American Idol - Barry Manilow Results
Published April 21, 2004
So it's come to this. Last night, the triple diva threat of Fantasia, LaToya, and Jennifer delivered a 1-2-3 punch of classic Manilow tunes. And no one voted for them.
The show kicked off to its usual slow start, with the remaining seven finalists backing Mr. Manilow on his execrable new "hit" Let Freedom Ring. You've got to love Barry (well, maybe you don't), but this ranks as the worst of the group sing-a-longs so far this season. Poor choreography made a weak arrangement of an awful song even worse, and no one seemed into it, except for Barry.
Even more bizarre was this week's Ford video, which seemed to feature our intrepid contestants encountering some sort of robot on Mars. The robot ended up stealing their car while they were planting the American Idol flag. There may be a moral in there somewhere, but it escapes me at the moment.
With seven finalists this week, the producers decided to return to the grouping strategy featured two weeks ago rather than the usual in-or-out method. Once again, the ever-creative writers chose to name the groups "A" and "B."
The first six finalists were quickly sorted such that things stacked up like so:
Group A: Fantasia, Jennifer, LaToya
Group B: Diana, Jasmine, John
Which left poor George Huff sitting all by his lonesome on the couches, looking for all the world like a lost puppy. While the girls and John Stevens milled about, the producers elected to prolong George's misery with a quick commercial break.
Back quickly, George seemed about ready to wet his pants. Would he be joining the three divas in the winners' circle, or would he be lumped in with the losers for the first time? Seacrest cut through the tension by announcing triumphantly that George was safe for the night, and invited him to join the winning group on stage.
Something was clearly amiss. George hesitantly crossed the stage to stand next to Jennifer, fully aware that Seacrest hadn't actually announced which group was safe this week. Mr. Huff, smart young man that he is, simply made the assumption that all of America was making: that the top three singers last night got the most votes.
- American Idol - Barry Manilow Results
- Published: April 21, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Music, Video: Performing Arts, Video: Television
- Writer: Scott Pepper
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Comments on this articleComments
What are you talkin' about? John Stevens rules! :-) Hopefully we get a Big Band night so Stevens can have a great performance and continue to get his large amount of votes.
Further, hopefully a Big Band night will send Fantasia home because obviously her fans don't vote like crazy, or perhaps the black vote is split among several talented black singers, while the white vote is concentrated on the lone remaining talented white person.
As many are saying (Except Scott, which is interesting), you gotta love how the voting works on Idol. If people got to vote who they hate off, it would be so predictable. But voting who you want on not only splits anti-John (or whoever) votes, it forces fans of the "good" (Debateable!) ones to do something they will not do: come out in droves each and every week and vote. They may vote once or twice, but they don't vote each week.
Fantasia fans are not voting hard each and every week, because they simply assume she will stay alive (although she was VERY close to being off this last week, she had second to last amount of votes) so they are lazy. They assume "the system" will remove people they don't like. But if they only understood the system, perhaps they could change it.
If Simon and them are really mad, they should go to the producers and make them change the voting structure. But they don't. Maybe because they know the show will never change it, because if it went to the more obvious system of voting who you want off, NOBODY WOULD WATCH THE WEDNESDAY PROGRAM. Because of the crazy voting AI Wednesday can actually get good ratings. If you already knew, up to 99% accuracy who was off, nobody would watch the Wednesday show.
Plain and simple. So many people are beginning to understand this, so why don't you just accept it Scott? It's not bizarre. It's not America gone crazy. It's the voting system they employ. That's it.
Now if you could accept this, you would predict that no matter what, Fantasia has a shot of going off next week. If you don't believe this, look at tonight. Fantasia was almost off, but you figured she was a lock. Obviously what you are using to base your predictions is off. Open your eyes. It's the voting system.
JSI1's comment and assumptions offend in places, but the ultimate message is loud and clear: Do you feel like I do? Do you want John Stevens to be gone, gone, gone? Vote FANTASIA early and often.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/14976)
As you are yet again off with your predictions, big time, I think everyone should admit that Pappy person was right:
Fantasia, Latoya, and Jennifer were in the bottom 3 because of how the voting works. If you vote who you want OFF, john stevens would go home. But since you vote who you want on, the votes are split so much that Fantasia almost got lowest amount of votes, while John (and converted JPL fans) fans vote strong to save him.
If you are mad, don't blame the voters. Blame the way the show works. They have this voting system purposely so we get controversial results. It's not "bizarro" from FOX's standpoint.