Carly Smithson Says Goodbye to Idol

That legendary luck of the Irish was nowhere to be found Wednesday night, as Dublin native Carly Smithson became the latest shocking elimination from this season of American Idol.

While the tattoed brunette, who had been among the early favorites to win the competition, managed to wow the judges with her rendition of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic "Jesus Christ, Superstar" on Tuesday night, she apparently failed to win enough of the 38 million votes to keep her spot on the hit show.

When Ryan Seacrest handed down the decision to Carly, a wave of genuine shock rippled through the Idol audience — and through judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul.

Coincidentally, Carly's partner in the bottom two for this week, Syesha Mercado, had likewise been praised highly for her sultry take on "One Rock 'n' Roll Too Many" from Starlight Express. For her part, after being named the first member of the bottom two, the Floridian appeared almost certain that she was packing her bags to head home, as she burst into tears and even left her seat during the commercial break.

And even when Syesha finally did return to the stage (while Ryan was in the midst of informing Carly and Jason Castro which one of them would be joining her in the bottom two), she turned her back to the audience and continued to mop up her stream of tears.

During the commercial break before hearing the final results, Carly and Syesha almost toppled over hugging each other. The always emotional Brooke White, who managed to escape eviction despite her false start on her performance last night, raced to join the circle.

But it wasn't to be an all-ladies affair for too long as the remaining boys — David Cook, David Archuleta and Jason Castro — soon joined the group.

And even after receiving the bad news Carly managed to bounce back quickly from her initial disappointment, telling Ryan, “I’m very proud of myself. I’m very happy. I had the best time ever.”

Once the Idol cameras stopped rolling, Carly was hugged by all of her now-former rivals. And sour Simon, who finally had some nice words to say about the Irish lass this week, was the first of the judges to give her a warm embrace, before having a lengthy chat with her.

So what do you think? Was this the time for Carly to go?