Prompted by last Thursday night’s surprise elimination of American Idol favorite Michael Johns, Reality Rocks Blog is counting down the Top Five Most Shocking American Idol Eliminations of All Time.

5) Constantine Maroulis, Season 4 - With his David Cassidy-ish teen-dream appeal, theatrical flourishes, and bedroom-eyed manner of romancing the camera, Greek god (and future soap opera star) Constantine made all the girlies swoon. Unfortunately, there was one week when he didn’t make them vote, so he was shockingly sent packing–this despite the fact that he’d never previously even been in the bottom three that season. Making matters worse was that Constantine lost out to charisma-free, socially awkward Scotty “The Body” Savol, VoteForTheWorst.com’s season-4 poster boy and an alleged domestic abuser to boot. Yes, this was the evening when it became clear just how much influence Vote For The Worst wielded over the disgruntled, speed-dialing masses.

4) Josiah Leming, Season 7 - This was far and away the most shocking cut NOT decided by a public vote. The judges’ puzzling decision to not include Britpop-loving homeless ragamuffin Josiah–one of the most favored hopefuls in the earlier audition episodes, at least in terms of screen time–in the top 24 spurned countless outraged protest posts across American Idol message boards. Petitions to reinstate Josiah via the old “wild card” policy were politely ignored by 19 Management and Fox; however, a star-making guest appearance on Ellen DeGeneres, more Yahoo! Search queries for “Josiah Leming” than for any of the actual 24 finalists, thousands of visits to Josiah’s MySpace page, and a rumored contract with Warner Bros. Records nevertheless followed.

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