American Idol 7: Why Joanne Lost

Joanne did not come into Wednesday night’s performance with a huge amount of press, but nor was she an unknown. However, she left Wednesday night with a number of people predicting her demise. Indeed, that is what came to be. What happened to her? Why did Joanne lose?

The cutting has now begun, and is going four at a time. We’ve already addressed Why Amy Lost and will get to the guys later. For now, we’re looking at Joanne, and doing so in the same way we will be doing it until May – by looking back at What ‘American Idol 7’ Contestants Need to Know in order to determine what went wrong.

First and most important in all of our discussions – but certainly not the only factor (or these would be very short articles) – is that a contestant must sing and perform well. How did Joanne do in this regard? Not exactly great.

Randy and Paula saw Joanne’s nerves showing through. Heck, even Ryan commented on it. Simon said it was “substandard” and didn’t like it at all. Recapper Jenn thought it wasn’t the greatest.

Among the " target="_blank">We’ll Be the Judge of That! panel, Kathy and Bruce both pointed to problems in her lower register and neither of them were impressed. Sandy and I felt her voice was overpowered by the music and back-up singers and didn’t find much standing out in the performance. All of us but Bruce picked Joanne to leave. In other columns here on Foxes On Idol, Sting7 ranked Joanne ten out of twelve, saying she “did not deliver a performance that inspires any confidence that she can win this thing.” And Joseph Banks, in his NGH Report, also placed her tenth, calling her “bland.”

It seems pretty clear-cut that Joanne did not exactly knock the ball out of the park with this performance. Indeed, the only two women who were consistently ranked lower here on Foxes On Idol were Amy (who also was sent home) and Kristy Lee Cook (who probably pulled some votes from her appearances on early episodes).

One of the reasons that could have played a part in this relates to the second rule and Joanne’s song choice. She had obviously done better in the past, but this song did not provide her with a means of showing what she can truly (maybe) do.

Still, the third rule notes that contestants need to be consistent and able to sing in different genres. While this was the first time we’d seen Joanne give a full performance, the judges had seen her multiple times before, of course. During the results show, Simon noted that what we saw was her worst performance so far. The first week of the semi-finals is obviously not the time to have your sub-par performance.

I do think Joanne stood out somewhat this season, thus following the fourth rule – though she had little say in the matter. We know that she’s a plus-size model, making her stand out a bit in this group. But really, that’s about all we got to know about her, and that wasn’t enough to bring in the votes.

When I was discussing the contestants to watch among the top 24, I thought Joanne might be memorable, thus following the fifth rule. Unfortunately, she didn’t really give herself a chance. By performing so poorly her first time out, she didn’t really have an opportunity to stick in our brains.

I do think if she had done better this time, she could have followed the sixth rule and presented herself as a package. Even in what little we saw about her, she seemed very comfortable with who she was and how she sang. That comfort, however, didn’t make it to the stage with her.

The seventh rule, which tells contestants not to argue with the judges, didn’t apply here. So we can skip to the eighth. The advice there is for contestants to create a fan base. Again, given a chance I think Joanne could have done that. But she had a problem – the only people who were really worse than her were the other woman who was cut and a young lady who succeeded at this rule. Joanne may have had some fans out there – I heard some rumblings to that effect – but they weren’t enough to save her.

If Joanne had just done a little better, or if a couple of the unknowns (as opposed to Kristy Lee Cook) had done a little worse, Joanne might have had a chance to stick around. She needed to make it past this one week, to give a stellar performance that would make people remember her as a singer and a person. But she didn’t do that. Whether it was nerves or a bad song choice or a combination of that and other factors, Joanne had her worst performance when she needed her best. And that is why Joanne lost.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent articles on Foxes On Idol:

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! 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!