Moment of truth for Jessica

SANCHEZ. Sheer talent is its own cause for being.

JESSICA Sanchez’s initially easy-breezy ascent to the top of the “American Idol” hit parade has turned out to be a decidedly dicey roller-coaster ride that ended last week with her being booted out of the singing tilt—despite having received raves from the judges.

That was the unkindest cut of all, that she went down right after the celebrity jurors had extolled her talent and performance to high heavens. But, what good are juridical raves when viewers don’t support you with their all-important “votes”?

It’s a good thing that the jurors are allowed one “save” per season—so, of course they used it to give “their” Jessica a new lease on life. But, it still isn’t clear how long she can survive in the competition, now that her inability to generate enough votes has been so shockingly revealed.

Fil-Am vote

What happened to the vaunted Fil-Am vote that pushed Jasmine Trias all the way up to third place? And, what about the similarly strong Asian and Latin-American vote-generating “machines” that, for lack of a specifically Latino bet, should have gone to Jessica?

One never knows about these things, so Jessica goes into the next round with hopes flying high—but reality pulling her back to earth again. —Especially after it was announced that two finalists will be cut this time around, to come up with the tilt’s Final Five.

Will Jessica’s “AI” hopes still be Alive at Five? Hey, Fil-Ams and other groups, if you’re going to finally, belatedly spring to life, the time to do is is now, not next week!

The recent downbeat developments on “American Idol” are a good reminder to us why we personally have stopped being as “invested” in the competition as we used to be only three seasons ago. It took us all that time to finally realize that the tilt was too dominated by the preferences of young female viewers and pop-music fans, which was why most of its winners have been cute, young males.

That’s patently unfair to all the other types of talents out there, so why care so much about how the tilt turns out from year to year, one way or another? —Why, indeed?

In any case, should Jessica fail to go the distance due to the fact that she doesn’t fit the bill for the show’s main demographic (female teenyboppers who get turned on by cute singing hunks-next-door), she should still be able to carve out a good and even glowing show biz career for herself.

The “AI” jurors have become her biggest fans, so they’ll be sure to put in a good word for her in the music biz and allied fields.

In fact, if we’re given permission to dream off the top of our heads, we can see her making it in the same way another non-survivor, Jennifer Hudson, has become a star despite her less-than-stellar showing on “Idol.”

With her pipes and remarkable musical maturity (and fashion sense), Jessica can go beyond viewer-votes’ disdain—and prove them (predictably) wrong. If she and her handlers play their cards right, she could find victory in defeat, and prove that, even in an unfair show biz universe, sheer talent is its own cause for being—and being celebrated.