Yep, in general I agree with the article. As has been mentioned on this board before though, you can't really change the voting strategy from voting for the Best to voting for the Worst. It would make it too easy for people to get together (say like on a message board like this) and sabotage the vote by all agreeing to pick the same person to vote off.

Sorry, this article is old news. AI is a democracy. You vote according to your passion. Who are the people that see the Idols on tour? "The people". Who are the ones who go buy their CD's? "The people". This voting format results in great and shocking TV and helps 19E get the right singer.

managerr -- you are missing the point about what I like about this article -- I am thrilled that the mainstream media is pointing out the problems with these fanatical fans who keep voting for their favs. regardless of whether they deserve to stay in, but because they are so "cute" etc. Also, I really like the descriptions of the performers -- for example, Diana as "robotic" -- as another poster observed, there was always something that bothered me about her, this article nailed it. Now, I don't know if I agree that the public should vote "off" someone as being fairer -- that is not why I liked the article. Furthermore, AI is NOT a democracy -- a democracy means one person one vote, not who has more time to waste hitting "redial" all night long.

compliments of GeorgiaBelle

All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way

Thanks for sharing, Kiki. It is a good article. And it pinpoints what's been bugging me about Diana. I couldn't put my finger on it and the article calls her "robotic".

Thanks again!

Thanks for pointing this out. An excerpt from the article which I agree with (and will incur the wrath of JPL fans)

Jon Peter Lewis is a perfect example of a guy who really isn't very good, but has People anyway. They're the ones who fell in love with him during his bizarre performance of "A Little Less Conversation," which featured bad singing, apparent loss of motor control, and quite possibly appendicitis.

America cringed, but his People found his convulsive "dancing" adorable, and from here on out, they cannot be swayed by any number of mediocre showings. He could get up on stage in a given week, wave, spit on the floor, and leave, and they would dutifully vote for him for two solid hours. So far, they're keeping him in the game.

Maybe an answer is to have a free vote for those you want to stay in the competition but PAY for those you want to boot. (and have some weighted formula of bootee votes vs. safe votes). I know I would have paid good money to have Carmen booted last year and Camille this year (she is like totally ruining my ptte and anti-bootee games )

I don't know, I don't like people voting for who you want to boot. That opens up all sorts of trouble. For all we know, Bill Gates despise Latoya London and then ends up single handedly eliminating her.

Technology being what it is, AI could program their phones to accept a limited number of votes from any phone number. Maybe they would set it to between 6 - 10 to accomodate different household members. This would put an end to the people who use telemarketing phone dialers or the "People" who dial endlessly for 2 hours.

However, even though the technology exists, AI would never use it. I think it boosts their ego to be able to say, "This week we had 18 million votes!" "This week we had 22 million votes!" "This week we had 25 million votes!"

Thanks to greenmonstah for the sig pic!

Remember though, Ryan Seacrest has trouble with numbers that have a lot of zeros. The lower number may work to his advantage if he has to read it off of a cue card.

Excellent article, especially:

the People are systematically ruining it for everyone. The People must be stopped.

I can safely say that the most talented of all AI finalists have not won an American Idol yet and I expect the current one to be no differnet.

I'm just dreading the day when Fantasia gets voted off because of The People and, yet, the living prime example of what is wrong with the show, JPL, remains.

We all know that if it had been left up to The People that William Hung would be the winner of AI3, and I don't think words have been invented yet that describe how, er, special that is.

This is going to date me, but the AI voting pattern reminds me of back in the day when MTV ran that "So You Wanna Be a VJ" Contest (or something like that). The first year they let the viewers pick the winner and they ended up with that weird freak Jesse (who was actually a prep school kid from Connecticut). MTV was so annoyed that they had to give this clown a year long show that they changed the rules the next year to limit the public's input so that they could actually pick a talented winner, not just an amusing freak.

So, why couldn't AI either limit the number of votes per phone number (which other shows already do) or combine the public eliminations with a judge elimination (like Nashville Star) until they get to the final five. That way you're more likely to get a final five who can actually sing. The "people" might mind, but I'm guessing the general public would be thrilled.

Wow, I remember that but I can't remember if I liked him or not.

Anyway, I like the idea of combining the "People" vote in with the judges votes. Combining that with a rotating music star (eliminate Randy) judge and a rotating/random industry judge (move Paula to guest host) I think that would be the ideal show.

Hopefully this would eliminate a "few" of the love letters or fans keeping the losers making a mockery of the show on every week.

I hope to God somebody is listening that can actually do something about this but I won't hold my breath. Since this show has incarnations all over the world, I severly doubt the formula will change BUT hopefully there might be a large exodus from the show (ratings) once they realize that JPL or Big Red or Camile are in the final 3.

Can you imagine a JPL, Camile, Big Red final 3? Talk about a Murderer's Row! My dogs might enjoy howling along, though...

It's 8pm on Tuesday -- do you know where your song is?

Can I imagine? Yes

Will I imagine? No

If it happens, will I, like Elton John, throw the TV out the window? You betcha!

That would be awesome! It would be like Cupid, except that everyone got stuck with Robert!