American Idol Finals - Live Thread!!

Fox ^ | May 21, 2003 | all of us

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

It's the argument that he shouldn't win BECAUSE he is overweight that is disgusting.

I agree with that wholeheartedly. I'm also not digging the "white guy got robbed" stuff. They both sound like nice enough kids, from what I can gather - it's rather unseemly to rag on either one of them, imo.

[ethical]

Afraid they might offend blacks if another white won?

[Howlin]

If you don't care, why do you keep replying to me?


Move on.

[floriduh voter]

Kimberly is keeping company with the 2nd runner up. She's happy. He's happy. That's what I heard.

[Howlin]

She was fabulous tonight!

[BamaBlue]

Because you keep replying to me. Stupid is as stupid does (Forrest Gump).

[Timesink]

T, you know exactly what has gone on over the past months with the blacks being voted off the show, or tossed off and all the uproar that caused.

In all honesty, no I don't. I know that a few loons made some noise when Frenchie was tossed and that other guy whose name I can't even remember got nuked because he was facing assault charges or whatever, but claims of racism there are laughable since practically every entertainer's contract has some sort of morals clause in it. I never heard any particularly noticable amount of noise when Rickey or Kimberley or any of the other non-whites were voted out. And remember, seven of the twelve finalists were either black or hispanic. If they got on the show in higher numbers, it was inevitable they were going to be voted out in higher numbers. And almost everyone I discussed the show with said from the very beginning that Ruben and Clay were the best singers. If Ruben was truly horrific and should have been kicked off back in March, I'd agree there was some sort of fix on. But everyone LOVED him. If you want to say that because I believe they were blackmailed into pushing Ruben racist, fine by me. I see no difference in what they did than in what Jesse Jackson did to NASCAR.

No, I'm not saying you're a racist. I think you're dead wrong on the issue, but what you're claiming is nowhere near the overt "why'd the fat black pig win" quotes I've seen all over this thread.

[floriduh voter]

If my lover sang like that, I'd make him get up and get a drink of water - and also take a shower like Algor, another perspiration challenged American.

And then, there'd be the getting crushed part. Never mind. I'll stick with Clay who gives me chills and leaves me breathless - much like Ruben is.

[Scothia]

T, you know exactly what has gone on over the past months with the blacks being voted off the show, or tossed off and all the uproar that caused.

You should have seen the AOL boards every time one of the black singers was eliminated. The race card was pulled so much you could've gotten whiplash from standing in front of it. Really pathetic.

I won't say that Ruben is not deserving of something big. He does have a lot of natural talent. Whether he'll be able to go the distance is another matter. I still stick to my conclusion that this AI was a matter of demographics. The cute little white chick last year, the big black dude this year. Next year: the very tall, thin Latina female, or else the Brad Pitt lookalike.

Calling this is not racism. It's merely recognizing the system for what it is. Why else would Oprah have featured Ruben as if he were the winner last week, and FNC have been so blatant about it all day? Again, not to even mention the less than objective stances of the judges. I called the outcome of this contest back in late February, on the AOL AI boards. No big surprise at all to me, and I preferred watching the ACM.

I don't mind. I like Clay and Ruben both for different reasons, but neither of them are as good as Kimberley Locke. A pity she competed in a "male" year.

[Fawnn]

Was Leno showing his bias? Or did he mess up?

A little bit ago when announcing that he'd "have the winner of American Idol" on the show tomorrow night, he continued by saying, "Rube--," and then stopped himself and said, "Oh, we don't know who won because the show's going on now" -- meaning while his show tonight was being taped.

(He also had a *very* nasty fat joke: A diet product called "Lazy Sow TV Dinner.")

[Scothia]

And I'm betting (and hoping) that Simon's going to personally sew the world's most annoying Atkins dietician to Ruben's thigh for the next six months. Lord knows Ruben can afford it now.

Yup, Mr. Studdard is not his own anymore. He'll soon find that the labels won't like him staying up till 3 AM playing Playstation the night before a big gig, and then rasping out during a performance.

[floriduh voter]

Imagine is an easy song to sing. Ruben's expressions on stage reveal to me anyway that even though he went all the way, he lacks self confidence. He can do mellow and some rifts but he's never nailed a phrase or hit a high note. He can't. It's beyond his abilities. Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken both have great ranges are are interesting vocally. Ruben's not ready for prime time and he may try to set his own rules because I don't think he can keep up the pace that's required.

[Hazzardgate]

Right..if a 300 lb sweat hog spitting all over the stage is your definition of "soul"

I think if you did some proper research you would see that the most soulful singers in the world sweat quite a bit.

[Timesink]

The vote was rigged. On the directions to vote by cell phone or text messaging they gave Reubans number as the example of a contestants number.

Funny, I saw them do the same thing for Clay.

Also I looked at about 60 newspaper and tv polls around the country today and reuban only led in ONE that I saw. Clay led in virtually all of them and by a good sized margin. No way were that many polls wrong.

So if Zogby says the night before the election that it's 55-45 in favor of Gore, that means Gore is the winner and Bush stole the election?

Did you know that in 1993, all the way up until election day every single major pollster in Britain predicted a massive landslide for Labour that was going to hand them control of Parliament and toss John Major out on his butt. Then the people actually voted, and the Tories absolutely annihilated Labour. And those were "legitimate, scientific" polls, not online votes and random call-ins like all these local newspaper AI polls. Clay Aiken fans don't know how to freep?

[Luis Gonzalez]

(I posted this on another thread, thought I'd share my thoughts with you)

I don't get it.

Everyone is going on about Ruben being the next this guy or that guy, meanwhile, the guy who came in second place is a complete original.

Ruben will forever struggle to fill in someone else's shoes, he will always be compared to Barry White, or Luther, or who knows. Clay however, will leave shoes behind to be filled by someone else.

In the future, I expect to hear "that guy could be the next Clay Aiken", many, many more times than "that guy might be the next Ruben Studdard"...actually, I'm willing to bet that I will not hear that at all.

America screwed up...if it wasn't rigged.

[floriduh voter]

How do you feel about 130K vote differential? Our Fox affiliate made the third correction to 130,000 vote difference. Now that smells like someone had an unfair advantage at the phone banking in San Antonio. Do you suppose they mapped out what areas were likely to vote for Ruben and let those phone lines run wild and areas likely to vote for Clay people couldn't get through. There seem to be a lot of us here who couldn't vote for Clay. I'm not watching AI anymore. I'd rather sing at home for myself and my pets than participate in something that smells.

[Timesink]

Timesink,Anytime you put yourself before the public eye expect to get handclaps and putdowns.

Racism is okay as long as it's towards someone in the public eye? Sorry, no.

[Timesink]

Kimberly is keeping company with the 2nd runner up. She's happy. He's happy. That's what I heard.

Huh? Kimberley IS the 2nd runner up.

[FreeReign]

I think if you did some proper research you would see that the most soulful singers in the world sweat quite a bit.

James Brown was very active on stage. Reuben extends his left hand -- then he extends his right hand.

[floriduh voter]

Michael Jackson's brother. Jackson 5. Sang and played an instrument. He wasn't chubby back then. Randy Jackson.