JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum American Idol 2009

The guy who sang best Ricky never had a chance to move on by popular vote even though he outsang the rest. He had no face time (something even Paula alluded to) and when it's this format (one and done) it didn't matter how well he did. It's a clever way for the show to manipulate things and make the audience think they are getting who they want rather than who was edited properly by the producers to get votes during the run up. The fact that, if Beth is correct, they will hand pick the final 3 further guarentees that their inside picks, even if not chosen by the voters as hoped, will still get in. This will be by far the most manipulated top 12 ever.

As for Danny Gokey, he's certainly pleasing enough, but his performance Wednesday was rough at best. Simon actually was correct when he said that he wasn't quite on the bandwagon and hysteria behind Danny. He was certainly set up as a can't fail final 12 contestant and he sang well enough to move forward (talk about lack of suspense) but he's pretty reminiscent of a previous grey haired winner with a husky bluesy voice.. they should be careful what they wish for.

Michael Sarver was pleasant enough (whoever said he was "Country" hasn't paid much attention, he's been singing pop/r&b in each episode so far) but a boring prospect as an "American Idol" for sure. It seems every season they have a guy like him and he rumbles along a bit and then disappears. I'd expect more of the same again.

The show on Tuesday was pretty disappointing overall. It started strong and I thought "hmmm.. this might not be bad" and then it crashed. Then I remembered how they usually sequence things.. strong to start and then their favorites to finish and it was clear who was going to go last even before we knew who it was. Tatiana was there for pure comic relief and she actually disappointed them by being reserved. And that set up with her and Danny at the end of Wednesday was all theater.. did anyone actually think Danny wasn't winning the male slot? Especially after they spilled the beans and said that Anoop was 20K behind Michael. That made it painfully obvious that Danny had won since there's no way he finished 3rd.

In the end, we'll pretty much have the 12 people the AI producers want us to have in the finals. All of this has been a facade to make us think it was up to the public. Sure, if someone really takes off in the public vote, they'll be happy to bump one of their favorites out of a slot, but the way it's already been edited, it's unlikely for that to have a chance to happen. We saw week 1 that the strongest male voice had pretty much no chance (he at least finished 4th on the male side or worse). Even if folks thought Danny was the best male singer, does anyone really think Ricky wasn't the second best voice?

Expect more of the same in the coming weeks.

Brian