Posts Tagged ‘Results’

Top 24 Results: A Surprise, But Not Without Reason

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Controversy and shock exits are part of Idol. Usually, however, it takes a few weeks for something in that department to happen. This year? Surprise right out of the gate.

Let’s break down all the boots. Ashley Rodriguez was something of a surprise, but largely because I read the tea leaves wrong: I put her safe thinking that her fanbase (as measured by the Twitter/Facebook/MySpace numbers) would be enough to delay her exit by at least one week. Unfortunately, I forgot one of my basic rules making that pick: the Idolsphere != the Idol voting base. Ooops. On pure merit alone, she deserved to go home – although if that was the deciding factor, more than two girls could have gone home.

The story was the same for Janell Wheeler. Let’s be blunt: both Ashley and Janell were trainwrecks. True, they weren’t the absolute worst – Haeley had that dubious spot – but they stank. If you stink, you usually get sent home. I was wrong on my picks, but I don’t mind too much – neither boot was really too outrageous.

As for the guys… this is what happens when you have a genuine trainwreck episode. The What Not to Sing numbers aren’t in yet, but it’s going to be ugly. (Hello, Tim Urban.) This early in the season, without the fanbases solidified yet, if the viewers at home don’t see anything really worthwhile to vote for, the preshow fanbases come into play – and there are lots of factors that come into play there that don’t include singing. Essentially, it comes down whether enough people like Contestant X or not.

Unfortunately, both Tyler Grady and Joe Munoz had issues in this department. Joe Munoz had practically been unheard from before the show. With a lot of hindsight, it’s easy to see that Tyler could have rubbed people the wrong way. My view that Tyler was good is clearly something of a minority view, so let’s put Tyler and Joe at about midcard in terms of overall performance (in the eyes of the wider Idol voting audience.) That made them vulnerable if something odd happened. And it did.

They both ran into the mother of all Sesame Street effects. With so many trainwrecks, there were a lot of power voters energized to vote to “Save Contestant X!” Neither Joe nor Tyler got that. Joe was essentially anonymous. Tyler was okay, but not so overwhelmingly good that he had the uncommitted voters breaking his way. He didn’t really have people who voted for him just because they found him likable (think, say, Andrew Garcia). It’s not really a shock vote. It’s a surprise, too, but both found themselves in the middle of the perfect Idol storm of bad singing from others, being not as likable as the rest of the field, and the fluke of the calendar (this probably would not have happened any other week except this one.)

What should we expect next week? The big question mark is whether the pimped favorites – Katie Stevens and Andrew Garcia – really are worthy of their supposed favorite status. Neither really distinguished themselves this week; they’ll be under severe pressure to succeed this week. I would not be surprised if one of them does not make it into the top 12.

Here’s something to keep in mind. Almost every year, someone stands out head and shoulders over the rest of the field  in their first week. Sometimes it’s someone we hadn’t heard before (case in point: Allison Iraheta), sometimes it’s a favorite confirming why they were a favorite in the first place. This year? None of that. NFL-style parity has arrived on American Idol.

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Posted in Season Nine | Comments Off

Top 7 Results: Execution Delayed

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

Normally Quentin Tarantino movies are distinguished by the high body count, so there’s a touch of irony that this week the Idol body count was zero. The judges turned out to be in a better mood than a decent chunk of America tends to be on Tax Day, and gave Matt Giraud a reprieve.

It’s an amusing idea that somehow Matt is on the same level as everyone else who got mentioned earlier on the season. He isn’t even close. He can have his moments – So Small was his best one – but of late he’s been tanking, to put it mildly. On that level, his elimination was not some great injustice that needed to be remedied.

I said at the start of the season that the Judges’ Save was largely intended for favorites who ended up in trouble, and I stand by that statement. What changed, however, was that the original planned recipients – Danny and Adam – turned out not to need them at all. Danny has been “singing to a level” in a sense – he does well enough to not become a target for elimination, if not much better.

As for Adam, he’s managed to avoid turning in another Ring of Fire that was just as likely to hurt as help him. That was the real danger for Adam, and even if he turned one in next week his fanbase is probably strong enough by now to insure that won’t be a problem either.

Realistically, then, the judges now had a veto they didn’t exactly plan on having at this stage. So why use it now? They essentially had to. Not using the veto would probably have caused another furor: if would have been derided as nothing more than a ratings stunt, it would be raising the tension for contestants unnecessarily, etc. Considering, too, that they had a perfect candidate for saving earlier in the season (Alexis Grace), not using it would probably have been another public relations gaffe Idol didn’t really need.

With that in mind, it didn’t really matter how well or how poorly the last placer did – so long as it wasn’t bad enough that the judges couldn’t possibly justify saving him/her. Matt wasn’t quite that bad, and he has been good before.

Realistically, the only thing that got saved was the judges’ – and producers’ – bacon. Matt’s still departing sooner rather than later – but it avoids a possible furor down the road. It was done strictly for dramatic – and PR – purposes. This wasn’t the grandiose idea that was proposed at the start of the season to save Those Who Left Too Soon.

The Road to the Finale: With only five weeks remaining in the Idol season, we’re all definitely entering the homestretch. Whether that’s good or bad, well… your mileage may definitely vary.

Let’s take a look at the seven remaining contestants and see what they all need to do to get to the finale. They’re ranked in order of likeliest to make it there:

1. Adam Lambert

I’d rather not say that Adam is sure to make it to the finale. After all, I said that of Melinda Doolittle two seasons ago – and look how that ended up.

Still, Adam is still the safest bet in this field to get that far. His main challenge is twofold: avoid turning in one (or more) Ring of Fire-like disasters, and guarding against a complacent fan base. A good analogy here is Chris Daughtry: everyone thought he was headed to the finale, but two so-so performances (at best) and a fanbase that became complacent (due to Katharine McPhee’s twin trainwrecks that same night) ended up sending him home at the final four.

Another similar situation is can be found in Season Six. In the final three, Melinda Doolittle did well with all three of her songs. Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks turned in only one good performance each; the rest weren’t all that well received. Melinda’s fanbase – never the strongest to begin with – relaxed, Blake’s and Jordin’s voted like mad… and Melinda went out in third.

Still, overall, you have to like Adam’s chances of making it to the finale. In another season, things might have been different – but as it is, it looks good for him.

2. Kris Allen

Kris came into the competition with little in the way of hype, but he’s gradually emerged as a serious competitor. In fact, in our opinion, he’s stronger than the somewhat overrated Danny Gokey.

His biggest advantage over Gokey is actually pretty simple: he’s been singing better over the past few weeks. In addition, he’s established what kind of artist he is much more successfully than Danny has.

It doesn’t hurt, either, that in many ways he’s the exact opposite of Adam style-wise. Most of the time, Idol finalists tend to be have very different musical styles. Winning in Idol is all about building and keeping fanbases, and contestants sharing even parts of their fanbases are liable to go by the wayside until there’s no sharing.

3. Danny Gokey

In the Idol dictionary, Danny’s picture would be beside the word “coasting”. He’s been living off the early show speculation that established him as a front-runner… even if his performances of late show that he may not completely deserve to be called one.

Consider this: since his version of Jesus, Take The Wheel Danny has stumbled through the competition at best. The only reason he hasn’t gone home in the month that has passed since then is there have been others who were even worse. Ouch.

In normal circumstances,  this would be a recipe for a quick exit. For all of Danny’s problems, though, he still has less than everyone else – which is why he’s still #3 in our list (and, in effect, our power rankings).

That said, his only real hope of getting to the finale is really hoping that Kris makes a mistake. To some degree, they share some of their fanbases – and it’s unlikely that Danny’s has gained any ground in the past month. Danny and Kris will ultimately have to square off for that fanbase, and despite the (over)praise the judges have given Danny, Kris is likely to come out on top.

On the other hand, if Danny were suddenly to get a lot better he could easily steal the thunder from Kris – and with the judges (and a lot of other writers) generally overrating Danny, he could catch up in a hurry. Is it likely? Probably not, but this is Idol-land, where strange and funny things happen.

The one wildcard here is that it’s possible that Danny may have a silent, but powerful fanbase. I’ve seen it claimed that Danny has a large Christian fan base, and because that’s a group that’s traditionally not well-represented in the Idolsphere it’s hard to be completely confident about how much it’s helping Danny. Ultimately, Idol is a singing competition, and I think that whatever his off-stage pluses, it’ll come down to the fact that Danny is not singing that well.

However, I could be wrong in that, and if Idol is becoming the latest battlefield in the Culture Wars with Adam and Danny as proxies in that, well… let’s just say that development could have long-standing effects on the show itself. Few of which I’d be convinced are good.

4. Allison Iraheta

There’s no doubt about Allison’s raw talent. You can make a decent argument, in fact, that she’s the best female rocker Idol‘s ever had. However, she has the same problem another vocally gifted rocker, Carly Smithson, had last year: she can’t get people to care very much.

Of late, she’s also been suffering from consistency issues as well: she’s been alternating well-received performances with not so good ones. Again, this is not a formula for building a fanbase.

Allison’s biggest problem, though, is she’s splitting fan bases: part of the rock vote is going to Adam. How much… it’s hard to say, but given Allison’s weak fanbase – she’s already been in the bottom group twice, any splitting is going to hurt her more than Adam.

On the flip side, though, even when Allison is “bad” she’s not really dreadful the way others can be when they have their off night. She’s a good enough singer to at least avoid sounding like an utter mess – which is better than some of the rest can claim.

5. Anoop Desai

Here’s a caveat to the rankings for Anoop on down. Realistically, none of the bottom three have a realistic chance of making it to the finale. It’s not impossible – stranger things have happened on the Idol stage – but I wouldn’t put any money on it, no matter what the odds are. There are really two near-independent competitions going on – one among the top four, and another for the bottom three.

Like Danny, Anoop has largely been living on pre-show hype. If anything, he’s been even more of a disappointment. His best performance came in the Top 11, and even that didn’t become a breakout moment, being buried by Matt Giraud’s So Small and Adam Lambert’s famous (or infamous) Ring of Fire.

His fanbase may have gotten him through the start, but its growing at about the same pace the US economy is right now – in short, not at all. Three straight trips to the bottom three? That doesn’t speak well of his fanbase. In another season, he’d be gone by now.

However, in all fairness, Anoop has been decent the past two weeks. That’s not saying much, but it’s out there. If Allison tanks badly enough, he could make it through to the final four, but probably not any longer. The flip side is also true, though: if Matt or Lil improve next week, with a double elimination Anoop is unlikely to survive.

6. Matt Giraud

Yes, you’ve got that right. The guy who would otherwise have gone home isn’t the cellar dweller in our rankings. Not that it matters much, since the bottom two are going home next week.

That may sound insane, but there’s method to this madness. It’s useful to remember why Lil managed to squeak ahead of Matt, in spite of being a worse singer overall in the finals. Her mini-tirade against the judges was the kind of thing that’s an adrenaline shot to a fanbase – but it’s not going to be repeated next week.

Matt has turned in somewhat better performances than Lil, but barring a major breakout performance – think So Small-caliber – it’s unlikely to send him into the top 5.

7. Lil Rounds

Lil has been nothing short of a flop since the finals began. Ever since she tackled Independence Day (thus proving she can’t sing as well as Carrie Underwood or Martina McBride,) she’s been on a steady downhill path.

While her annoyance at the judges is pretty well justified – she has been getting bad advice – the simple fact of the matter is she’s sung poorly five times in a row. Ouch. Now, as I said in Danny’s case there were singers who were even worse each night, but short of a miraculous improvement Lil should go home next week. She almost certainly will – I can’t see her delivering a performance that’ll leapfrog two people with disco night.

Overall, it’s something of a very static power ranking. Save for Ring of Fire, Adam hasn’t done anything to endanger his standing as a front runner. Other early front runners like Danny and Lil have faltered (particularly the latter). The big gainer is Kris, who has made a significant challenge to enter the top tier of contenders, but even that has run into missteps (like last week’s All She Wants To Do Is Dance).

It’s not the most interesting – nor competitive – crop of contestants I’ve seen on this show. They leave me underwhelmed – which, come to think about it, sums up the entire season to date.

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Posted in Season Eight | 4 Comments »

Top 11 Results: “I Told You So”… literally!

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Somehow, Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis singing I Told You So was strangely appropriate. Far and away the consensus pick to go home was Michael Sarver; instead based largely on DialIdol and song age I made the call that Alexis Grace would end up in the bottom. My only mistake was to believe that Alexis’s exit would be vetoed. I was wrong on that part. Still, I was a lot closer than Conventional Wisdom was.

I already explained yesterday why Alexis was in very real danger. Her low Dialidol score tipped us off to look at the numbers more closely. Her average and median song age was disproportionately high – over 30 when everyone else except Adam Lambert was in the low 20s or below. With everyone else singing very young, singing old songs becomes much more noticable. If you’re Adam Lambert, you have a gimmick that surpasses that. She didn’t; and just one so-so performance when others elevated their game was enough to get her out of there.

Alexis can also be considered a casualty of the new semifinals format as well. One of the challenges coming out of the group rounds is that it became that much harder to build up any significant fanbase out of them: one song, with a multi-week gap, does not a solid fanbase make.

It’s something that can hurt people all season long – particularly for singers out of Group 1. In the three seasons that had the group format, only one contestant ever made it to the finale after singing in the first group. That was Season 3′s Diana DeGarmo; and her ride to the finale was far from smooth. It’s hard to build momentum if you’re not singing for several weeks in a row.

Her exit can be summed up quickly, and fairly. Despite all the pimpage and promotion she got, there were problems. She had a fanbase that didn’t have a chance to solidify, and couldn’t grow because of limited appeal – winning over the young power-voting Idol blocs with Aretha Franklin and Dolly Parton was a hard task, at best. Yes, she was a good, maybe even great singer – but to succeed on Idol you need to know your audience. Alexis Grace and Idol voters proved to be a bad fit.

There’s a rich element of irony when it comes to this week’s results, though. The producers’s own rule change worked against them. Alexis would have almost certainly survived if she had gone through a three-song semifinal. It would have given her fanbase a chance to solidify, and for her to define her musical identity (which she didn’t do too well, Kara DioGuardi’s exceptionally useless advice of dirtying it up notwithstanding). As it is, though, someone that TPTB wanted to advance far is ending up going home as a direct result of executive meddling. Alexis just got caught in about as unlucky a spot as you can imagine.

Now, as to why they didn’t save her? The answer to that is tied into someone else… Adam Lambert. I’ll get back to him in a little while.

Hold the champagne: Strategically, there was one overwhelming theme for the night: favorites faltered while the midcard upped their game. Who knows, maybe everyone outside the Favored Four Three are surprisingly Genre Savvy – they can’t be all too happy at the idea of meekly standing by while the Coronation of the Producers’ Idol proceeds as planned. Kris Allen, Matt Giraud, and Anoop Desai were all midcard singers at best previous to this show – now you have to at least consider them in the mix.

Danny Gokey and Lil Rounds can recover without too much trouble. They didn’t really stink too much, they were just… mediocre. It’s the type of performance that voters won’t hold against you too much. Last week will almost certainly be better for both of them – if only because it’s hard to make worse song choices than either of them did. As I said yesterday – Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride? Seriously? That’s like carrying a wooden stick to a gunfight. While neither of them is in danger – yet – they both need a good, undisputed showstopper in the next two to four weeks if they want to get in the final four.

Kris, Matt, and Anoop all need to be able to prove that this week wasn’t a fluke. Even normally bad contestants can put it all together if they can find a theme, song, and arrangement that fits them like a glove. If they can pull it off, the upside could be significant. The dark horse in here is Kris – his vocals are not as good as Anoop’s, but better at conveying emotions. Giraud doesn’t really have the vocals to compete with either one.

There’s one puzzle in the Touring Ten that I haven’t quite figured out: Allison Iraheta. She’s sung well, her songs are young, and so is she. I don’t have any Idolmetric measurement that says she’s in danger. She should not be in the bottom three (now two). On the flip side, she’s likely to pick up at least some votes from Alexis’s old fanbase. Beyond that… well, even I don’t have the answer for that.

There’s a pretty clear division, too, about who’s clearly lagging behind: Michael Sarver, Scott Macintyre, and Megan Joy. Right now, they’re all getting by on something other than singing. Michael’s probably safe for two weeks – see the latest WNTS editorial for the reasoning behind that, but the order is immaterial. None of them are going to win, and the only question is how many others will go before they do.

And then we have Adam Lambert. He really deserves a section of his own.

Damaged Goods? Maybe.: The debate over Adam’s version of Ring of Fire will probably last until the season ends, if not even longer. Still, it’s undeniable that it did change things around.

I was never a big believer in Adam Lambert, largely because I thought the theatrics covered up a voice that didn’t know the meaning of subtlety. Adam’s style was just not sustainable in the long term. The novelty would eventually wear thin, and my money was on him finishing in the high midcard – fourth to sixth.

I know I’m going to be challenged on that statement, so let me explain it a bit more. Adam has zero crossover ability. He can’t appeal to a wide cross-section of Idol voters; people that liked that over-the-top theatric style would love it from the start, but it would have been an uphill climb to win those who don’t. That crossover ability is vital to lasting long on the show.

With that in mind, Adam’s challenge was essentially how long he could keep going along this path before leaving, or proving that he’s more than a stage actor that happens to sing decently, too. The trouble is, though, his version of Ring of Fire was so… unusual, it sped up that process. From Idol voters, a pretty common reaction was:  ”what the heck was that?”

I’m sure this will prompt Adam’s fans to write in anger. I’m not going to deny that he has fans – but I think that for everyone one he won over, there was at least one who now wants to burn him at the stake and another two scratching their heads.

That’s not to deny that he has talent. He is very, very good at what he does. What I’m questioning is whether this is something that the collective Idol fan base can really stomach for long. Everything I’ve known about it tells me: no.

The upside is that right now, Adam is looking iffy for the finale. The producers are perfectly happy to keep him around as long as they want. Remember, the underlying goal – seemingly – of the whole season – was Drama and Buzz. I can’t deny Adam delivers on that.

The effect of that was to make the veto an exceptionally valuable tool for the producers – one that just wouldn’t do to be used right now. Phil Stacey had it right: the “veto” is essentially an insurance policy for Danny and Adam.

Once the novelty and appeal of Adam’s theatrics go away, he’s surprisingly vulnerable. By far, he is singing the oldest songs in the competition on average. There’s a decent chance he could crash out, say, seventh. We’ve had three weeks of Adam singing in competition – is his current pace and style something that can work for two months or so? I doubt it.

Taken all in context, what’s clear to me is that the Judges’ Veto just became Adam’s Veto. It’s not going to be used on anyone else, except maybe Danny – but he doesn’t really need it. Adam does.

If Adam had not sung Ring of Fire – if the producers had believed that he could survive for a long period independently, as they probably don’t right now – they would have had freedom to use the veto now and save Alexis. However, the producers have their own priorities – and one of them seems to be Save Adam. The judges and producers want Adam to go deep so badly they’re willing to keep the veto in check even in a perfect spot to use it, all because it wasn’t Adam up there.

Credibility? What credibility?: Having laid out the case for not using the Veto so early, one can ask why I thought Alexis would be saved anyway.

It essentially came down to two things: I knew Alexis was still a judge’s favorite and might be treated more kindly. The other reason was more pipe dreams than anything else: they needed credibility. So far, off the Idol stage, the season has been dominated by ham-handed manipulation. What we got on Wednesday was… more of the same.  Does anyone think that on pure merit alone Alexis should be gone before Michael Sarver? Really?

No. Of course not. It would have been the perfect time to use the veto and live up to what they claimed it was for. Instead, it became another self-sustained injury for the Idol franchise. This week confirmed what we all had just suspected before, and will make people even more tired of the Official Manipulation.

The bye-ku returns! – I didn’t have time to do this last week, but… the bye-ku returns. Here’s our official farewell to Alexis Grace in verse:

Mother with pink streaks
Stop! Song older than thirty!
Shocker to many

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Posted in Season Eight, Season Five, Season One, Season Six | 13 Comments »

Top 13 Results: Fixing What Isn’t Broken

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

In a season where the main complaint has been blatant manipulation by the producers and judges, the hyped “twist” to the rules involves… increased influence by those same individuals responsible for causing the Idolsphere sudden bouts of anger and annoyance. I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

For those who missed the results show, here’s how it goes. From now until the top 5, the judges can decide once to “save” who should be going home. All four judges have to agree to “save” someone, however – it cannot be a split verdict.

The official spin is that this is to meant to stop the “shock boots” – examples given were Chris Daughtry, Michael Johns, and Jennifer Hudson. If you actually believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.

Before I go any further, let’s get this out there: the invocation of Chris Daughtry to justify this rule was completely ridiculous. Last I checked, Daughtry went out at… top 4. According to Ryan Seacrest, the judges can only save someone until the top five. Unless they suddenly changed mathematics – and I wouldn’t put it past the Idol producers to try that – four is less than five. Complete and utter fail.

Back to the meat of the issue. If you’ve been reading us or many of the other Idol writers that actually think and don’t swallow what 19E and Fox PR agents say, you should know by know that shock boots… aren’t, if you know what to look for. These aren’t just made-up reasons either; they’re good, logical reasons why someone would leave.

Consider: Michael Johns got held up as another example of someone leaving too soon, but he wasn’t. I’m frankly mystified that he’s being held up as an example of this super-good singer anyway; here’s what I said about him last year:

he had a tendency to turn songs into flavorless, generic songs that weren’t bad, but couldn’t be described as memorable. There was nothing in his performances that could make you point and say “that’s Michael, right there.”

As for the other cited examples, there were good reasons for those departures too. Jennifer Hudson? Vote-splitting – America wants diversity in its contestants, and she wasn’t in the same league as either Fantasia Barrino or LaToya London. Chris Daughtry? Setting aside the fact that this new rule change wouldn’t apply to him, he had little crossover appeal at the time. Success on Idol is a lot about having just that, and at the time he had precious little. (His Top 4 performances weren’t much to write home about, to boot.)

I could go on a lot longer, and point out why all of these shock boots really weren’t. I could also point out why none of them would probably have won either. In the end, though, what matters is this: in the long run, the Idol voting audience gets it right. They’re relatively unbiased, and I trust them more than I ever would the judging panel.

So, in effect, this rule change is “fixing” something that isn’t really broken anyway. Now, I’m not a paranoid conspiracy theorist, but you don’t have to be one to know the Idol PTB didn’t do this out of the blue. So, let’s take a look: who wins under this setup?

The winner here is obvious: the producers. Again. So far, they’re the only ones winning this season. Everyone else – contestants, viewers, voters – has lost. What does this mean? You guessed it – this is another new and improved way to manipulate the results. Great.

It’s a safe bet that this save will not necessarily be used for the best contestants, but who the producers – and judges – like the most. The likely winners of this are contestants who the judges like, but America may eventually tire of. In short, it’s another way to keep the Pimped in the spotlight for one more week – and hopefully more, since the fanbase of a saved contestant is going to vote like there’s no tomorrow the next week.

The best thing that can be said about it is it’s better than the rumors of a Sing For Your Life-style boot. That would have been an utter disaster; it would turn Idol from a competition into a coronation. I doubt the American viewing public would tune in to that.

We really are in strange times: If you needed further proof of the strangeness of the season, guess who the best judge was last night. You can make a decent case it was Paula. She was a bit over the top for both Danny Gokey and Adam Lambert, but otherwise? She was spot on most of the time. The question of will-she-or-won’t-she-stay is always around Paula, but I like this new-and-improved Paula Abdul.

Speaking of the judges… two points about Simon this week. First of all, it’s one thing to go after contestants; going after families is inexcusable. Yet that’s exactly what Simon did with Kris Allen. It’s not really mentioning Allen’s wife herself that annoyed us, it was the throwaway mention of her, with no care, as if she was just a thing. Really, Simon, you know better than that. Poetic justice would have been either Kris or his wife hitting Simon right on the head with the guitar.

Meanwhile, his comment to Scott Macintyre was an Unintended Learning Moment. That comment about not being “artsy” on Idol… really? I’ve seen plenty of good, artistic performances before. If Simon apparently thinks that artistry has no place on Idol and is more powerful backstage with Nigel Lythgoe’s departure… well, I think we can all say who deserves a large chunk of the blame for what’s happened this year.

Cannon fodder defined: Eliminations this early don’t really require a great deal of analysis. There’s a noticable gap between the good singers who deserve to stay, and those who don’t. This week was no different.

The question with Jasmine Murray isn’t so much why she left now, it’s more like how she got this far. The judges have had this entirely irrational love affair with Jasmine as a “package artist”. It’s obvious why: Jasmine is young, good-looking, likable – she has all the intangibles needed to succeed. Unfortunately, she couldn’t really sing that well. At all. At least America had the sense never to advance Murray. She’s the modern-day equivalent of Leah LaBelle.

What about Jorge Nunez? He was an okay to good singer, but he had a charisma deficit. He just couldn’t engage viewers as well as anyone else. It didn’t help that a lot of people thought his performance on Tuesday night was bad, and the judges didn’t mince their comments. Idolmetrics – specifically, song age – weighed in too. He had the highest median song age of the whole top 13, by a pretty wide margin. At 36.5 years, his only “competition” was Alexis Grace (31.5) and Adam Lambert (31). Grace and Lambert, of course, are actually pretty good. Nunez isn’t in that category.

Oh, and aside here. This crop of finalists is, so far, singing very young. After Lambert, the next highest median song age belongs to Matt Giraud – only 26, and an even lower average of 22.33. Some of it can be attributed to the theme – Michael Jackson is pretty recent, as far as Idol picks go. I still maintain that singing young songs is better, all other things being equal, than old ones. It’ll be interesting to see if this crop can continue this going forward.

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Posted in Season Eight | 1 Comment »

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