LAST EDITED ON 05-22-09 AT 03:33 PM (EST)

This begins a list of what is pimpage. I've identified 30 different ways so far that the show uses pimpage. This is a fluid list and can be added to as needed. Please post any additional ways you can think of that the show uses pimpage!

The irony this year is that the pimpage was so over the top for Adam, who imo did not need the extreme pimpage, that it appears to have backfired on the show's agenda of annointing Adam as the winner. In any case, here are several ways the show uses pimpage, 1-10:

1. The pimp spot. Singing last in the top 12 through the top 3 (or even the semifinals) is like getting a bye for the week. Go directly to the next week's competition. There have been less than a handful of exceptions to the pimp spot magic in 8 seasons. Anthony F in the top 4 in season 4,; Melinda D in the top 3 in season 6 are two that come to mind. Even so, those two were late in the game when fan bases were very strong. This season Anoop was booted after his F7, round 2 pimp spot; he was eliminated along with Lil Rounds. But the week before we had the unprecedented “save” enacted for Matt, so that changed up the usual flow of the eliminations, putting Matt’s fan base on alert to keep him around at least one more week. So Anoop got axed after Lil. Presumably, the eliminations would have been Matt at F7, Lil at F6, leaving Anoop to go at F5, so the pimp spot would have worked.

Why is the pimp spot so important? No one has ever gotten to the F4 without one, for starters. Some in the top 12 never get one, like Phil Stacey in season 6 who had a pimp spot in the semifinals but never had a pimp spot in the top 12 while Jordin Sparks got the pimp spot 3x from top 12 to top 4 that season, or this season‘s Danny Gokey who got a pimp spot in the semifinal rounds, but did not get one in the top 13, while Adam had pimp spots not only in the semifinals, and at top 8, top 5, top 4, and top 3. At least Danny advanced further than Phil, making it to F3.

2. Singing order. The majority of the bottom 3 in any week in the earlier weeks of the top 12 comes from those who sing in the first half of the competition. It's a way for the producers to favor someone, like Adam, who rarely sang in the first half of the show, and did not sing in the first half of the show until he sang 3rd on the stage at F7, round 1.

This year, top 11-top 7: 10 of the 15 bottom 3 contestants on results night had sung in the first half of the show (and from top 11 through the top 8 it was 9 of the 12 or 75% --and Adam had always sung in the last half of the show through the top 8. Adam didn’t open the show until the F4 when they producers added duets to the evening and gave Adam both the opening and the closing spot on the show. Very clever! Way to mitigate the impact of having to be the one to open the show!

3. Judges' comments. These can be pimping or de-pimping. Depends on the agenda more than the performance. Good performances can get panned, like Randy calling Kris's performance of "Falling Slowly" pitchy but read any media review of that week's show and no one agrees with Randy. Mediocre performances can get pimped. Jordin Sparks was given a lot of early pimpage with the "OMG! You are only 17!" type of comments. Danny Gokey this season got superlatives when “just alright” was more like it.

4. Audience perception building comments from the judges--a special subset of the judges' weekly critiques: "You're through to the end!" "You're the frontrunner!" "You are the one to beat" "The best performance of the night" "The best performance of the season!" or even the lessor "Your best performance so far!" Agenda much, AI? What about the comment Simon made to Matt this week as he was granting him the "save"? "How many times have you been in the bottom 3? ...You'll never win". So Matt got saved, but the audience was told not to invest much more in Matt.

5. Judges' predictions and comments to the media. Each year the judges are on talk shows early into the top 12 stage of the competition. They anoint some contestants as the likely winners. There's no hiding this agenda! They return again before the F3 to pimp their agenda. This year that backfired a bit when Kris Allen and Adam were anointed the F2 instead of the Danny G-Adam L F2 that Simon and others were asserting. And now we know that Kris won, this over the top pimping seems to have backfired on the judges and producers. But they tried mightily.

6. Song choice, part 1. We've heard from several contestants over the seasons how they had to go through a handful of songs before getting clearance to sing one on the show; some have had to change songs the day before the show due to clearance issues. This gives a contestant less time to rehearse and be prepared to sing well on performance night.

7. Behind the scenes vocal coaching. Carmen Rasmussen detailed in an article last year how some contestants get scant coaching while others get a lot of attention and help. In her season Clay got the ample time with the vocal coaches.

ETA link: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695271435,00.html

8. Styling. Some contestants seem to get a lot of help in their total style presentation and others seem to flounder. Jennifer Hudson in season 3 comes to mind; especially the silver dress. Poor style choices become a way for the judges, especially Simon, to tear down a contestant. This year at times he picked on Allison’s apparel instead of focusing on her vocals.

See the link in point #7 above; Carmen discusses style in that same article, Carly in season 7.

9. Song arrangement/background singers. Sometimes we should wonder how some arrangements are chosen. Classic AI is the arrangement that overpowers the singer, competing with them as they perform, nearly drowning them out. Or the background singers sing flat. Really flat. Which could throw off a singer who has a "follower" type of voice. MJ of Mjsbigblog calls the band “bandzilla” when they overshadow the singer. This year Adam had a background singer singing off key and really loudly during his performance of “Cryin’”. A lesser performer may have crumbled.

10. Performance presentation. Having a semi-circle of string players surrounding the performer (David Cook); or the artfully arranged box drums and drummer (Kat McPhee); or the solo guitarist accompanying the performer who is starting the song from a seated position on the steps. Who is coaching them through this? Who is deciding the semi-circle of strings players? Adam L said in an interview that he had made suggestions to the production staff for his presentation (chair for Mad World, the steps in another song) but who decides that Adam gets to use the staircase and someone else does not? There have been interviews and comments with former contestants mentioning that they asked for production things (that someone else who was favored received) and were turned down.