I do think people have seen these people enough by now to be sick of them all.
I would not be surprised if 95% of the people had favorites picked before all is said and done.
You have a point there. In "Nashville Star", they don't drag it out like this. They stop with the top four and have a final vote.
(At least that's what they did last year, when I still had cable. I didn't watch this year's Nashville Star. Someone reported on this thread that a female won the competition which finished this week.)