American Idol 3: Why Are We Surprised?

In my article on Why Jennifer Lost, I noted that I had planned to write an article discussing why the three divas would not make it into the Final 3, and how one of them would certainly be booted sooner rather than later. Obviously, sooner came sooner than even I expected.

Today, the e-mails have been flooding in, message boards have been hopping, discussions around the office water cooler have been heated. I’ve heard the voting called a “travesty,” a “joke,” etc. We’ve even had several people nominate the producers and/or the voters for the Reality TV Hall of Shame.

There have been all sorts of conspiracy theories floated. Some people believe the Bottom 3 was a farce and that the producers are controlling the results. Others think that Jennifer truly did get the lowest votes, but that Fantasia and LaToya were not really in the Bottom 3 – they were just put there to kick-start fan voting.

I hear the same thing everywhere. How can somebody like John Stevens still be on the show while Jennifer Hudson leaves? It’s impossible! It’s not right! It’s the end of the show as we know it! It’s the Apocalyse.

I have one response: It’s American Idol.

Two words: Nikki McKibbin. Two more words: Joshua Gracin.

Do people really have such short memories? Every year we go through this. When will we get used to it?

We should be used to the fact that some good singers will fall by the wayside while not-so-good singers continue. Christina Christian was voted off fairly early on Idol. Tamyra was sent home before Nikki – who made it to third place! And the first season of the show has been inducted into the Reality TV Hall of Fame!

On the second season, Carmen stuck around much longer than she should have. And Josh Gracin added to that pain by staying around even longer. Do we not remember? There were heated debates about whether people should vote for Josh just because he’s a Marine. There were arguments about whether it should be a popularity contest or a singing contest.

Basically, we’re in a major case of déjà vu here. And it is something that will happen every year, at least once, probably more often.

Let me tell you right now – this is not the last time this season that we will be shocked. Fantasia and LaToya will not be in the Final 2. Mark my words.

I do think this week’s results will spur some people to vote when they hadn’t been previously. Will it last more than a couple weeks? And what will it mean, overall? It’s too hard to say yet. But it would not surprise me to see John Stevens in the Final 4 – or higher. It would not surprise me to see LaToya or Fantasia leave in two or three weeks.

Please don’t read this article as saying the status quo is just fine. I don’t think Jennifer should have gone home. Hell, I don’t think Amy Adams should have gone home before John Stevens! But it’s just not that surprising to me, and won’t be the next time it happens, either. If Fox and/or the producers really wanted to fix the "problem" of the show being a popularity contest, they could fix it without needing the judges or Ryan to complain at us. All they need to do is cap the number of times a person can vote on a given phone. Heck, they could even turn it into a marketing ploy with AT&T by saying you can only call 25 times from a phone, but can text message all you want! (I think the cost of text messaging would put a natural cap on the possibility of massive text message campaigns.)

While the possibility of allowing viewers to vote out a person rather than voting to keep them has often been floated, I don’t necessarily think it’s is a good idea. Often, just as there are fan bases for people, there are also anti-fans who would not care about ability and turn it into a reverse popularity contest. For example, under such a scenario, I doubt that somebody like Fantasia would win, because it seems there are as many Fantasia-haters out there as there are Fantasia-fans.

If the producers want to stop the madness, it is within their powers to do so. And, frankly, I think it would make for more accurate results. If they don’t, though (and they’ve shown no indication they really do want to), then this will continue to happen. The only thing that viewers can do is to continue to support the most talented contestants and hope their votes overpower those who are calling in for reasons other than pure talent alone.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of Foxes On Idol, and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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