DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Jordan Segundo sings on "American Idol," as seen on the TV screen at I-94's party for him at Dave & Buster's in Honolulu. The radio station paid for his trip to audition for the show.
‘Idol’ contestant Farrington High School senior Jordan Segundo's dream of instant stardom was shattered last night when he failed to make the cut in the voting for "American Idol" finalists.
from Hawaii cut
There is a slim chance that
Jordan Segundo could be
brought back in a wild-card roundBy John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comSegundo, a semifinalist in the Fox TV talent show's second season, was among the eight contestants who sang in Tuesday night's round. Segundo sang Stevie Wonder's "For Your Love" but did not get enough votes from viewers who called in from across the nation.
Segundo earlier made the cut to the final 32 contestants -- the only Hawaii resident to do so -- out of more than 70,000 hopefuls.
Nationally, Verizon handles about 23 million to 24 million calls in a 24-hour period, said Verizon Hawaii spokeswoman Ann Nishida.
"On Tuesday, we saw a spike of about five million calls, with two million from Hawaii," she said. That doesn't mean the calls went to American Idol and there is no breakdown on the time of the calls, she said.
However, the system was overwhelmed a few times between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., presumably from people repeatedly calling in votes for finalists, she said, noting she heard a woman on the radio saying she voted for Jordan Segundo 48 times.
The top two vote-getters, announced last night, were Texan Rickey Smith, 23, and Atlanta's Vanessa Olivarez, 21. Last night's runner-up among the eight contestants was 22-year-old Equoia Coleman.
Smith and Olivarez will join eight other finalists, including four who already have been selected.
Two of the remaining slots will go to the two finalists who will be selected through the same combination of judging and phone-in voting Tuesday.
The final two finalists will emerge out of a special "Wild Card" round on March 4 from a field of "up to five" of the semifinalists who did not make it the first time around.
Fox officials said that four of the five "Wild Card" spots go to the four semifinalists who received the third-highest number of phone-in votes (Coleman, this week) and that the judges will then add a lucky fifth also-ran to the lineup.
The Associated Press and Star-Bulletin reporter Helen Altonn contributed to this report.
