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'American Idol's' Battle of the Sexes: What were the judges thinking?
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It's no secret that "American Idol" thinks it's time for a female winner. The judges started talking up the female contestants before the show even started airing. Then we got to the Top 24, where the first week would almost make one think "Idol" purposely stacked the deck -- there were many, many talented women and the men's first outing was largely disappointing.
By all appearances, "Idol" had created an easy pathway for the females to succeed in Season 9. And then the voting public took over. Once the genders were combined in the Top 12, a trio of female singers went home in the first three weeks (Lacey Brown, Paige Miles and Didi Benami). Suddenly, the odds have turned against the women, even if Crystal Bowersox seems to have already been crowned.
With the "Idol" dip in popularity ratings-wise, is it that the people who actually vote for the Idols has basically dwindled to younger girls and middle-aged older women? Therefore the cute guys with big eyes and nice smiles are succeeding, despite the performances they turn in week after week? It happened last year. Look how the gender balance of the Top 12 was when they didn't split up the men and women in the semi-finals. It was 8 men, 4 women.
And it's happening again this season, but on Wednesday (April 6) a male contestant finally ended up in the bottom spot. Is the pendulum finally swinging the other way, letting the females get at least perhaps a toe-hold in making the finals?
Except the judges chose to save Michael Lynche.
While we like Michael Lynche quite a bit, that was a risky move. The Bottom Three were Lynche, Aaron Kelly and Andrew Garcia. Don't think their voting blocs won't mobilize next week, while the females (all declared safe right off the bat) may find their voting blocs resting on their laurels because they feel like the girls are safe.
Don't forget -- next week we lose two Idols to make up for the save being used. What if the Bottom Two are Siobhan and Katie or, god forbid, Siobhan and Crystal? What would happen if Siobhan and Crystal get the lowest number of votes next week? Would the "Idol" deus ex machina swoop in with some double-secret-save? Or would we be on our way to a Final Two comprised of Aaron Kelly and Tim Urban and the complete implosion of the show we've known and loved for eight seasons?
Maybe the save of Michael Lynche is just the evil Machiavellian dealings of one Mr. Simon Cowell, trying to completely decimate "Idol" before he launches "The X Factor."
Again, nothing against Michael Lynche, but we can't help but wonder if, in a week's time, we are all going to be really regretting that the judges chose to save him?
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NO MICHAEL LYNCH NEEDED TO TAKE HIS EGO ALTERED SELF HOME
The judges made the right decision to save Michael Lynche. He is much better than several of the other idols. Hopefully america gets it right next week and get rid of Tim Urban, who has long overstayed his welcome, and either Aaron Kelly or Andrew Garcia. I got a sinking feeling that won't happen
Crystal isn't going anywhere based on the DialIdol projections she's the most popular contestant by quite a bit. I will say the dip in ratings is a good hypothesis on the survival of the guys. The most simple things is if you want the girls to survive, vote heavily next week because a 22% chance of going home is pretty high at this stage and it would be a travesty if Siobahn left this coming week.
Should have saved Didi :/
Whatever, they made the right choice so I'm hoping that this increases the chance that Tim will go home. I don't know why people like him so much, he sucks.
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FINALLY! Someone who understands that the save was a risky move. I mean, from what I understand the save should be saved for the idols they'd just be sick if they lost. Or the ones they think are best. Let's say the voting blocks get complacent and lazy thinking Siobhan or Crystal have it in the bag. The result? One may go home. Then what? There would be NOTHING they could do to save them. Of course a Big Mike fan will always show up and say the save was the best move. No surprise there, lol. But most people know that Crystal is thought to be the winner etc. And Siobhan, my favorite to win, is amazingly talented even if a couple things went wrong. And Mike is talented too, it's just that most people think it's Siobhan and Crystal going home early would be a tragedy. So the save helped to keep Big Mike, but at the same time they have no protection against losing the very best ones. That said, I think they blew their save.
Oh, and the funny thing is I predicted Big Mike would go home and because Kara was nuts about him, she's lobby for the save. And that's what happened. The reason I thought BM was going was because he is a bit arrogant and that turns some people off. He does have a great voice, but all the muscles he makes, flexing etc, faces and challenging Simon to a pec match would make some stop voting for him. So basically it happened how I figured it would.
I think people are getting too worried about losing Crystal early. I have a feeling that the producers told the judges ahead of time that Crystal, Casey, Lee and Siobhan were all safe, so it would be okay to use the save on top 9 results night. Maybe the judges weren't told ahead of time which contestant was in the bottom, but they knew it was going to be a "shocker". As long as it wasn't Tim, Andrew or Aaron going home, I knew the judges would save whomever was last in votes. The save was originally there to protect TPTB's favorites like Crystal, but they probably know by now that she is the top vote-getter every week (I'm assuming that by looking at the Dial Idol numbers whch doesn't represent all calls or text votes). I still think that Crystal will make it to at least 3rd place (or she could end up winning it all).