Worst 'American Idol' Finalists Ever -- #12: Kristy Lee Cook

For the next 12 weeks, we're teaming with Vote for the Worst to name the 12 worst 'American Idol' finalists ever. Check back next week to see their pick for number 11.

Name: Kristy Lee Cook
Season: 7
Worst Performance: 'Eight Days a Week'
Why We Loved to Hate Her: Kristy Lee Cook proved she was a little bit too country on the first night of the season 7 finals.

The theme that night was songs from the Lennon-McCarthy songbook, and Kristy's selection was 'Eight Days a Week.'

But instead of letting the song be like any normal person would, Kristy chose to "make it her own" by upping the tempo and adding a fiddle here and there.

What resulted was a frantic mess of a performance, like the scene from 'Superstar,' in which Mary Katharine Gallagher's parents accidentally bump into the record player during their step-dancing competition. It was so fast and so all over the place that Kristy herself could barely keep up the pace. Viewers at home experienced a whiplash-like effect, and heck, even Paula Abdul admitted that she "didn't get it."For the next 12 weeks, we're teaming with Vote for the Worst to name the 12 worst 'American Idol' finalists ever. Check back next week to see their pick for number 11.

Name: Kristy Lee Cook
Season: 7
Worst Performance: 'Eight Days a Week'
Why We Loved to Hate Her: Kristy Lee Cook proved she was a little bit too country on the first night of the season 7 finals.

The theme that night was songs from the Lennon-McCarthy songbook, and Kristy's selection was 'Eight Days a Week.'

But instead of letting the song be like any normal person would, Kristy chose to "make it her own" by upping the tempo and adding a fiddle here and there.

What resulted was a frantic mess of a performance, like the scene from 'Superstar,' in which Mary Katharine Gallagher's parents accidentally bump into the record player during their step-dancing competition. It was so fast and so all over the place that Kristy herself could barely keep up the pace. Viewers at home experienced a whiplash-like effect, and heck, even Paula Abdul admitted that she "didn't get it."



But, as we've come to learn from 'American Idol,' and as you'll come to learn from reading our list, it's the truly bad contestants who wind up sticking around the longest. Despite landing in the bottom 3 that week, Kristy survived to another round of Beatles music, during which she performed a snooze-worthy rendition of 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away' that once again earned her a place at the bottom. At that point, she appeared to be digging her own grave.

Kristy must have finally realized this, because why else would she have chosen to sing Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless the USA' during Songs From the Year They Were Born week? It was a bold move, and certainly one of the smartest (albeit hilarious) song choices in 'Idol' history, even if it did reveal her true red-white-and-blue colors. If anything, it proved that she wasn't going to go down without a fight.



Unfortunately, like so many fights, there were unnecessary casualties. In this case, it came by way of Michael Johns, a then-29-year-old Aussie who, by week four, was just starting to get noticed by the judges. That Kristy Lee Cook was able to last one week longer than Michael, thus depriving fans of the chance to hear him sing 'Vision of Love' during Mariah Carey week (or so it had been rumored), is an inexcusable offense, and reason enough to land her a permanent, irrevocable spot on our list of the worst 'American Idol' finalists ever.

As Michael sang the previous week, it's all wrong ... only in this case, it's not all right.