Thursday, March 12, 2009

Brief Comment on AI Top 13 Elimination


I was gone last night (delivering grandkids to their parents- my house is quiet today, and a little sad), and we live in a VCR/DVRless household, so I have not seen the Top 13 Elimination show, nor have I read the Television Without Pity Recap (which may not be posted yet), so this is off the top of my head, after watching a bit on the news: Jorge was no surprise, but Jasmine???? Not Megan????? Not Anoop???? And the judges can invoke immunity, eh? I don't know exactly how it will work (the explanations I've seen are contradictory), but I wonder if that means they will eject someone who got more votes instead (which they can do, of course, at any time anyway- read the teeny little print sometime). But, even more puzzling- what would they have saved Daughtry from? Selling a bazillion CDs? Tons of radio airplay? Critical approval? The general notion that he was robbed? Would they have wanted to preserve Jennifer Hudson from her Oscar, Golden Globe, or Grammy awards? (I'll answer that one myself: what TPTB wants is credit for their successes. It has never thrilled them that non-winners also used the show as a jumping point).


No matter how much they want to do it, they can't retroactively get rid of Taylor (they will never forgive him for winning). And indeed, by the Top 5, fans have graduated from preference to obsession- a manipulation of that sort will turn casual voters into maniacs, and the results will likely not be changed anyway. Besides which, if a strong favorite can be magically saved, will that not convince non-voters to remain so? I don't think this change is going to produce the results they expect.


Speaking of Taylor, I downloaded his new album, The Distance, from Amazon on Tuesday, and it's marvelous!

1 comment:

LizzieHelen said...

It would have saved us--possibly--from the Kelly/Justin finale and given us the more even Tamyra/Kelly finale it should have been. Of course, Tamyra has done well, too.

Jasmine has lost her unique voice, somehow. Jorge was stuck with songs by an artist he could never do justice to. Voice-wise, Tatiana was still the best of the Wild Card call backs.

What I heard Ryan say is that on any week before final 5, they can save the lowest vote-getter--no one would go home. But, the next week (like this one) two contestants would go home.

BTW, hated Kanye--the man would not even have made it to auditions--and loved seeing Kelly even, though her song was average, to me.