I personally would have preferred to see a bunch of former Idols on the stage, rather than current non-Idol pop stars. But nobody asked me. :-)
You are NOT alone!
American Idol 6: Should ‘Idol Gives Back’ Have Affected the Voting?
by David Bloomberg — 04/26/2007
http://www.foxesonidol.com/cgi-bin/ae.pl?mode=1&article=article2092.art&page=1
David believes that “Idol Gives Back” was a great idea to help charities. But Wednesday night’s show raised some questions. Was it fair to use this charity event as an excuse to not send somebody packing? How might it affect future American Idol results, including perhaps the future for Blake (right)? And he has some questions about the “Idol Gives Back” portion as well.
This week, as everybody knows, American Idol used its immense television power to campaign for charity, as “Idol Gives Back.” While Idol has used its power for good before – the release of several charity singles, for example – this week made every other effort pale in comparison.
That’s the good news – and it is very good news. But there are still some lingering questions and issues that need to be addressed about the show.
First, I’d really like to know where the other past Idols were. Did American Idol invite Fantasia, Ruben Studdard, and Taylor Hicks? What about Clay Aiken, who has devoted some of his own time to charitable causes? While I know there have already been some Clay fans complaining about him not being there, as far as I know, we can’t say for certain whether this was because he was not invited or he was invited but unable to attend for some reason. The same goes with the other past Idols.
Another question I had before the show – which was only emphasized during the show – was how much Ryan, Simon, Paula, and Randy are donating. So much is made of salaries and monetary disputes (especially in Simon’s case) that it would have been nice for them to say, “I personally am giving one million dollars,” or something. Ellen DeGeneres did it, and she was just a co-host for a night. Ryan even asked Simon about it when they were having technical problems and trying to kill time, but Simon avoided the question deftly.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they are donating money. Maybe they were afraid if they talked about how much they were donating, it would make the little people (you and me) think their donations weren’t worth making. But I think it would have added emphasis to just how important they feel this is. Perhaps they’ll announce it next week. At least, I hope they will.
But perhaps the biggest question of the night has nothing to do with the concept of “Idol Gives Back,” but rather the entire concept of American Idol itself. Was it fair for them to keep everybody around? Yes, it was a charitable thing to do. It was a very nice thing to do. But was it the right thing to do?
In my opinion, no, it was not. American Idol is still a reality talent show. That’s why we watch. As a friend of my wife said after the show, “I watched that for two hours and then nobody was sent home?!” Ryan took us through the charade of announcing results, put poor Jordin through several seconds of hell, and then basically said, “Psych!”
Beyond whether it was fair to the viewers, I don’t think it’s fair to the competitors. On Idol, one bad night could always do you in. And we’re at a critical stage in the competition. Now, anybody who wasn’t quite up to par this week has another chance next week.
Admittedly, it may all balance out. While Ryan announced that people will once again have four hours to vote (in order to make things fair, presumably), will they get 70 million calls again? I suppose it’s possible, as they received 38 million the week prior and didn’t even double it for “Idol Gives Back.” But it’s also possible that people will get tired of voting after two or three hours, meaning whoever was in second-to-last place this week will be at a decided disadvantage.
After all, in a normal week, whether you’re in first or second-to-last really doesn’t matter – only the lowest vote count is important. So you can go from second-to-last right up to the top, and we’ve seen it happen. But next week, it could be rather difficult for that person, as they are already at a handicap. To me, that just isn’t fair.
OK, so we’re really coming down to a likely three-horse race of Melinda, Jordin, and Blake. Sure, Phil has been getting better, but I can’t see him or Chris as real contenders (then again, non-contenders have made the final three before, so who knows?). LaKisha has been going somewhat downhill – not helped by her decision to sing songs by former Idols for two weeks running. So it’s possible that these results won’t matter.
But what if Blake is voted off? He was in the bottom three the week prior. He sang well but not in a particularly exciting way. He could have been bottom two this week, which would put him in the danger seat next week. I’m obviously only speculating and we won’t know anything until next week (and may not know much for certain even then, as least as far as where they were this week), but I’m using this as an example of how unfair things could turn out.
In the end, “Idol Gives Back” was a great concept. However, I wonder if they should have just kept it separate from the show itself. Have the charity show. Feature the Idols. Feature as many past Idols as possible, too. Raise the money. News Corp. didn’t need phone calls to donate five million dollars – they could have simply handed it over (indeed, they pretty much guaranteed they would anyway, by giving twice the time for calls).
Then, after the fundraising was done this week, they could have gone back to their usual shows next week and continued the competition without affecting anything.