Who was eliminated from American Idol Season 20 episode 8? Results and more explored

American Idol Episode 8 of Season 20 (Season 5 on ABC) began with Judges Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan pairing off the contestants into teams for the duets challenge. On night two, some partners brought out the best in each other, while others stumbled making their whole performance fall through.

The three platinum ticket holders who got the chance to skip the Genre challenge on American Idol last week - HunterGirl, Jay Copeland, and Kenedi Anderson - also performed in the Duets challenge.

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Contestants who were eliminated tonight

Three contestants failed to move forward to the showstopper round to be held next week- Cole Hallman, Haley Stalon and Taylor Fagins.

22-year old Cole Hallman did not impress the judges during his duet performance of How Sweet It Is, with Cadence Baker. The judges found his performance "underwhelming" and his voice to be "hoarse." Judge Luke Byron said to the young singer with a Spotify reach of more than 24,000 monthly listeners,

“Cole, you have a tremendous amount of talent to build on, but for right now it’s the end of the road."

The singer shed tears on the show, and went on to express that he was sad but grateful in an Instagram post.

Haley Slaton could not make it to the next round, but she moved Katy Perry to tears by showcasing her resilience for singing. She was paired with Sam Moss who, like her, is an expecting mother, and they performed Robyn's song Dancing on my Own. Katy gave them a pep talk about how being a mother changed her life for the better because she stopped needing external validation. She became emotional during the exchange and offered these golden words to Haley:

"I know you're going to be a great mother. And I also know you're never going to give up on your dreams."

Taylor Fagins was the third and final contestant to be sent home by the judges of American Idol as they felt that his duet performance with Allegra was out of sync. Taylor, during their performance of the song Locked Out of Heaven, tried to let Allegra's voice shine through because he did not want his vocals to overpower hers, but the judges were not impressed.

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What will happen next on American Idol?

Episode 8 saw many brilliant performance and a few upsets, but this is just the beginning. The remaining 69 singers will move forward from the Duets Round to perform in the Showstopper Round of American Idol this coming Monday. American Idol airs on the ABC network every Sunday and Monday at 8 PM ET/PT.