American Idol 8: Why Danny Lost

I have to tell you, I’m not terribly shocked that Danny was voted off instead of Kris. I didn’t actually predict it would happen, but feel like I half saw it coming but just wouldn’t allow myself to officially make the prediction. I’ll get more into that in a little bit, because, after all, we’re here to answer the question of why Danny lost.

Even in surprising situations – perhaps more so in surprising situations – the best way to get at that answer is to look through What ‘American Idol 8’ Contestants Need to Know and see what we can glean from its pages. Let’s get right to it!

Of prime importance is the first rule, which says contestants need to sing and perform well. Certainly by now, all three of the finalists should be well enough known, but there were some 24 million more votes cast this week as compared to just last week. There is no way to know if those came from casual viewers who started to tune in more as the season winds down or if it’s the superfans dialing that much more. But I think it’s safe to say at least some of those votes came from people who were judging based mostly on this week’s performances. So how did Danny do?

The first song didn’t bring out much good or bad from the on-site judges. In general, they felt he did well (in singing, though not dancing), but not terrific. As for his second, the judges were definitely more upbeat. Indeed, Simon went so far as to call it “a vocal master class.” Pretty good!

How did our Foxes On Idol writers feel about Danny’s performances? Recapper Jenn felt the first one was “kind of boring” and the second was “eh” and again left her bored.

Our We’ll Be the Judge of That! panel was fairly split. Tyler called Danny’s first a “forgettable performance” that “seemed run-of-the-mill.” But he felt his second was “incredible.” Preston “loved the energy” of the first performance (obviously, he wasn’t watching the same thing Jenn and Tyler were!) and called the second Danny’s “best performance yet in the competition.” As for me, I thought the first was “okay, maybe even good” (not exactly a ringing endorsement) and felt the second was predictable yet showed his vocal abilities well.

Over at The NGH Report, Joseph ranked Danny last of the three, saying he “had a mixed night.” He felt the first song was “nothing special” while the second was “ridiculously perfect.”

So, overall, Danny received praise but not a lot of exuberance – and even that praise was somewhat split. Not quite what you’re looking for when trying to get into the finale.

Did Danny’s song choice play into this? Well, Paula chose the first song, so we can’t blame him for that – but we can blame her. Should we? Eh, I don’t think so. He did need an up-tempo number there – she was right about that. But that song wasn’t the one that won him praise. We’ll call it a draw.

As for his second song, it did get a lot of positive attention from the on-site judges and the Foxes On Idol group. However, it was just so predictable! Yes, contestants want to show what they will be like as recording artists, but my biggest conclusion was that I would not be buying any album Danny puts out. I’m wondering if there are a lot of others like me out there who might admire Danny’s singing ability but not be terribly interested in listening to it.

The third rule deals with consistency issues. Danny has been a bit up and down in this regard. He was great in the early goings but then seemed to coast for a bit. He kicked it up but then also bit off more than he could chew with Aerosmith. I think many viewers may have ultimately reached the conclusion that Danny really only sings well in a limited genre range – and if you don’t like those genres, you’re not going to like Danny.

Another aspect is that, like Allison before him, Danny did not have anywhere near the number of “oh wow” performances as Kris and Adam did. He rarely did anything too horrible, but that was balanced by his lack of terrific performances.

In this way, Danny was similar to another prior frontrunner who was sent packing in the week before the finale – Melinda from two seasons ago. As my cohort and co-predictor Sting7 mentioned to me after the results, Melinda had faded a bit down the stretch. Similarly, Danny had a few weeks where he appeared to go into “coast” mode. Meanwhile, Adam was absolutely bringing down the house and Kris kept finding new, different, and unique ways to perform his songs.

In terms of the fourth rule, being unique, I think Danny did a pretty good job. I wouldn’t call him unique throughout the eight-season run of the show, like Adam and, to some extent, Kris. However, he wasn’t really competing against anybody like himself and thus splitting votes. So he was fine in that regard.