'American Idol' results: Who's in the finale?

'American Idol' results: Who's in the finale?

After 95 million votes, the first person to make the finale is Scotty McCreery.

Are you surprised?

Didn't think so.

He wishes Lauren Alaina and Haley Reinhart luck as he takes his seat. The two women hold hands as they await the results.

Ryan Seacrest announces that Lauren will join Scotty onstage next week. "We say goodbye, but a short goodbye, to Haley," he says, as the crowd stands and applauds.

As a Nashville guy, I'm thrilled to see both Scotty and Lauren in the finals. But I have to admit that I'd grown to appreciate Haley over the last several weeks, and it's a shame to see her go out after a night where she performed so well.

Ryan asks her what she makes of everything that has happened to her over the past months. "My oh my," she says, looking around the venue. "This is the biggest platform any girl, anybody, could ask for. I rocked it out, and I had a blast."

She closes with her version of Bennie and the Jets, the song she sang on the night she came into her own as a finalist. She sings to the judges, then she walks into the audience and sings to Jacob Lusk and Naima Adedapo. It's a great performance, maybe the best exit of the season.

Never though I'd say this, but I'm going to miss that girl.

But now down to Scotty and Lauren, the youngest finale in American Idol history.

And it's an all-country finale.

Yee-haw.

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Natassia Malthe Kasey Chambers Nicole Richie Kristin Cavallari Katharine Towne