'Idol' unlikely to change vote system
Posted: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 7:06 PM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under:
TV
As you've read in the comments to previous posts here, "American Idol" viewers are clamoring for the show to change its voting system. No one can quite agree on how exactly to do so, but almost all can agree that the current one is a mess.
Some want the number of votes limited per caller or phone number. Some want the decision as to who gets sent home to be 50 percent the callers' decision, 50 percent dependent on what the judges say.
But my favorite suggestion is one that will likely never be implemented. Instead of voting for the best singer, what would happen if callers called in for the singer who performed the worst that week? (Some would note that many callers are already doing this, either because of the Vote for the Worst Web site or just to be funny.) Instead of splitting the fanbase into all kinds of groups supporting this singer or that singer, there would only be one decision to be made each week: Who was the absolute worst singer of all the finalists?
Think how interesting that would be. I'm sure there would still be some bizarre plotting and conspiracy theories -- fans of Singer X might surely find ways to convince themselves that kicking off Singer Y would help or hurt their cause. (Think "Survivor," when all the alliances band together to get rid of someone who's a bigger threat to them.) Vote for the Worst.com would have to transform itself into Vote for the Best if it wanted to keep whatever level of power it has.
The change could have a negative effect, too. Singers might even feel that they didn't have to try that hard each week, that all they had to do was sing a little better than the worst one or two others. Like the joke about the two people who suddenly find themselves trapped by a grizzly bear, and one of them starts putting on running shoes. The first man says "Are you crazy? You can't outrun a grizzly bear!" And the other responds "I don't have to outrun the bear. I only have to outrun you."
It would be an intriguing and novel change -- viewers could find out if enough people really do agree each week on who the worst singer is. But "Idol" will never go for it, and here's why. The show views itself as wholesome family entertainment, despite the ever-present scandals. Some of its singers are just 16 or 17. It's one thing for a teen singer to console himself by realizing he just wasn't as good as a powerhouse like LaKisha or Melinda, it's another thing for that same teen to be told, essentially, that Americans actively called in not just to support other singers, but to say "You were awful."
Simon Cowell says that same thing to numerous "Idol" wannabes pretty much every week, but he gets paid for it.
