If you listened to the radio show on March 24, then you know that I was downright livid that the Judges’ Save was used to keep Casey Abrams around. I ranted about it throughout the entire show. In fact, my forehead vein got so large because of it, the medical examiner issued flood warnings for my neighborhood.

In the week that followed, many people began trying to figure out just how long Casey would be around. In Season 8, Matt Giraud was saved from going home in 7th place. Matt wasn’t in the Bottom 3 the following week, but did go home in 5th place the week after that. Michael Lynche fared much better in Season 9. Saved from going home in 9th place, Big Mike avoided the Bottom 3 for the next two weeks. The three weeks after that saw him land in the Bottom 3, the Bottom 2, and finally being sent home in 4th place.

In Matt’s case back in Season 8, I feel the judges used their Save simply to use it, not because they truly felt he should be saved. He was spared from the Bottom 3 the next week not because he improved, but because the act of being saved from elimination will get people to at least throw a few votes your way. But Matt didn’t do anything different the following two weeks. He brought the same weak vocals, bad song choices, and pitch problems that had plagued him throughout the season. So those extra votes he got that one week all disappeared when he didn’t show any improvement.

In Big Mike’s case back in Season 9, I believe the judges used their Save because they were surprised to see someone who had never been in the Bottom 3 being sent home. I disagreed with the decision back then because Mike had been disappointing us with his song selection and vocals for weeks. Because he had been such a fan favorite going into the voting rounds, he managed to get sympathy votes for two weeks. Like with Matt, though, Mike never stepped up his game. His performances continued to be sluggish and underwhelming, which began costing him his sympathy votes. Only his fan favorite status votes kept him around long enough to reach 4th place.

So what does this mean for Casey Abrams?

Casey is a bit of mystery when it comes to trying to figure out where he stands with the voters. He is second only to Scotty McCreery in the number of Twitter followers, has had high raw numbers on Dial Idol, is talked about by just about every American Idol fan I come across, and has been praised ad nausea in more blogs and newspaper articles than I care to count. Yet I stated repeatedly on the radio show that I did not believe he was getting the votes everyone else thought he was, a belief that was proven correct when America tried to send him home in 11th place.

For me, that disconnect between water cooler talk and number of votes was something the judges either were unaware of or chose to ignore. While the judges have been fawning all over Casey about the risks he has “been brave enough” to take with his songs, America has been yawning and tuning out. He looked and sounded fake when he sang, and people just aren’t going to vote for that. I do not believe this was a Chris Daughtry or Michael Johns case, where a fan favorite gets blindsided when too many of their fans think they have to help save another contestant they like. This was simply a disconnect that finally caught up to Casey on a week where he performed first.

That said, there was no question that Casey would be safe last week. Short of him completely losing it on stage and cussing out his audience, his fans would have thrown enough extra votes his way to ensure a non Bottom 3 week.

But Casey didn’t just sit back and do nothing on a week where being told he was safe was nothing more than a formality. Instead, he picked a song that reminded us of the voice he had shown us back during Hollywood Week. He took the scare of almost going home, and did something with it that neither Matt nor Big Mike did: he improved.

We’ll have to wait and see if Casey has indeed learned his lesson or if he will slide back into being a singer who tries to be something he is not. If he does slide back, his performance last week and the sympathy votes he got will be enough to keep him around for a few more weeks. But if he continues with the type of singing I know he is capable of, he could become a legitimate Top 5 contender, if not more.

How do you think Casey will fare? Will he stick with the improvements he made last week, or will he once again become something he is not? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.