|
|
American Idol 7: Was Michael’s Exit the Season’s “Shocking Result”?by David Bloomberg -- 04/11/2008
View Printable version of this article At the beginning of this season of American Idol, I predicted there would be a “shocking” result. Up to this point, though, things had gone along fairly smoothly. Sure, Kristy Lee Cook hung around longer than some people with more talented, but those who went pretty much were felt to have never really been a front-runner anyway. Did that change with Michael Johns? Was this the “shocking result”? Let’s take a look at that question. 
The main part of my prediction says that “a ‘favorite’ contestant will be voted off before a less-talented competitor.” We already know part of it is true because, as I mentioned, Kristy Lee is still around. But was Michael really considered a “favorite”? I would say in the audition rounds, the answer was yes. But the more he sang early on, the less he seemed to be a favorite. He later rebounded, but in the meantime, others had been already climbing the hill. If I had to point to favorites right now, I would be looking at the two Davids. Michael might have been mentioned as a possibility after one performance or another, but I don’t think that ever really stuck. So right there, we have a problem – if he wasn’t a big favorite, can the results truly be considered “shocking”? Also, I have to note that even most press articles aren’t calling it that. We’ve seen times in the past where headline after headline have called an elimination “surprising” or “shocking.” But a quick look at Google News as I’m writing this finds only two mentions of those words. Still, let’s press on. When shocking results do occur, there can be several reasons. Whether Michael’s exit is a shocker or not, some of those reasons apply here. As I discussed in Why Michael Lost, I believe he was splitting votes with fellow rocker David Cook. We know it’s happened before, pretty much in every season. We saw it with Tamyra and Kelly in the first season, then there were the three divas, and another rocker vote split occurred with Bo and Constantine. We even might have seen something similar when Chris Daughtry left. While he and Elliott were not terribly similar, there were at the time people who had supported Chris but wanted to help save Elliott when he had a bad week. This time, David Cook had the bad week, and so votes went his way. People can only devote so much time to voting, so if they’re using that time for David, it couldn’t go to Michael. As I noted in my prediction article, “This idea of voting for the one who seems likely to go runs counter to the original idea of Idol, but the fact is that diehard fans will vote more when their favorite does poorly or is otherwise in a bad situation than when they do well or are rolling along smoothly.” 
While I do think the results this week were a surprise – both to fans and the judges (did you hear the audience when Ryan announced Michael was leaving?!), that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a shocker. We’ve already discussed some things that point away from it being a true shocker. Another part of my prediction notes that when this shocker occurs, “There will be a great deal of wailing and gnashing of teeth. The e-mail inboxes of those of us who write about American Idol will fill up with messages from people who are certain that he whole competition is fixed and who will vow that they will never watch the show again.” But that hasn’t happened. So far, I have not received a single reader e-mail of that nature. Are some of us surprised? Yes. But are people writing in, outraged? No. I think that, like when Melinda left last season, a big part of the reason is that there are good competitors left. As I noted for Melinda, “This is not Tamyra Gray losing to Nikki McKibbin, or even Gina losing to Sanjaya. This was one good singer losing out to … other good singers… 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. Michael did lose, but there are several other contestants who have shown high talent levels. Sure, if he had been better earlier, he might have won Idol, but the way things went down, he was never really a huge threat. The question asked by the title of this article is whether Michael’s exit was the “shocking result” of the season. The answer is no, it wasn’t. There is still the possibility that one will happen, and I have to say that at this point I doubt the two Davids will face each other in the finale, so one of them going might be the shocker. But we’ll deal with that when it comes around. Michael’s elimination was something of a surprise. And it was probably the most unexpected result we’ve seen so far this season. But we’ll just have to wait for the Big Shocker. 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! View Printable version of this article
| Follow us on Twitter and on Facebook! On Twitter, get up to the minute notifications on article postings and other reality TV news. And become a fan on Facebook, join discussions, and more! |
and 
and you can also 
