Elise Testone was just eliminated in 6th place on American Idol 11. She had been in the bottom 3 on almost a weekly basis for a while now. While Hollie joined her yet again in the bottom 2, Elise got the least votes and is going home. However, she made the tour and will at least make some money for her Idol efforts.
Elise was somewhat inconsistent, but many of the remaining contestants, like most singers, are also inconsistent. I don’t know that that had much to do with her elimination.
Some people have accused Elise of being arrogant or having a bad attitude. This, too, seems like a minor factor in her getting eliminated. Otherwise, she would have been eliminated a long time ago. A lot of artists generally are somewhat arrogant about their work, and Haley Reinhart presented the same kind of attitude to the judges and made it to 3rd place in Season 10.
The truth is, Elise has been near the bottom the entire time. It’s all about personality in my opinion. Long before the claims of arrogance or a bad attitude or bad song choices or whatever, Elise was not getting the popular vote.
I would submit the real question, then, is to ask how she made it to the Top 6 before getting eliminated. My answer to that is that she was, in fact, getting votes for her talent. Someone with less talent could have been eliminated much earlier. For a long time, people have said they love Elise but do not expect her to win. Those fans who do love her and voted for her voted for the right reason - talent.
So rather than asking why Elise was eliminated, it is better to just accept the fact that she is a talented singer and musician who made it this far on talent. With the casual voter clearly against her, she made a good run to the Top 6.