The Algebra II-Trig of American Idol Voting

[jlh]

So I was so irritable last night that I didn't take a step back and work through why the elimination happened before I posted. But ziggy1278 said something in passing that made me think not only about the usual thing, but about this one in very particular.

Tuesday night was one of those nights that bring up a surprise elimination. See, we all get favorite singers, and we vote for them because we like them, or think they're interesting or whatever, and if they have a bad night, we vote for them even moreso to keep them on the show. On Tuesday night a lot of people who've earned a fanbase through previous good performances, like Brooke, were mediocre to not good, so their fans rushed out to vote for them. Often on nights like that people forget to vote for someone who was good, but isn't their favorite—the "I'll vote 20 times for Brooke, but I'll kick 3 or 4 to Amanda because she was good" vote. You can't just be good; you have to be appealing enough to get a steady fan base.

This is how Daughtry was voted off, because Kat had a bad week, Elliott had a surprisingly good week, and those Soul Patrol morons would have voted for Taylor if he'd gone out and taken a crap in the middle of the stage (which he often did). This is how Jennifer Hudson was voted off so early.

But I think another factor in Amanda's elimination was that her fan base aren't big voters. The way you get stuff like Sanjaya, and the way small David survives, is that young girls and grandmas vote a LOT. But super cool twenty-somethings, not so much, even though they DO buy records—which I think was also a factor for Daughtry. (This was Taylor's downfall; he had voters who don't buy records.) I didn't vote my first year of watching, either, so it isn't for me to scold, certainly. But one of the reasons I vote is so I can have the right to complain.

and DUDE. I voted 10x for Amanda!

Comments

[akari-hayashi.livejournal.com]

Taylor ain't bad! *pout* (I don't appreciate being called a moron nyaaa.)

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed being a Soul Patrol moron :D Even though you're right, I didn't throw a dime to Taylor afterwards. I gave all my money to Daughtry and Elliott.

[honestys-easy.livejournal.com]

I'm very pleased that I voted this week so I can for once complain. *hmmph* When I came home on Tuesday my mom said she thought Kristy Lee was good - after which I gave her an awful rant about it, but that's beside the point - but that had me thinking that, maybe, her fans would think she was rather safe and not vote as much. Sadly, it didn't work out that way.

I'll be seeing Amanda in whatever bar she'll be playing in from now on, though. I like her spunk.

[ziggy1278.livejournal.com]

Hmm. At first I said this system was "flawed" but now I see that it is an almost exact approximation of what humans do with dollars at any given time. There are no "negative votes" with dollars - there are only those who did not make enough of an impact to sell at any given time based on a variety of different factors. Interesting.

[ziggy1278.livejournal.com]

Also geez stop putting my name on American Idol posts. I'm waaaay too cool for this shit.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Well, and it's also a very good approximation of the marketplace in that the people who tend to vote are often the people who tend to buy pop music. It's why on SYTYCD the votes only choose a bottom three, and the judges decide who leaves, because viewers don't choose a dancer—a choreographer does. Or why there would never be viewer voting on Top Chef or Project Runway, because the success of restaurants and clothing lines are ultimately up to the consumer, but the choices are so mediated.

Also, your coolness is so great and so rock solid that it cannot be affected in any way by mentioning your name in an AI post. You should really already know that.

[cricketnyc.livejournal.com]

I also wonder how of much of this has to do with tour.

I have noticed with SYTYCD that the eliminations early on are very much tied to who's best for the tour. Granted, they have a somewhat different voting system, in that the judges have the final say for the first handful of eliminations. But we all know how many game Uncle Nigel & Simon play in order to get the votes they want for the people they want.

I like Amanda, but I have to concede that I don't think she'd be good for the tour. Her awkward placement in the group sing last night cinched that for me. Her voice doesn't blend, and she kinda sucks at harmony too. The Idol Machine makes a ton off the tour, and the merch sales. So if they felt she would be a) a liability or b) not enough of a draw, I can see them engineering a boot for her this week.

They put her first. She got the dread meh review from Simon (not bad enough to get her fans dialing to save her, not good enough to convince the sheep to vote for her cause he said so).

Also, when Michael and David C were so excited Jason got in, I couldn't help but think they were partially relieved that their pot hookup would be on the tour with them. Just me? OK, then.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

You're so right. Amanda was so not interested in that medley, and I don't think she would have gotten much out of being on that tour, since its attendees are really a lot of twelve year old girls and their parents.

I think that Simon isn't quite as sophisticated in his gamesmanship as we like to think he is, because his emotions sometimes get the better of him. If you think back to last year and Sanjaya, for the last two weeks he was on the show, and especially the final week, a lot of that was Ryan stepping in to stop Simon from saying anything really bad that would get the sympathy vote going again. I don't think anyone wanted Sanjaya around for Idol Gives Back.

[amyamy.livejournal.com]

See, I vote, but I'm only just starting to understand the scale of this whole thing. Also, I'm sticking with my initial reaction when Kristy got the safe nod: 95% of the American population are morons.

[nmalfoy.livejournal.com]

I liked Amanda and was bummed that she got voted off. I still think she should have rocked "Polythene Pam" but eh. You're right, though, about the voting for those with a bad week, which explains why Carly was in the bottom three. I voted once for her and like 10x for Chikezie because, well, I felt he needed the votes. Q.E.D.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

But is Polythene Pam actually a minute and a half long? God, what would Simon have said if someone had actually sung all those little songs?

sistermagpie and I think Jason Castro should have sung "Her Majesty."

[likebunnies.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of either Kristy or Amanda and thus didn't vote for either but I can see where Kristy could get a fan base... just like the girl with the legs a few seasons back (or was that just last season?) got a fan base. Somebody is always going to vote for the cute girl. Sometimes it's not about singing. Well, a lot of times, it's not about the singing. But we all know that.

And then there's the fact that I live with a twelve year old boy and he'll only vote for David Cook. Why not David A.? Because my kid is jealous. I think if I had a twelve year old daughter, all the votes in the house would be going to David A. though.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

What's frustrating is like, why does Simon put those girls through to the top 24 when he knows at least one of them is going to make it to the finals and then piss him off until she's gone? The only "girl with legs" who's ever been any good on this show is Kat, and she was fantastic from the get-go. So really, it's his own fault.