American Idol

spudlyff8fan

spudlyff8fan

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You know what I hate even more than the misconception that Lance Armstrong is a hero? American Idol. So I'm sitting here, being forced to watch the catastrophe that is the finale. And I find it stunningly embarassing that 54 million people actually bothered to vote for something that is more even more fixed than professional wrestling. The only votes that mattered were the ones done by Fox shareholders last week, and every "surprise" was preplanned to rally sponsors, or increase voting.

Let's look critically at that bald guy with the hurricane wanring sideburns getting the boot a few weeks ago. Now, everyone predicted him to win, and he had oodles of little girl fans everywhere. Of course, nobody expected him to lose, and no less, in the finals. And what does Fox say was what caused it? A LACK OF HIS FANS VOTING. Soon after a wild number of fans complain about not being able to get through to the 1-800 numbers, necessitating lots of the fans to vote via text messaging. Needless to say, Fox gets a percent of the millions of votes that they get, and even a minute percentage guarantees a garbage truck of money getting unloaded on Rupert Murdock's front lawn.

I sincerely doubt this is the first time this has happened. In all likelihood, Fox selects their winners when there are 5 or 6 people left, and the sudden "judge/celebrity song selection" is undoubtedly manipulated into making the people sound bad for one night, making fans just say "yeah, s/he sucked that night." And the fact that Fox gets a cut from every album sold by the winners gives them even more incentive to pick out people who they think won't just come out with a fleetingly popular single shortly after winning, only to disappear and end up making short cameos on the opening minutes of various primetime specials on ABC and CBS as they desperately scramble to get any gig they can.

Not to mention how for every three minute song is quickly followed by four minutes of commercials grows tiresome quickly.

So yeah, it's fixed and stupid.

And the years haven't been kind to Meatloaf...
 
I have a feeling that 95% of guys who actually watch it only do so because their wife/girlfriend really, really want them to. For what it is worth, I hope that Taylor Hicks win just becuase he is SO not a typical American Idol winner.
 
This season's AI was the first time I've watched. Thought I'd give it a try. What kept me around was Taylor Hicks pretty much. Chris was good, too. I didn't watch it religiously or anything. I half-paid attention most of the time and always watched Lost anytime the timeslot's overlapped.

As for a Fox conspiracy in the eventual choosing of a winner, I just don't get the impression that Taylor would be the guy that could net them the most money. I believe Taylor was chosen because of his personality. His albums probably won't sell that well.

Anyway, Lost, now there's a season finale.
 
spudlyff8fan said:
And I find it stunningly embarassing that 54 million people actually bothered to vote for something that is more even more fixed than professional wrestling.

And the years haven't been kind to Meatloaf...
Click to expand...


Just to let you know, it was 63 Million I believe.
And Meatloaf..god awful.
 
Yup, agreed. Taylor is a visual artist..half of the fun is watching him contort and pretzel his body as he appears like he's in pain from singing. You just won't get that feeling listening to him on the radio. He is talented voice-wise, but I considered Chris to be miles better than anyone there personally.

AI is fun to watch, even if predetermined as some believe. Wrestling is fun to watch too, although the wrestlers know what's going to happen for the most part, but the fans don't. Sure it's scripted..but so is every single movie and television series we watch. Oh...and here's a surprise for you...video games are scripted and predetermined as well! Hehe.


the_roach said:
This season's AI was the first time I've watched. Thought I'd give it a try. What kept me around was Taylor Hicks pretty much. Chris was good, too. I didn't watch it religiously or anything. I half-paid attention most of the time and always watched Lost anytime the timeslot's overlapped.

As for a Fox conspiracy in the eventual choosing of a winner, I just don't get the impression that Taylor would be the guy that could net them the most money. I believe Taylor was chosen because of his personality. His albums probably won't sell that well.

Anyway, Lost, now there's a season finale.
Click to expand...
 
I somehow got sucked into AI this year. Never followed it after the tryouts. I think it was because of Chris. The rocker dude kept me in it this year. And having a girlfriend contributed to it as well. I hated how Chris got the boot. It was like here is your bottom two and then real quick it was like Chris you're gone. Pissed me off. Also could have had something to do with the fact I was drinking. But the look on his face was priceless. It was like "WTF? Are you serious?" He knew he was better and so did the rest of America, but AI had to fix so more people would watch to keep them asking, what will happen next. Clay Aiken makes me sick.
 
Huddy said:
Yup, agreed. Taylor is a visual artist..half of the fun is watching him contort and pretzel his body as he appears like he's in pain from singing. You just won't get that feeling listening to him on the radio. He is talented voice-wise, but I considered Chris to be miles better than anyone there personally.

AI is fun to watch, even if predetermined as some believe. Wrestling is fun to watch too, although the wrestlers know what's going to happen for the most part, but the fans don't. Sure it's scripted..but so is every single movie and television series we watch. Oh...and here's a surprise for you...video games are scripted and predetermined as well! Hehe.
Click to expand...

My problem with that assessment is that American Idol is considered a contest (a glorified gameshow really) where "contestants" compete to win a lucrative recording contract and the opportunity to go on to more financial gains further down the road. If the show IS actually fixed, it would be in violation of a host of Federal regulations even if the finalists actually know what's going on (because beyond the "finalists" a large number of people "auditioned" in the hopes of entering what would be a "fair" contest. Thus, Fox would be perpetrating a fraud).

I really don't care about American Idol since I don't watch it, but I actually can't believe that there would be blatant fixing going on because of the legal liability at stake. A simple cost/benefit analysis would show that they make money regardless if a stud or a dud wins as long as there's some meaningless controversy and a British guy getting into verbal fights with a metrosexual television host. No need to risk the possibility of fines, audience backlash and government interference. It could be the "21" scandal all over again.
 
Well Scribe, even if they flat-out don't ignore the voting, they can more than easily manipulate how people will vote. Or they can have errors where lines end up getting inadvertantly closed or people accidentally vote en masse for other people.

But yeah, I was really disappointed with Meatloaf...
 
Holy crow, I can't even believe this topic exists on these boards. XD

The only way I hear about American Idol is via the radio or the Arts and Life section of the newspaper (in which I read the comics everyday now that's some good quality readin'). I'll admit to watching some of the auditions though, because it makes me laugh. Like that girl who thought she was Avril--actually, that was probably more painful than funny. It is fun to believe the conspiracy voting theory. However, like the mystery of how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop, we'll never know. (Unless we get a mole in on the voting procedures.. bwahaha).

I just think its sad that more people vote on this than the presidential election. It's even sadder that most of the country will have to see the movie they're making about the issue (I forget what it's called; but I have seen previews) to realize it.
 
They are sort of exaggerating when they say that more people vote for AI than in presidential elections. More people voted in the latest AI than a single president has ever received, not more than the collective votes of an election.

Still, that is pretty significant, heh.
 
Well, you can't forget that when they say that 60 something million people voted, that means they got 60 something million votes, because people probably voted two or three times. Even if that isn't the case, anyone can vote for American idol, while not everyone can vote for president, kids mainly.
 
But still... only 55.3% of the population voted in last presidential election. :\

I guess 55% is a far greater percentage than 60 mil AI voters/298 mil people in the US. But then again, the age factor isn't figured into the 298 million in the US... (this is where figuring all of this out gets a little too crazy XD)

Anyway, we'd be better of without that crazy show.
 
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