JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum American Idol and the wet t-shirt girl

Hi Folks,

Okay, here's my Week 2 Rankings:

1. Melinda Doolittle: She's still the class of the group. She's a supreme stylist who can beautifully phrase every line and I hope folks are learning from her. She's taken 2 really bad songs and still made them brilliant. She's as polished a professional as I have ever seen on this show and that includes the celebrity helpers involved. Her only downside is she probably doesn't appeal to a younger audience as much as she would to an older one.

2. Jordin: She's now moved solidly into second place. Her performance this week was the best of the show this year (only slightly better than Melinda's because it was a far better song) and her upside is just beyond belief. The judges were oddly unsupportive of her brilliant performance. Which plays into my theory of this American Idol season which is that it's the most blatantly manipulated show on TV and thus biased and as "fixed" as it could be without breaking the law. Listen to the comments, who they prop up, who they tear down, who they spend more time with on stage, who they set up better camera shots for, who they set up better arrangements for, who they nit pick and who they falsely praise (or worse, look the other way for when they screw up). This year's most fixed contestant is Haley. They've taken the weakest finalist and propped her up solidly so that now she's likely middle of the pack, even though her talent is still at the bottom. Her complete meltdown week 1 should have been the end, but that was manipulation as well. Other obvious things: Jordin 2 times mentioning she was without a boyfriend. Great way to pull in the young boy votes who may fantasize they have a chance with her. How about the sickening little girl who was crying throught Sanjay's performance? That was so staged and such BS. They had the camera trained on her the entire show and she was sitting at the front corner closest to the stage so she could interact. I wouldn't be shocked to learn she was a hired actress, but at the very least, she was staged in that spot. How else could they know in advance that she'd be crying if it wasn't staged? How could Simon Cowell comment about the crying little girl who was sitting behind him and let's face it, there are many little girls in the audience they could focus on.. but they chose her. FIXED FIXED FIXED. They also do things like placement of performers which manipulates things. They trashed the wet t-shirt girl 2 weeks in a row by placing the 4 strongest contestants, 2 before and 2 after her to make her look the very worst they could. How about when they have some contestants perform in the audience and others with their own personal guitarist (???) and still others who get staged to sit on the side of the stage to sing the ballad? Ack! That said.. Jordin is still the artist I would most want to sign. She could do any genre well. Sure, she's had melt downs vocally and she'll have more and probably will finish 3rd or 4th this year.. but man.. a 17 year old that talented just isn't that common.

3. Blake: I really like Blake. I think he's a legit star. But so far in the first two weeks he's underperformed. He has WAY more talent than he is showing. But soon he'll knock it out of the park and he poses the only real threat to Melinda if he can get on a roll.

4. Lakisha: Her stock is dropping as I predicted previously. Her voice isn't as amazing as people think (though it's very good) and she's got limits to her diversity that will haunt her. She's solid and talented and could win a given week, but Melinda has separated herself from Lakisha and it will take Jordin on a major roll or Blake on a major roll to challenge Melinda. I think Lakisha has lost that chance.

After the top 4.. the others are simply sitting ducks waiting for their turn in the barrel so to speak.

5. Chris Sligh: I had hopes he would become the hip rock guy that he appeared to be early. But he's actually becoming less likable as the season goes on. And he's performing at a consistenly lower level than the top 4. The good news for him is that he's clearly better than the others behind him.

6. Gina: Her days are numbered and it could as easily be this week as 4 weeks from now. But she's at least likable.

7. Stephanie: She's the generic R&B wannabe. She's more talented than the rest but also even LESS likable.. so she'll likely be gone sooner rather than later. Maybe even this week.

8. Chris R.: His stock is dropping. He simply has no vocal range. His Justin Timberlake style will likely keep little girls voting a little longer.

9. Phil: This guy sucks. But they keep propping him up. The comments about him are ridiculously positive even with his lack of talent.

10. Haley: She ranks 10th but I bet with the manipulation, she'll last longer than that. But I hear thousands of better singers a year.

11. Sanjaya: It's almost a hobby now to keep him on the show because he's so emabarrasing. The votefortheworst.com site is propping him up and I am guessing it is working. He's not likely to go away soon. Unfortunately.

My prediction for who will be voted off tonight? Stephanie. Not because of her talent but because of her personality. Who was the worst this week? Gina unfortunately. But I hope she stays around.. I'd much rather see her than the other bottom 4. The other bad performer: Chris R.

Brian