As promised here are the blank scorecards for Round 3, episodes 17 and 18 on 3/7 and 3/8.
Remember if you fill out the scorecard and email it back to me, I will post it on my Episode review. So far quite a few reviews have been sent back to me. You can find them on each episode review under the recent posts menu.
Boys Round 3 – 3/07/05
Girls Round 3 – 3/08/05
I must say I really liked all the comments the other day talking about power voting. I didn’t think anyone really even cared about it at all but I see that quite a few of you had a lot to say about it. I personally am against power voting. If there wasn’t power voting we would be rid of a couple of people that really shouldn’t have made it to the Top 24. I won’t mention any names on this but I am sure most you know who I am implying. I really think that American Idol needs to take a hard look at the way they let America Vote. I like what JJ had to say on how to solve this. If America was asked to vote off the worst instead of their favorites, we would see less power voting and a more accurate count based on real talent. I actually would take it even one step farther. I would ask the judges to present America with who they believe were the worst 3 performances and that would be who America would have to vote for. By having the judges pick the 3 worst every week, it will keep from allowing America to totally screw up. I also believe American Idol would never change to voting for the worst simply because viewers wouldn’t vote as much. This would affect ratings and again their (Fremantle) bottom line. Ratings are far more important that real talent and a true performer. To bad when America allows someone like William Hung to win and the ratings are so bad that American Idol is scrapped. Then where will the bottom line be? Other voting based Reality shows such as Last Comic Standing limited the number of votes that people were able to cast and I think it helped. Every season it seems to me that the truly talented people are the ones that make it to the finale and ultimately won. This has and hasn’t been the case with American Idol and soon it is going to burn them and make a huge mockery out of the entire show, Simon, Nigel, Fremantle and FOX.
Another thing that I feel American Idol needs to contain is the drama. The drama with Judd was uncalled for and I personally think if they pull another stunt like that, they will lose a lot of viewers. That was about the lowest stunt they have ever pulled on the show and FOX and Ryan should personally have to apologize live on the show to Judd. Now this will never happen because again, it was all about the money and the ratings. What exactly did this do for FOX? Well it created a buzz which was just as good as someone turning on their TV sets.
Since there isn’t much else to talk about today except for giving you your scorecards for next week I think I will take another chance to show you all the features I have installed on this blog for your enjoyment and again to tell any new visitors what my blog is all about.
So welcome to any new visitors to my blog. This blog is truly dedicated to the Reality TV show American Idol. Here is what you can expect from me from this site.
1) Every Saturday before 6pm you will have Blank Scorecards posted for the upcoming round.
2) I will post an episode review after each episode is complete.
3) Within 24 hours I will post a link to download the entire episode.
On this site you will always find a poll to participate in and a shoutbox to leave comments on. Always feel free to leave comments on any of my posts. As you can see, some of the posts have created some serious disagreement within my readers. There is also a Chat Room that will be open all of the time but we do have some regulars that tend to congregate there 1/2 before showtime on the East Coast. So stop by and enjoy our live chat sometime.
I have added another feature today. On the sidebar you can subscribe to my blog and you will be notified by email when I have updated my posts. I am making it a personal goal to get at least 10 people signed up by Monday nights show. So come on sign up and help me achieve my goal.
Again, I would like to thank all of my readers for their comments. I must truly say that I have met most of my goals for this site already and it has only been open for 2 months. Originally my main goal was to recieve 10 unique visitors a day (unique to me = leaves a comment). I have far surpassed that goal and am averaging more than that. I also can’t believe my average daily visitors. It is over 950. Amazaing. Thanks everyone. If there is anything I can do to make your visits better please drop me a comment and let me know.
I do have a specific question to ask today. Is there to much stuff on the sidebar of this site? I think there is but it is organized so I think it is ok. What do you think? I may not change it but I still want to know what you think.
Top guys (All weeks combined):
1. Bo (his top 16 performance was good… but nothing will ever come close to whipping boy)
2. Anwar (a very, very close second. his top 16 song was absolutely unreal!!)
3. Nikko (consistant and enjoyable)
4. Anthony (great top 16 song choice and performance)
5. Mario (finally a good showing… probably because he didn’t show off his stiff dancing)
6. Constantine/Scott (these guys will fight it out for the final spot). Since I like Constantine’s song choices better, I hope he makes it. I would much prefer him on a CD than Scott)
Out: Travis (Would have made top12 last year easy… not with this group.)
Let me explain my last sentence below. I said: “And as we’ve seen in the past with JPL, John Stevens, Carmen Rasmussen, or several contestants this season (I’m talking about you, Janay– you too Mikalah), screen time for too many keeps in some of the bad at the expense of the truly talented.”
What I mean by the truly talented are those contestants at the top of their game (you know who I’m talking about–Carrie, Bo, Anwar, Mario, etc.) who are only in danger of being voted out when someone (i.e. a Carmen, Jasmine, or Janay) comes along with a large fan base that votes en masse for a less-talented contestant. I guess, personally, if there are going to be troubles, I’d rather see a Janay beat out a Celena Rae than a Celena Rae beat out a Carrie.
I agree that the extra t.v. time has a large effect upon the competition, but I don’t think that it’s all bad. The producers obviously pick out who they think are the best and most unique out of the Top 24 and emphasize them, hurting some of the contestants not shown, but on the whole, getting out the word about the really good contestants.
Imagine if everyone were shown at least once (like Janay- she was shown once, maybe twice at most). As a majority of us would agree, Janay is pretty terrible, at least in comparison to the other remaining contestants, but she has remained in the competition because of her screen time earlier. Now, imagine if Jared Yates or Melinda Lira had been shown early on and accrued a large fan base. Then, we would be complaining about, or at least I would, about the fact that one of them stayed while Nikko Smith or Jessica Sierra went instead. Just last week, Vonzell was in the bottom three or four (I can’t remember). What if Celena had built a large fan base in the beginning and had gotten more votes that Vonzell, sending her packing? This, too, would be a travesty.
Sure, American Idol is a bit rigged and certain contestants have a built-in advantage since they have been shown once or twice or all the time. But at the same time, that keeps the best people–or at least those who have been the best so far–in the competition longer. And as we’ve seen in the past with JPL, John Stevens, Carmen Rasmussen, or several contestants this season (I’m talking about you, Janay– you too Mikalah), screen time for too many keeps in some of the bad at the expense of the truly talented.
American Idols Credibility is definately at stake with the voting issues.
I think the lack of TV time cannot be over-emphasised. It’s absolutely killing folks. When we see someone on TV, we start a relationship with that person and we either like someone based on this (John Stevens), we feel sympathy for them (Anthony) or dislike someone (Mikalah). Even if we don’t care or are ambivalent about someone, we still know more about them than people we have never seen before.
The fact that six of the 8 people who have already been eliminated were never been shown on TV before the Top 24 started should be evidence enough that the audition and Hollywood stages set a bias for some people and set other people back.
Between this and the voting format, I think the credibility of the show’s process is at stake.
I think that voting for eliminating the worst performer would definitely weed out the poor performers; however I agree that Fox will not do this, as it would reduce the vote totals they like to brag about. I think a fair compromise would be to vote for poorest performer until they are down to the top 10; at that point switch back to vote for your favorite.
On performers who do not get air time prior to the finals, the one exception so far has been Jessica Sierra. I live in Tampa, her home tomn. My daughter works with her cousin, who told us back in July that she made it to Hollywood. However, she never was shown on the show until the Hollywood shows. I still worry this lack of exposure will catch up with her as the field grows smaller. But she has sung great and I hope she continues to make the cut!
I wouldn’t ever want to see a switch to voting for who you want to be kicked off. American Idol is all about who you support and who you want to see with a record deal. I agree with the comment below that power voting may be an indication of who will have a good fan base and can be a pop star.
I’m not so sure about the theory that lack of exposure during the auditions doomed the people who have been kicked off so far. Aloha obviously blew everyone away the first week of her performance, and that was the first time we’d seen her. With the exception of Aloha, those who have been kicked off gave lackluster performances or didn’t rise above the rest of the group.
I think every season we’re going to have one of those people who hang on despite sucking…Nikki McKibbin, anyone? When Tamyra Grey was kicked off before her, I think the entire world died a little bit. But Tamyra has been so much more successful than Nikki (Nikki, appearing Fear Factor is a true sign you’ve gone down the drain), so I think everyone knows who’s truly more talented despite the order in which they were removed from the show.
I fixed that for you. Now the recent posts menu show up on all pages and it even updates which is why I didn’t use it before. But it works now. Thanks for the comment. :)
When I click to read comments on a post, the ‘recent posts’ on the side bar disappears and I have to return to the main page to see them. I think this has been mentioned before. Will you change it?
Or you could add a link to a list of all blog posts at the ‘navigation’ bar.
This may seem a little off-topic, but I find it very interesting that all of the contestants that were not shown during auditions are already gone. Aloha Mischeaux, Celena Rae, Melinda Lira, Joseph Murena, Jared Yates and Judd Harris all were not shown during the auditions, and lo and behold, they’re all gone. But I agree with xzasporated1, voting for your favorite does seem more positive. I think AI needs the restriction on the number of votes (like Last Comic Standing) and to ensure they show all of the top 24 at least once during auditions, since, like you mentioned before, they do know who is going to be in the top 24 by tv release. Building a fanbase and all that jazz.
Personally I like the idea of voting our favorites, because it’s a more positive reflection than a negative one. Everyone is complaining about the treatment given Judd, and I am among those people, but, as an eliminated contestant, I would much rather be ejected because people loved so-and-so better instead of knowing that everyone hated me that badly. It’s just my own point of view.
I am somewhat in favor of limiting the number of calls per phone but allowing unlimited texting. Texting costs, so that might limit the number of votes there, but doing so would bring down the number of votes AI can brag about each Wednesday, so I don’t see that happening.
And you have a great blog. Don’t change a thing.
In re: power voting:
Remember that American Idol is a show about finding a new “pop” star. The success of a pop star is determined not just by the sales of their records but by the sales of their merchandising, ie: posters, books, tshirts, lunchboxes and so forth. Sales of such items depend in large part on rabid fans who want everything of their favorite star. Power voting is a good indication of “rabid fans” and as such reveals who could be a very successful “pop” star.