I liked Jennifer.... but refresh my memory. Wasn't she on the same season as Latoya? Latoya was my favorite that season. Wait, that was the season Fantasia won....

*batts is getting his seasons mixed up*

Ever since Entertainment Weekly picked her as an early Oscar favorite in their holiday movie preview, I've been psyched about this movie's opening. Her reviews have been incredible. Over on www.rottentomatoes.com, there are links to reviews that repeatedly mention how amazing she is. In a movie that's getting strong reviews, she's consistently being singled out as the strongest performance in the movie.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/15/DDGR7MV5CG1.DTL

Jennifer was, I believe, on during Fantasia's season. She was chunky. There, I said it. I think she got voted out (with the assistance of commentary from Simon) because she wasn't thin 'n' cute and she didn't have, like, Hawaii as a home base. She can sing RINGS around every Idol female except sometimes Kelly. I was really peeved when she got voted off. I actually voted for her and I rarely voted when I watched Idol (I just bitched a lot).

The irony is, the role she plays in Dreamgirls kind of addresses the image versus talent theme, so it's a perfect vehicle. I can't wait to see it now.

>Jennifer was, I believe, on during Fantasia's season. She was
>chunky. There, I said
>it. I think she
>got voted out (with the
>assistance of commentary from Simon)
>because she wasn't thin 'n'
>cute ............

Can't see how you think Jennifer got voted out BECAUSE she wasn't thin & cute,
yet Fantasia WON and she definitely IS NOT thin & cute, so ????????? IMO there were several who could sing circles around Fantasia. She screamed more than she sang (& probably still does).

My thoughts is that Jennifer, La Toya and Fantasia were similar style singers and they split the vote for that style ampung trhemselves. It haad nothing to do with her weight.

Nothing to do with her weight? Let's look.

I'll take a cursory look using nothing more than my eyes and opinions of their singing, specifically of the finish of "chunky" (or overweight) FEMALE contestants and the quality of their voice/performances.

Note one: No season one, as I did not see it and cannot impose my own opinions on others on that season

Note two: I eliminated overweight males, since honestly, it doesn't seem to hurt guys that much. Of course, being a fat male is usually more "acceptable" to mainstream culture

Note three: I avoiding slightly "overweight" contestants. Ones who aren't stick thin, but not noticeably overweight, don't count

Season Two:
The only finalist that really applies is Kimberley Locke, and while I believe she was near the level of Clay and Ruben, I don't think her size hurt her any. I don't really think she's that big either, but simply getting on to American Idol as a female who isn't thin is tough.

Season Three:
Jennifer Hudson got completely robbed. I thought she was the best of the three "divas". Still, Latoya and Fantasia had notable talent, but I thought they were at least close to the naked ear and blind eye. So, why did Hudson go out sixth, LaToya fourth, and Fantasia didn't? More importantly, why did John Stevens outlast here, and Jasmine Trias. I doubt we'll ever know for sure. With Stevens and Trias, their markets were huge: teenage girls and Hawaii (who had no clogged phones from other markets in the second case). With George Huff, he was the only guy left that could sing many genres. Diana Degarmo? Dunno there, but it was always her or Hudson in the Bottom Three...

Still, based on talent, you can't really put Hudson lower than third. But when the markets come in, with Hudson fighting for three spots, maybe the physical attributes came in to play, maybe they didn't. I can't say for sure.

Season Four:
Can't find a good example here

Season Five:
Mandisa. Really the example and IMO, the best argument for the negative impact of weight. Many people believed she was the best female singer in the competition when the Final 12 was chosen (I thought she was the second best behind Ms. McPhee). She hadn't been in the Bottom Three until the week she was booted after she did poorly on country night (IMO, I didn't like her performance). In fact, only two other Top Twelve contestants didn't receive a B3 or B2 appearance before getting voted off: Melissa McGhee (12th place, no chance there), and Kellie Pickler (that was a bit confusing, although she had been horrid many, many weeks. Wonder why it caught up).

From what I can see here, there are only two really good pre-emptive boot examples among overweight females in Jennifer Hudson and Mandisa, both I think went several spots too early. One had no warning, but Hudson had been in the B3 twice before.

I'm trying to find a trend here. But we only have two good examples for people who got eliminated early and who were more than nominally overweight, and only one example of an overweight female who got to where she belonged in the rankings.

So you make an interesting point that I never looked into: maybe weight isn't as much as problem to voters as I thought. I still think Mandisa and Jennifer Hudson were negatively affected by their weight, but I always thought it was much worse. It seems like overweight males have little to no problem.

Of course, overweight people getting on the show seems to be the bigger challenge.

LAST EDITED ON 01-09-07 AT 05:53 PM (EST)

Simon was constantly whining about her clothes, her hair, her style...he consistently champions non-talents like Carmen because he finds the "package" easier to sell with what he thinks is a commercial "look." He never actually said Jennifer was chunky and therefore not star material, but I felt it was a tacit leitmotif to his inane commentary that season.