Thursday, April 05, 2007

Sendjaya Home...

...please.

I am so over all this Sanjaya hype. Every year we go through this. Some mediocre to marginally talented American Idol contestant sticks around while other more talented singers go home.*

  • In season 1, we had Nikki McKibbin who lasted until Top 3.
  • In season 2, we where hit double with Carmen Rasmussen making Top 6 and Josh Gracin** making Top 4.
  • In season 3, Jasmine and her flower stuck around until Top 3 and John Stevens III (bless his little red headed heart) lasted until Top 6.
  • In season 4, Scott Savol lasted until Top 5.
  • In season 5, Kevin Covais lasted until Top 7.
And every year around this time everyone starts talking about how AI will be ruined if the less talented singer wins the competition. But it won't happen. Sanjaya will be with us for a few more weeks but I am pretty confident he won't make Top 2. The numbers won't work.

In the beginning there are so many contestants that the votes tend to be widely spread allowing the race to stay close. Some people really vote*** for who they think is most talented or who they like the most. Others vote to 'stick it to the man', to try and 'break' AI.

I believe that the people who vote honestly outnumber the anarchists. So in the beginning all the anarchist votes are piled onto one or two of the lesser talented singers. The rest of the votes are split across all the others. During the beginning rounds, everyone is pretty close, with the Great singers getting marginally more votes which leaves the Mediocre singers falling just below the Bad. But as the Mediocres get picked off one by one, the people who originally voted for them now have to choose someone else to vote for (unless they are so angry that they stop voting and/or stop watching). It is highly unlikely they will move their votes to the Bad. At this point, the Great singers will continue to gather new voters while the Bad are stalling out. During the last few rounds the Bad will start getting voted off. Some seasons it takes a bit longer to get rid of them, but by final 2, they are gone ****.

At least this is what I need to believe to keep watching this crap...


* Not that the mediocre singer has a chance to win, just that they go home earlier than they logically should.

** I have to admit that while I think Josh really didn't perform well on AI, I really enjoyed his songs that hit the country stations afterwards.

*** I do not vote. I have voted in the past but usually only 1 or 2 calls for a single contestant during the first couple of seasons for the finale.

**** In my opinion the best singer did not win each year but at least each winner (and runner-up) has pretty much fallen in the Great category, well okay maybe Better Than Mediocre category.

***** Yes it is a relatively quiet day at work today.