American Idol Voting is Flawed
May 20, 2008 – 5:09 pm by Jeff
Tonight is the final night of competition for this season of American Idol. Finally! Who will be the winner? Will it be David Cook, the 25 year old bartender from Blue Springs, MO? Or will it be David Archuleta, the barely 17 year old Mormon from Murray, UT. The singer that deserves to win is clear to most people. Unfortunately, because of American Idol’s ridiculous voting policy, that person probably won’t be crowned the next American Idol.
Clearly David Cook is the more marketable contestant and one that could actually make it as a popular recording artist. His rendition of the Who’s Baba O’Reilly (you know…the Teenage Wasteland song) gave you goose bumps, while his daring version of Billie Jean rivaled the original remake by Chris Cornell. If you don’t know who Chris Cornell is, then you have no business judging music. If you do, you will know that matching anything he does vocally is an amazing feat. David Cook is a rocker who’s face can be on the cover of albums.
David Archuletta, on the other hand, belongs in the little boys choir for the Church of Latter Day Saints. Every song he sings sounds exactly alike, with a voice that sounds like he’s barely hit puberty. Ballad after ballad of Jesus songs that sound like they came straight out of a evangelistic revival circus tent have somehow put him in the final. I just don’t get it.
Well…actually I do get it. The little girls like him. And thanks to the f&%#ed up voting policies of American Idol that has every single 10 year girl in the country sending daddy’s cell phone bill through the roof by sending text after text of votes for David Archuleta, we are once again going to see a flop of an American Idol.
Instead of seeing some actual “star caliber” contestants like Michael Johns and Carlie Smithson, we are left with a competition that no one cares about. Yet Fox continues to wonder why ratings for American Idol are declining. To me the answer is obvious - the voting policy sucks. Their target demographic should be the ones who actually make money and spend it purchasing songs and records - people 16 to 35 years old. Yet these are not the people doing all the voting. Sure they might vote once or twice for their favorite artist. But how does this compete with the 10 year tween that votes hundreds of times for David Archuleta? It doesn’t. As a result, the contestants that appeal to the older crowd get eliminated and Fox pisses off their target demographic. Dumb asses.
To me the solution is obvious. Let each household or cell phone vote once. In the event that a whole family wants to vote, they can even let a single household 5 times. But they need to cap it somehow. I just don’t understand why they wouldn’t. Do they really need to rack up 45 million votes?
Of course they do!…its in their contract with AT&T. How else can AT&T claim to be such a popular wireless service other than to handle American Idol voting. The more the better. I bet it even improves AT&T’s usage statistics. At the end of the day, its all about business. Those greedy bastards.
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8 Responses to “American Idol Voting is Flawed”
Need I say more?
Class Action Lawsuit Accuses Carriers of Text Message Price Gouging
If the hordes of texting mini-people result in more votes cast (and hence more money made) then they are the target audience. Simple economics.
Fox doesn’t give 2 shits about whether the person that wins has any actual talent, I suppose if it were possible for that hypothetical talented person to go on and make them a shitheap of money then they might start caring, but the far easier money is from the votes.
Most of the “idols” are guaranteed one-hit wonders… that’s good enough for the producers, on the back of all the vote-money of course.
Excellent point Matt!
Fox doesn’t give a shit because no one gives a shit. It’s American Idol. Who the fuck cares whether shitstain01 or shitstain02 wins, shit is still shit.
I think that what they need to do is to switch the voting system around, instead of vote to keep, vote to kill. If everybody else is able to vote against the bad contestants and the 10 year old girls are divided you might see some actual talent getting through.
Great idea Khemaut! I think that could really work.
Michael, thanks for letting us know how you feel about American Idol.
This is the first American Idol season that I did not view it every week. I felt that this year hosted the most talented contestants so far of any past season. For reasons that are unknown to me, I found myself recording the shows on my DVR and looking at other channels. I usually discovered who was sent home on the internet or end of the week news. I was happy for David Cook who came out as the winner. I am also glad that David Archuleta
came out in second place. He has a long career in front of him.
Syesha Mercado came in at third place, I don’t feel that she was the best female singer. However, all that finished in the top ten will get noticed.
I agree that this season had the most talent. I just think that the wrong people got sent home at the wrong time. I blame the flawed (yet highly lucrative) voting system for that.