American Idol: Is The Save Rule Really A Put Down?
http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2009/03/24/american-idol-is-the-save-rule-really-a-put-down/
This season on American Idol, the producers have introduced two major changes. Not only did the contestants have to sing for their lives in weekly sing-offs, but now the show has introduced the judges rule. As the weeks pass and the judges opt out of using the rule to save the singers, it made us wonder if the judge’s save is just another way to put the contestants down instead of serving the purpose for which they say it was intended.
Simon Cowell explained that the judges save was meant to keep American Idol contestants on that show that would otherwise make an early exit due to poor viewers votes, but it seems more like a ploy to bring in more viewers to watch the show each week to see if the poor eliminated soul would indeed be saved by the judges or would be subjected to the humiliation of not being worthy enough to survive.
“I think the only purpose of the judges’ save is to create drama,” Chris Sligh told USA Today. He was an early favorite in American Idol’s Season 6 and would have ended up finishing 10th. “From a TV perspective, it makes the show better, but it really seemed like Alexis thought she had a chance. That part of it is a little cruel.”
Chris Sigh added, “At the same time, you put yourself in a position when you go on American Idol that they have the right to be cruel to you on the off chance that you can make a career.”
The idea of the save, is to give a deserving contestant another chance, and allows the four judges a one-time opportunity to change the viewers’ votes and keep a singer on an extra week. Even if the judges never use that option which they can’t after the field narrows to five, the rule adds to the humiliation of those who essentially get eliminated twice, first by the audience, then by the judges.
Fox reality chief Mike Darnell says the save makes the results show “more aggressive.” The morning after Alexis Grace’s elimination, he told American Idol host Ryan Seacrest’s syndicated radio show that “it’s creating an enormously raw moment, better than we imagined.”
Season 7 fifth place finalist, Brooke White doesn’t know how well she could have held herself together if she’d had to sing for a save. “It would’ve been very difficult for me to pull off a poised performance,” Brooke White said. Getting voted off is hard enough, Brooke White says, “and to throw that on top of it is both awesome and totally