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There is a website that supports voting for the entertaining contestants whom the judges hate to see winning in American Idol.
Is there anything wrong with voting for the worst idol? Logically
speaking, there is nothing wrong since the voters cast their vote by their own definition. Watching a good singer doing a good performance
is entertaining, but so is watching a bad singer getting voted every
week and pissing off the judges. Who is to say that a voter needs to
buy the records later if he votes? If a voter simply enjoys watching
the show as he defines it, Fox will earn the advertisement fees but not
the revenue from selling the records later.
Now wait, watching the judges getting pissed off ‘every week’ IS
entertaining for some people. To be specific, lets remove the ‘s’ in
the ‘judges’ and point specifically to the most stringent critic among
the three, Simon Cowell. Simon has been a direct, non-diplomatic,
critic with very high expectations. A mediocre, ‘can sing’ contestant
can reach the top 24, but it takes more to get to the top with Simon.
He simply raises his benchmark once the contestants go onto the big
stage for public voting, that is when he starts to shoot off 5-star
remarks like ‘This is a high school performance’, ‘Singing on love
boat’, ‘Horrible’, etc. We know that his vote does not count after the
top 24, but his comments may influence the decision of the voters (in
either way).
Another aspect of entertainment is this:
A mediocre, ‘can sing’ artist could probably draw mediocre votes.
However, the other TWO extremes tend to draw more attention. On one
end of the spectrum, we can see really good singers with great looks,
voice, and performance. On the other end, we get some contestants who
is clearly ‘not in the same league’. But fortunately, the likes of
William Hung are eliminated early by the judges and not presented in
the top 24 for public voting. We cannot be sure that William Hung would
not do well in the top 24. He owns a huge fan site, getting record deals, performing shows, interviews and raising money for Tsunami victims. He is probably getting more publicity than some of those in the top 24.
This is just one example. Sometimes celebrity do not get into the headlines for doing their ‘usual’ good performance, but when they are doing something out of the norm, leaks a personal secret, or are involved in the ‘caught on tape’ news. It is a way to get the attention of the desensitized public.
A fortunate thing is that the majority of the voters are likely to cast their vote the ‘right’ way, and it leaves to be seen how far those ‘left’ voters can go… when Sunjaya finally gets voted out.
Some links:
