were cut from the singing competition tonight.

Fans of "American Idol" cast 135 million votes in the past couple of weeks.

Judge Simon Cowell predicted the elimination of both candidates as did DialIdol.com which bases its results forecast on the busy signal on respective lines, also putting Lakisha Jones and Melinda Doolittle at risk of elimination.


Both ladies however made it to the top-40 along with Blake Lewis who is now the only male contestant on the show.

Frequent visitor of the bottom 3, Phil Stacey, 29, was cut first, followed by Chris Richardson, 22, who then embraced fellow contestant Blake Lewis, whom he described as "best friend."

Simon Cowell predicted the elimination of both contestants on Tuesday night's show. He also branded the performance of Jordin Sparks "horrible," but she safely made it to the top-4 as one of the most popular contestants on the show right now.

During the results show broadcast, host Ryan Seacrest revealed that the show received 25,000 entries for its songwriting competition, and has selected the 20 original song submissions that remain in the running to become the Idol finale song.

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