Hold the phone, y’all.
According to a story I just saw on The Drudge Report via Yahoo Music, American Idol‘s not real at all.
Ex-Idol Contestant Says Show Is Rigged
Former contestant Ju’Not Joyner says they contestants are really just actors and your vote doesn’t matter, despite what you think.
“What I mean is that people think AI is a talent show,” he elaborated. “No. It’s a reality show with writers!! We’re all actors. All these shows have writers that guide the public opinion. The Hills, Real World. All of them.” He even bluntly questioned the validity of the public’s votes, saying, “Do you think a billion-dollar enterprise is subject to the whim of the public?”
Let’s do a semi-scientific survey … Sour grapes or telling the truth?
I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that it’s the truth. Anybody who watches the first four episodes a year or so (where the crazy people audition) can see that only the most interesting people who audition make it on the specials. Also, I know a girl who auditioned for “American Idol.” She got past the first check, got to a second check where she met with producers and they told her she was very talented, but she just didn’t have a good enough story to sell (She was from a normal, middle-class, two-parent, no-criminal-record-or-other-drama home, a college student with a high GPA who worked at a restaurant on weekends for spending money and just … average … by their standards).
I also don’t think it will matter if it’s staged. It’s a ratings juggernaut, and people are going to watch it, regardless.
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I personally believe the auditions are real, as are the Top 12(13). After that, they know who they want to win. AT&T makes a ton of money off calls/texts, and AI makes more off advertising. So they make sure someone with talent gets voted off early, and someone with lesser talent hangs around for the drama factor. Another forum has a person who has predicted the top 12 and winners every year after season 3 (took her 2 years to figure it out).
That said, most of them have talent enough to be on TV, and this years was a good show for that. All three of the top 3 are good singers, and all of them should be successful.
That’s the thing people don’t often consider — how much money is tied up in this empire from the top down.
Is that other site Vote for the Worst? I’d love to check that out. I’m fascinated by people who figure out formulas for things like that!
I would catch bits of it (’cause I’d have to know enough for work-related stuff), but I haven’t been a hardcore viewer since the year America broke my heart by picking Carrie Underwood.
Not to say she didn’t deserve it — and she’s arguably been the most successful winner in the show’s history.
But you’re right. If the other contestants didn’t have the talent, people like Clay Aiken would have gone back to working regular Joe jobs and not recording.
I am sure producers go for the “interesting” people. Journalists have been known to do that as well. Funny or sensational sound bites make air more than “boring” sound bites. Someone once said (after the Sago disaster) that they were tired of CNN or Fox or whoever interviewing West Virginians with missing teeth and twangy accents. I don’t doubt that people in the newsroom made fun of those soundbites, but I doubt they walked the street looking for people with missing teeth. Some of those that audition make idiots of themselves and it’s “good TV.” America’s Funniest Home Videos has been a franchise cash machine for years showing idiots in front of the camera.
However, I doubt American Idol is rigged. I doubt the producers want to go to Club Fed for fraud. But maybe…. Stranger things have happened in Hollywood!
ABSOLUTELY the truth.
Why people act like they’re so shocked over this “revelations” never ceases to amaze me (i’m saying you in particular jacque…just talking in general)
We all know how TV works. The more sensational, the better. Movies like The Truman Show, Running Man, and Death Race are examples of selling your soul to make a dollar on television.
If it came out that American Idol was rigged, the ratings would stay the same. The top 12 are picked. By the judges and producers. So out of 392,925,492 people who audition, they find the 12, or 24, “most interesting people with talent” to put out there for all of us to see. They don’t pick the “most talented.” They pick what sells. People watched Adam Lambert because he could sing (certain songs) and he was eccentric. By the end of the show, people were tired of him, and had moved on to the next big thing. Well, the only ‘thing’ left was Kris. People got tired of Glambert and his screaming. So they went with somebody else.
I think extensive studies could be made on American Idol and it’s affect on television viewers. You can say it’s rigged up until the final 24 or 12 or 36 or however they’re gonna do it. After that, I think the psyche of the viewers makes the decisions.
Well define rigged? The producers hand-pick the people who make it into the top 12, sure. If that’s “rigging” then yes, most definitely. The people who make it there aren’t possibly the most talented in the bunch. If they were we wouldn’t have had people like Norman or Sanjaya or even Megan Joy in our living room each week.
If by “rigging” you mean it’s easy for people to massively dial for a contestant essentially guaranteeing they continue, then yes. Most “competition reality shows” allow a limited number of votes in a specific time period. On Idol you can vote an unlimited number of times in the time period, which allows for outliers to overwhelm the lines and keep contestants alive.
I don’t really believe Ju’Not Joyner when he says there are “writers” that decide who stays and who goes. But Idol definitely utilizes pushing certain stories down viewers’ throats to further their cause. Because yes, a better story sells.
I guess we’ll find out eventually though. And if it is rigged, the people doing the rigging aren’t doing a good enough job of vetting whose albums America will buy. If they were doing their jobs we wouldn’t have had Taylor Hicks as a winner, would we?
I think you’ve hit it on the head, Michelle — you’d have to clearly define “rigged.”
One of these femmes:
http://openline.medialine.com/showthread.php?t=30778&highlight=Adam+Lambert
I think HushHush has the pattern down, but I am not sure. Was interesting to read that as it was going on.
I think Kris won because he fits more of the “Idol” mold than Adam did. Had Adam won, he’d be boxed in to the Top 40 market, and as the season went, you could tell that wasn’t his niche’ or where the producers wanted him to go. So Kris wins, freeing Adam to release more edgy music or front for Queen on occasion if they wanted to do a tour. All being “owned” by 19 Entertainment, they can use those two to get more $$ from people.
Oh, awesome. I’ll pull that up after I get a few more things done. That’s great!!
As if I needed even more motivation NOT to watch this show. ::sigh::
I don’t watch Idol, but I do follow entertainment news. Is it rigged?
One word: Sanjaya.
How could they/why would they rig a show and keep that kid coming back?
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