Wednesday, April 28, 2010

American Idol: Top 6 results

Quick spoilers for tonight's "American Idol" elimination show coming up after I laugh about how the show actually ran short tonight, forcing Seacrest to vamp...

So, bottom three of Big Mike, Siobhan and Casey. Big Mike sent to safety, commercial break, then Siobhan goes home.

Early in the finals, Siobhan was the only contestant I cared about other than Crystal. But as I said last night, I grew tired of Siobhan's one not-so-great trick, and also of her endless babbling whenever the judges criticized her (she was at least 40 percent responsible for a lot of the overruns). I'm more bored with Aaron, but she was one of two who most deserved to go home.

Question: when is the last time someone in the finals went home after getting the pimp spot? I know Melinda Doolittle did in season 6 (but in the Top 3 show, which doesn't quite count), and I know Lilly went home despite being pimped in the semis this year, but has it happened in the finals in recent years before this week?

27 comments:

teevee said...

Certainly can't think of a time it's happened.

Half-baked theory: the uninspiring contestants this year are reducing the number of casual viewers who bother to vote (compared to the dedicated fanbases). The casual viewers are the ones more likely to be influenced by a pimp spot.

thegeniusking said...

So after all the judges said it was a woman's year to win it all, and all during the top 12 guys/gals eps, we heard them say constantly just how talented the women were this year, all that is left is Crystal Bowersox against the four boys. If anyone is gonna win it, it'll be her, but still, it goes to show the judges this year more than ever are having less and less influence on the shows voters, and they have no idea what they're talking about.

Ian said...

As much as I've been down on Siobhan lately, that was one of the all-time "if she'd sounded that good yesterday she wouldn't be going home" performances.

Also, *Casey* was second from the bottom? I'll never understand Idol voting.

Barbara said...

does it still count as a pimp spot if the show runs over?

Rollie said...

The voters have spoken, Casey wasn't quite as generic this week as they like. Only slightly boring as opposed to eye gouging boring. Next week he'll rebound with the theme from Ghostbusters.

Sinatra wrote that, right?

Anonymous said...

I'm gonna miss Siobhan. Her performances were at least interesting even when bad and she took more risks than most of the other contestants. And Alan, give the girl a break, when she talked back to the judges it was to try and improve her chances of winning not to piss off the people who DVR "Glee".

LA said...

So Aaron is still on this show? Damn, that sucks.

Thanks for watching, so I don't have to.

Author said...

Big Mike was safe? Crazy

Dan said...

I wanted to love the little indie girl from Cape Cod, but her insistence on shoehorning screams into every song showed she just didn't have the knowledge of the competition to win it.

Wally said...

OMG! I HATE AARON!!!!!!!!!!

The grandma vote is REAL folks. Not to be underestimated. Tweens and grandmas. Thats 90% of AI voters.

Anonymous said...

Aaron is still around and there is one female left.

Female contestants are at such a disadvantage on this show, it's ridiculous.

I love the format of the show. But I hate the voting aspect with a passion. Old ladies vote for the cute little boy and tween girls vote for the hot boy. This voting system needs to DIE!!!

dickey simpkins said...

Watching this show when home with my parents is just torture. Sad when the Shrek and Ford commercials are more entertaining than the show (and I hate Shrek).

Have the contestants always been this uninspiring? I haven't watched a full season start to finish since year two, but it always seemed there was at least a better diversity of talent.

Maybe it's just due to Simon's lack of interest, or the crappy guest singers, but man has this show really taken a nosedive.

Hyde said...

Question: when is the last time someone in the finals went home after getting the pimp spot?

It happened to Anoop last year, but that was the week after the save, when two people were knocked out (him and Lil, who if memory serves was a lot worse that night). I am fairly certain no one else has ever gone home from the pimp spot except when it was final 2 or 3. Siobhan wasn't going to win, but it's a truly startling outcome nonetheless.

I would love to know how close the vote was, because the result was sure weird. I suppose it's a matter of:

* No one really being all that bad Tuesday.

* The praise from the judges, the pimp spot, and the fact that she had never been in danger before caused her fans to get complacent.

* A mediocre at best performance by Lee was given kid gloves, like all his performances.

* The theme for the week brought out extra fans for Aaron.

* A factor I thought would do Siobhan in eventually: her home region. She's the most successful Idol contestant ever from New England, and wasn't even all that close to winning.

* The long-term trend on the show away from female contestants.

I know she has to be more interesting than she has seemed the last few weeks, but maybe she thought she was giving the viewers and judges what they wanted to hear. At any rate, it's a shame she couldn't outlast Aaron and Lee.

Laura said...

According to whatnottosing.com, this is the first time anyone has ever been voted out in the pimp spot, except in cases where more than one person was voted out or contestants sang more than one song per episode.

Alan Sepinwall said...

And Alan, give the girl a break, when she talked back to the judges it was to try and improve her chances of winning not to piss off the people who DVR "Glee".

Except that we've learned time and again that talking back to the judges (and, in particularly, talking back to Simon) does not help, and can sometimes hasten the exit of a contestant.

Sonia said...

I haven't watched this show since the top 12. Besides Crystal, this is the worst bunch they've ever had. I'm completely bored with it.

Hollywoodaholic said...

Crystal singing Sinatra should be ... interesting.

Lane said...

I wish CBS would bring back Rock Star.

Unknown said...

we all know crystal is going to win, it's just a matter of time when everyone goes home.

iamnoahjames.com said...

And her talkback rarely made sense. Like the week she said it wasn't fair they compare her to Whitney/Mariah - when NONE of the judges ever said anything about that.

Let me know what you think of my recap:

http://iamnoahjames.com/2010/04/29/idolspec-top-6-results-show-4282010/

Miken said...

I said it two weeks ago. The week Mike got eliminated was just an excuse to use the save. I think they picked someone that had a comfortable vote count, picked them to go home and used the save so if Mike finishes in the Top 3, they can go, "Look! The save DOES work!"

There is no way people saw that and now vote like crazy for him.

This was the only week I was worried going in about Crystal. She should have smooth sailing to the finals from here, but who knows what will happen once she gets there. I could see anyone left somehow getting more votes than her.

Anonymous said...

I think all the Crystal is destined to win talk neglects recent idol history. Adam Lambert looked like he was gonna cruise, but the blander and safer Kris Allen beat him out. I see Crystal as similar to Adam- they're both a little different. Adam was androgynous, Crystal's a hippie chick with a piercing and dreadlocks. I could easily see her losing out to one of the "safer" choices.

Anonymous said...

Crystal is WAY overrated. This week was evident. Once she had to get out of her soul/Janis Joplin comfort zone, she has no magic on stage. She may win, but we've all seen before people will happily call in to vote someone a winner, and then refuse to buy their records. If she wins, it's more evidence of the weak field this year than her talent.

rosengje said...

When did the American Idol voting patterns so drastically change? By which I mean change to so obviously favor cute boys and non-threatening girls. I feel like women were decently successful (at least compared to the pathetic showing happening right now) in the earlier seasons.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

@rosengje Nonthreatening women and cute guys have done well since the start of the show. Nothing has changed except the judges/producers wanted a female to win this year and kept telling us how great the women were (Crystal is great, the rest weren't anything special). The audience disagrees. Now the judges are pushing Lee hard, I guess as some charisma-free version of David Cook.

Anonymous said...

Whoever wins this season will never be as successful as Carrie and Kelly. Crystal is good but I hope she loses just to seal the deal as this season's worst ever