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American Idol 9: Why Katie Lostby David Bloomberg -- 04/20/2010
View Printable version of this article It must seem somewhat unfair to the young Katie Stevens – she finally was getting compliments from the American Idol judges and what happened? America didn’t keep her around! How did things end up going in seemingly opposite directions for her? Why did Katie lose? In my pre-performance predictions with Sting7, I figured Katie would be in the bottom three but would make it through another week. I was close. But considering she was considered to be on an upswing by many, it might have seemed like an odd time for her to leave the show. However, as we go through What ‘American Idol 9’ Contestants Need to Know, I think we’ll find that the answers will all be revealed. 
First and foremost: How did Katie perform? In her final week, Katie earned some decent words from the judges. Randy, Ellen, and Kara all liked the performance. Simon thought it was annoying but it didn’t matter because the audience liked her. Ah, Simon, your opinion always matters! What about the Foxes On Idol writers? Recapper Jenn thought she put in a good, but not great, effort and that she was just trying too hard. The We’ll Be the Judge of That! duo of Tyler and myself disagreed between ourselves. Tyler thought she was the same as always, providing great vocals but no artistry. I agreed that she sang well and was entertaining. At the time, I was amused by her attitude, but in retrospect, I have to say that I totally see what Jenn meant about her trying too hard. Joseph, in The NGH Report, ranked Katie high at number four for the night and talked about how he was starting to enjoy listening to her again. So in terms of looking strictly at her final performance, Katie generally did well. What, then, contributed to her loss? The second rule discusses song choice. I think she did okay in her final two weeks in this regard, but earlier in the competition, she was definitely having some issues – not helped as Simon and Kara argued about which direction she should go for her future music career. Again, though, this didn’t hurt her this week. The third rule, however, addresses this very issue – consistency. Katie simply didn’t have it. She had a lot of promise early but then let us down for several weeks running. She faded into the background as others took the forefront of our interest. Heck, she couldn’t even fill the underdog role because Tim (and to some extent Aaron) had that locked up! 
In the weird world of Idol sometimes, though, it actually can be better to do worse. When Katie was being criticized by the judges, fans wanted to help keep her around and so they voted more vigorously. When she did well, people who liked the performance voted for her. But when she did a good job but not great? That doesn’t get as many votes from either camp. Katie didn’t just need a solid performance here – she needed to rock the house. Indeed, I even noted as much in my prediction article, where I said, “I think she could quickly fade into the background if she doesn’t follow it up with another smash performance.” I further noted that anything less than such a performance could make things seem worse than they were and potentially impact the vote. I may have been fairly prescient on that, if I do say so myself. Katie didn’t do terribly well when it came to the fourth rule, which tells contestants they need to be unique. Can you name one unique thing about her? I can’t. Young, pretty girl. Nice voice. Frankly, people like her are a dime a dozen. Don’t get me wrong, her voice is probably better than most. But she just didn’t do anything to stand out. Sure, she didn’t have any particular competition for that slot within this season of Idol itself, so that was good. But she was not bringing anything new to the music business. In terms of the fifth rule, was she memorable? Sometimes, but often no. Indeed, Recapper Jenn even noted after her final performance, “It’s also not very memorable.” While I complimented it at the time, I had to go back and look over my notes in writing this article to even recall what she did! That’s not a good sign. Compare that to just about all the other contestants, whose performances I can remember without prompting, and we see yet another reason she’s gone while they’re still in it. Contributing to that is the sixth rule, which says Idol contestants need to turn themselves into a complete package. Considering that it seemed the judges were still arguing over what kind of singer Katie should be, it should be fairly clear that she had not defined herself in that way. She had shown a little personality, but what I remember of it was mostly of the goofy-teen-girl variety – not the kind of thing that is going to get anybody other than, well, other goofy teen girls to vote for you. It might seem at first that Katie did okay when it comes to the seventh rule, which says not to argue with the judges. However, I do think there was an issue here. Katie specifically said in her pre-performance video that she was putting her frustrations with the judges into her performance. Adam Lambert further encouraged her to show the anger. And she did. I even noted at the time that she “showed some att-i-tude.” When I watched it, I thought it was a good bit of personality, but upon reflection, I’m not so sure. I think some people may have taken it as essentially flipping off the judges. She wasn’t outright arguing with them, but she was saying that she was upset at them and she was sticking it to them with her song. Even Kara said something along the lines of, “You showed us.” Indeed, she did – but what did she show? I wonder if it didn’t turn off some voters. The problem was that Katie hadn’t gathered enough of a fan base, per the eighth rule, to be able to afford turning some of them off. Certainly she had fans – otherwise she never would have made it through her more difficult times – but I think their fanaticism was waning. Plus, she faced a more difficult situation with more votes coming in and two people heading home. In another situation, she might have squeaked by in second-to-last – but that wasn’t a possibility here, and her fans weren’t up to the task. Some American Idol contestants start off strong and wane; others start off weak and build. Katie kind of started well, then went downhill, then started climbing back again. This inconsistency threw people for a loop as we (like the judges) didn’t really know what to expect from her. Katie needed to follow up a good performance with an even better one in order to get people’s attention again. She simply could not stand out among this group of contestants (really, probably not among any group of contestants) and began to fade into the background. Name the other singers and you can say something about each of them that makes them stand out. Katie? Not so much. She’s young, and she just has not yet developed either the personality or the pure talent to make herself stand out and be noticed. That is why Katie lost. Now you can follow Foxes On Idol & RealityNewsOnline on Twitter and on Facebook! On Twitter, you can get up to the minute notifications on article postings and other reality TV news by following us. So head on over to RealityNewsOnline’s Twitter page! On Facebook, you can become a fan, join discussions, and more! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent articles on Foxes On Idol & RealityNewsOnline:
Now you can follow Foxes On Idol & RealityNewsOnline on Twitter and on Facebook! On Twitter, you can get up to the minute notifications on article postings and other reality TV news by following us. So head on over to RealityNewsOnline’s Twitter page! On Facebook, you can become a fan, join discussions, and more! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent articles on Foxes On Idol & RealityNewsOnline:
David Bloomberg is the Editor of Foxes On Idol, and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com. You can also follow him on Twitter! Be sure to sign up for the RealityNewsOnline/FoxesOnIdol e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on both sites! Also make sure to check out RealityNewsOnline for recaps and articles covering other reality TV shows. For even more news about American Idol, be sure to check SirLinksALot: American Idol! View Printable version of this article
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