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 |  Subject: How to tell when 'American Idol' is playing favorites  28.02.10 8:23 | |
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- I had lunch with Phil Stacey and Chris Sligh last week, and we got into an interesting discussion about how to watch the show and which cues signal the show's producers and judges' desire to see particular contestants advance in the competition.
"The judges have way more control than America likes to think they have," says Chris, He compares the American Idol judges to the television commentators who work ice-skating events at the Olympics.
"The way that I know ice skating is really good is when Scott Hamilton's voice goes up an octave," he says. "But he could tell me it was horrible, and I'd be, like, 'Yeah, that was horrible.'
"Most people who watch American Idol are to singing what I am to ice skating. They go, 'LaKisha Jones looks good while she's singing, but the judges say she's not very good, so she must not be very good.'"
Chris and Phil shared several tips for reading between the Idol lines with me, so I thought I'd share them with you.
1. Listen for blanket statements about entire groups. When you see Randy Jackson say, "There are some really talented girls that showed up this time," that's a pretty clear sign he and the producers want you to pay attention to one group of contestants more than another. And if they're serious about it, the judges will drive this point home every chance they get. For example, Simon Cowell might say, before the semifinal competition even begins, that "there is definitely a better chance of a girl winning the show this year."
During Chris and Phil's season, Phil says, "It went through the first full episode of live performances before they went, 'You guys are terrible. Let's see if the girls can save Season 6.'"
2. Listen for catchphrases from the judges. If you think a performance sounded perfectly fine, and the judges suddenly start attacking it using vague, generic terms, they may be trying to guide viewers away from the singer. "Usually, there are catch words -- 'horrible,' 'unoriginal,' 'pitchy' when you're not pitchy," Chris says.
3. Listen for vocal effects. If the producers are pushing the girls, you can sometimes hear it in the singers' voices. "On a couple of girls, you'll hear reverb, delay," Phil says. "All the guys will be dry."
"Or, like they did with me on Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, they'll put a delay that is off-rhythm," adds Chris.
4. Count the lighting changes. If the producers really like a performance, they'll trick out the light show. "Somebody will come on and have a thousand light changes," Phil says. "Then the next singer will come out, and they'll put it on blue. And it'll stay there the entire time."
(For an example of how this works, watch the way the lights flash and change during Phil's career-establishing performance of Where the Blacktop Ends, which made him safe after three consecutive Bottom Three performances, then notice how static they are during his performance of Maria Maria the previous week.)
Savvy contestants can use the lights to their advantage. Adam Lambert, for instance, reportedly suggested most of his lighting set-ups.
5. Pay attention to the mentors' comments. If the producers want to shoot you down, they'll sometimes let the mentor pull the trigger. The night Chris was voted off, mentor Gwen Stefani said the following: "Chris has a strong voice. The only thing he needs to work on is the tempo, because he is definitely off. … I think it will be easier with the drummer. He really needs to concentrate on the beat of it."
The following night, Chris says, Gwen came to him to apologize: "She said she talked for five minutes about how great I was. They asked if she had anything negative to say, and that was the only thing."
As a general rule, Idol will not show a mentor making negative comments about a contestant the producers would like to see win.
6. Pay attention to performance order. The "pimp spot" -- a show's final performance -- is well-known (hello, Katie Stevens; hello, Andrew Garcia). And, according to What Not to Sing, singing first raises a contestants likelihood of elimination by 50 percent. But Chris believes there are other dead spots in the show.
"Say there's a guy who's an early favorite, but they start going in the middle of the lineup all of a sudden," he says. "Middle of the lineup is where they put people to die."
There's also statistical evidence that suggests, in large groups, people have natural biases against places that follow a multiple of three (i.e., the fourth and seventh spots) -- a bias that might be more pronounced following an especially strong performance.
(For the record, Ashley Rodriguez and Janell Wheeler performed in the second and third spots last week, while Joe Muñoz and Tyler Grady performed fifth and sixth.)
Phil says he's not a conspiracy theorist, but, "I think they would like certain people to win." And he's got no problem with that. "The producers have a right to pick favorites," he says. After all, it's their show. Plus, "We all had the exact same amount of time to make ourselves their favorite."
At the end of the day, however, "they're going to give the people what they want," Phil says. "That's why Kris Allen ended up winning. That's why Taylor Hicks ended upwinning. That's why Chris Daughtry got eliminated."
On the other hand, Chris says: "I think the producers do care who wins, and I think they make it obvious in the way they edit and in the way they treat individuals." However, he adds, "I definitely don't think they rig votes."
One final note: If you ever find yourself in Gallatin, Tenn., at lunchtime, check out Campione's Taste of Chicago. They've got great hot dogs. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/idolchatter/post/2010/02/how-to-tell-when-american-idol-is-playing-favorites/1 | |
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