It seemed like they did a lot to try to manufacture a moment, speaking of blazing pianos. I wonder if all the added lets try to make a wow diluted the ability of anyone to have a truly wow moment.

Most of the wows I think of from the past had something different about the performance (besides the vocals) but there was a simplicity to it and it stood out, rather than be just one more what will they set on fire this week.

In trying to do more X-factor look at the amazing staging (from what I've seen of British X-factor clips) and give more people more stuff every week I think it took away from that one simple amazing vocal. Didn't help that when people did a simpler presentation they didn't kill it.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out when we start seeing the music being released. Will any of their voices be enough to make a hit when you don't have the visuals that were added to the show to carry the performance. Sure Cee Lo and Gaga do something visually memorable in their performances, but they also have good enough songs and vocals to sell a lot of records/downloads and get radio play.

Although it does also depend on getting songs with a good hook and all that. I'm not sure anyone could make a big hit out of some of the dreck that gets thrown the way of most Idol contestants.