American Idol 4: Why Jared Lost

As with Melinda, Jared was another contestant on American Idol 4 who we never saw in the audition rounds leading up to the semi-final 24. And then, just like that, he was gone. Was it only because of his absence earlier, or is there more to it? Why did Jared lose?

As always, we will look at how Jared performed compared to the blueprint found in What ‘American Idol 4’ Contestants Need to Know. And also as always, the most important rule is the first: have singing and performing talent. Unfortunately, in the one chance Jared had to wow us all, he instead put us to sleep. Randy called it below average, while Simon said it was like a “ghastly boy band audition.” Meanwhile, our We’ll Be the Judge of That! contributors said things like, “No volume, no enthusiasm – can you tell I didn’t care for his performance at all?” (Brian) and “a bland, utterly forgettable performance” (Betsy). My notes from his performance totaled one word: “Yawn.”

That first rule specifically says, ““You have to impress the viewers – and you only have a few brief moments to do it.” Jared didn’t do it.

Another thing Jared didn’t do was pick a good song, thus violating the second rule. One reason for my “yawn” comment was the performance – the other was the song. As Gil wondered in “We’ll Be the Judge of That!”: “What’s the deal with the boring, monotonous song choices?” Or as Sting7 said in his recap, “Jared definitely has stage presence, and my mind reels at the number of songs he would have been just devastating with. Not this one.” That pretty well sums it up.

The third rule says, among other things, that contestants need to “treat every performance on Idol as if it could be your last” and to “be excellent every time.” Jared was not. Whether due to nerves or whatever the cause, he simply did not provide a performance that would encourage voters to flock to his side.

The fourth rule says to be unique. However, when I look at the Top 12 guys, absolutely nothing about Jared makes him stand out. He needed to do something, anything, to set himself apart. This was even more important for Jared because he had no previous airtime. As Melinda said, others had time to gain fans. He didn’t, but nor did he do anything to make himself appeal to the voters more when he had his shot.

This leads straight into the fifth rule, being memorable. As I’ve already noted, of the 12 remaining men, Jared did not stand out. But more than that, after his performance was over, I could barely remember it. Indeed, if he had not been an almost-hometown contestant (he’s from Danville, a couple hours East of me), I would not have remembered him at all.

Jared sang a safe, bland song and didn’t even do a very good job with it. That is simply not a good way to make people remember you and want to vote for you.

One thing Jared didn’t have to worry about was the sixth rule, impersonating the original singer of the song. Another is that he didn’t argue with the judges and thus was okay with the seventh rule.

However, when we get to the eighth, we are reminded that each contestant is a package. Jared, unfortunately, did not get to show his personality in the earlier episodes. However, he had the opportunity to do so in his performance and in his interaction with Ryan and the judges. Think of Bo’s performance, or Anwar’s performance. Even if we had never seen them before, we would have immediately known something about them simply from the personality that they showed. Jared? Zip.

Finally, we come to the rule about creating a fan base. Since Jared was not seen prior to his performance, he was definitely at a disadvantage here. This is added to the fact that he is from Danville, Illinois, not exactly a thriving metropolis. All the people in town could have called in and it wouldn’t have made a difference (contrast this with the way the entire state of Hawaii pulled together for a couple of its contestants last year). Jared was on the local news as the hometown boy with a chance at being the American Idol, but it simply was not enough.

Once again, it is easy to say that Jared lost simply because he was not shown previously – and it definitely did play a role. However, as I noted for Melinda, he was not the only one to face the problem of minimal airtime, and he could have overcome it. The bar was definitely set higher for him, and he would have had to leap in order to get over it, but it was not out of the question.

But rather than giving us a memorable, outstanding performance that would have catapulted him into the minds of voters, Jared gave a lackluster, below-average, yawn-inducing one. That is why Jared lost.

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

Be sure to sign up for the RealityNewsOnline/FoxesOnIdol e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on both sites! For all of our articles, check out our sections on American Idol, American Juniors, Nashville Star, and Canadian Idol. Also make sure to check out RealityNewsOnline for recaps and articles covering other reality TV shows.

For even more news about reality TV, be sure to check SirLinksALot: American Idol and Reality TV Fever!