Was Sanjaya a victim of Virginia Tech?

We'd predicted he'd be sent home from American Idol the week before the Idol Gives Back charity event (to clear the stage for a new wave of publicity), but Sanjaya Malakar's elimination last night still came as a shock-- and we're sad to see him go.

And it appears that the Virginia Tech incident had at least something to do with his ouster. Chris Richardson's position in the top three signalled that he surely won sympathy votes and saved himself with his words of encouragement to the survivors. And Simon Cowell's "enough is enough-- it's not funny any more" attitude toward Sanjaya on Tuesday night carried more weight because of the pall the tragedy had cast over the show.

There's also the possibility that the ethnicity of the Virginia Tech killer led to anti-Asian sentiment-- and anti-Sanjaya sentiment.

Then again, it could have been his rotten performance!

We'll hear more about that later today. And we'll be hearing more from Sanjaya. Overall, he proved to be a great entertainer in more ways than one. And after all the conjecture about his villainy, the poor kid cried when he had to go.

Look back at the Sanjaya stories here and wonder how Phil Stacey outlasted him...