Aside from the final week of the semi-finals, when he blew the doors off with a jazzy new arrangement of "What a Wonderful World," Anwar was never the best singer on any given show. He was also never the worst, which can be a problem on "Idol." If someone's clearly wonderful, they'll get a lot of votes from more casual viewers who don't care as much about the personalities. If someone's clearly awful -- or gets bashed by the judges -- then their fans will often vote more than usual to keep them around.
The danger zone is in the middle ground, when no one is feeling either ecstatic or worried about you, and that's an area where Anwar found himself week after week. Nikko Smith got voted out twice for the sin of being slightly above-average, and that seemed to be Nadia Turner's downfall last week. When you're either great or terrible, people will remember to vote for you; when you're just okay, they either forget or just assume you're safe and don't bother.
Sepinwall also has some interesting thoughts on his choice of "September", but even while Anwar punted that falsetto, it's still not as bad as Scott Savol's studious avoidance the high notes on "She's Gone" the week before. Not that singers far better than him haven't done the same thing.
Also, there's more on the Ryan Seacrest star on the Walk of Fame. Literally.
edited to add: More from Sepinwall today, who interviewed Anwar and members of the wedding band with which he performed:
"September" was another Perfect Combination number, though [bass player Dan] Rongo was surprised Tuesday night when he realized Anwar was leaving the song's trademark falsetto chorus to the backup singers, even though he usually handled it himself at weddings.
"I didn't want to overemphasize the vocals," Anwar explained. "I wanted to get a chance to play with the give and take of the music, let the music have some fun, too, and the background singers are a part of the music. I didn't think it was fair to sing all the parts myself."
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