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American Idol 6: Was Melinda’s Exit the Season’s “Shocking Result”?by David Bloomberg -- 05/17/2007
View Printable version of this article At the beginning of this season, I predicted there would be a “shocking” result on American Idol. Up until now, it seemed like the prediction would turn out not to be true. I mean, sure, Sanjaya staying around was surprising if you only looked at his talent level, but the whole point is that American Idol voters don’t just look at that. Does the “shocking result” prediction apply here? Well, the main part of the prediction says that “a ‘favorite’ contestant will be voted off before a less-talented competitor.” So let’s look at that. 
Was Melinda a favorite contestant? Absolutely. This final three had no Nikki McKibbins or Jasmine Triases. While none of the final three might have shown the personalities of a Fantasia or a Taylor Hicks, they are all very good singers who deserved to be where they were. All three could be considered favorite contestants. Melinda, however, has been a favorite for longer than anybody else. Indeed, she was a favorite right out of the gate. From the first couple times we heard her sing, people already had “final two” in their minds. Of course, the same can be said about LaKisha, but LaKisha hit some bumps in the road along the way. Melinda had an extremely smooth ride. That ride was supposed to end next week, not this week. As longtime readers know, there can be several reasons for “shocking” results. Among them are vote-splitting among singers with similar styles and fan bases, and fans who don’t vote as much as they usually would because they think their fans are safe. I already addressed some of this in American Idol 6: Why Melinda Lost. But even since then, I have received e-mails from people who supported both premises, saying they thought Melinda was safe but feared for Jordin, and so they stepped up their voting for Jordin. The fan bases overlapped and voters thought Jordin was the one who needed their help. I do think the results of this week’s vote were a surprise – to the judges and fans alike. Very few people predicted that Melinda would go. Instead, it was a split between predicting Blake and Jordin (which leads us back to Jordin being in danger and Melinda being thought of as safe). And Melinda had been solid throughout the entire competition. But we have to remember that while American Idol is a singing competition, guest Peter Noone was right a number of weeks ago when he said it’s also a “voting competition.” There were three very good singers in the competition, and while Melinda might have been the best, that doesn’t automatically make her the American Idol. Only votes can do that. One part of my prediction about a shocking result is that those of us writing about American Idol end up with an overflowing mailbox. So far, that hasn’t happened. Yes, there are many articles across the Web with headlines that include the words “shocking elimination.” Yes, the traffic from readers such as yourself crashed the Foxes On Idol server this morning and caused us to move to one that could handle more traffic. But the complaints coming in have been relatively few in comparison to, for example, when Constantine Maroulis was voted out. 
The likely cause of this is that there are two other good competitors. This is not Tamyra Gray losing to Nikki McKibbin, or even Gina losing to Sanjaya. This was one good singer losing out to two other good singers – maybe not quite as good from a technical standpoint, but good nevertheless. Thus, it seems to me that while people are surprised, it is not the same kind of “this can’t possibly be happening” situation that we’ve seen in the past. That is the key. Melinda did lose out, but it was not to somebody who was many levels of talent below her. Blake and Jordin have proven themselves and either one will be able to wear the Idol crown proudly, without anybody complaining that they don’t deserve it. Some will think Melinda deserved it more, but that is a matter for history to decide. So to answer the question posed by this article: Was Melina’s exit the “shocking result”? No, it was not. This season of American Idol had many smaller surprises rather than one really big shocker. Melinda’s loss was unexpected, but that actually contributed to this very result. If people had felt she was in danger, they would have voted more for her and the results might have ended up different. But Idol can be a strange show, where being safe can result in being voted out. Watching Ryan Seacrest tell Melinda she was going home was certainly an unexpected result after the way she has performed all season, but it was not as big a shocker as we have seen in the past. And Melinda will be just fine. American Idols Live Daughtry Kelly Clarkson Clay Aiken If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent articles on Foxes On Idol and RealityNewsOnline:
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! View Printable version of this article
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