Is American Idol Manipulating Results By Order Of Performance?
By Joe Reality on American Idol
It has long been rumored that whoever sings in the opening spot on American Idol is at a distinct disadvantage because by the end of the show, many viewers have forgotten their performance and thus forget to vote for them. It has also long been rumored that whoever sings in the closing spot on American Idol has a distinct advantage because viewers get caught up in the moment and the performance is fresh in their minds during the voting time window.
Reality TV Magazine went back through this season's top twelve eliminations on American Idol to see if there really is any disadvantage or advantage to singing earlier or later in the performance show. What we found appeared to back up the long standing rumors. The finalist who sang last has not been eliminated during the subsequent results show during the entire top twelve. In fact with the exception of Chris Richardson, no finalist singing in the last two positions has been eliminated in the subsequent results show.
In contrast, the finalist who sang in the first or second spot has been eliminated four times during the entire top twelve. That means that fifty percent of the eliminations so far during the top twelve have been someone singing in one of the first two spots.
In fact, the one exception that we pointed to of Chris Richardson being eliminated after he sang in one of the final two spots actually occurred on the double elimination week. If one looks back to the previous non-elimination week, Chris Richardson sang in the first spot. Since the voting totals were added together for those two weeks, one way to look at it is that both of the opening singers for those two weeks wound up going home. Looking at it from this angle, 62.5% of the eliminated finalists sang in one of the two opening spots before their elimination.
Here is the most shocking part of our research though. Some American Idol finalists appear to have been selected for the final closing spot more than others. Melinda Doolittle and Jordin Sparks have each received the closing spot twice. Lakisha Jones, Blake Lewis, Chris Richardson, and Sanjaya Malakar have each received the closing spot once. None of the other six America Idol finalists, who have all been eliminated, ever received the closing spot even one time. The remaining final four contestants have monopolized the closing spot 75% of the time. (Granted that as more people are eliminated there are less people to choose from, but Phil Stacey was still around with zero closings when Melinda Doolittle and Jordin Sparks got their second closing performances.)
Considering that American Idol producers have access to the voting results every week, they would likely be able to put together statistics to figure out that contestants in the closing spots have a distinct advantage over contestants in the opening spots. Knowing this information, could American Idol producers affect the outcome of the competition by giving certain contestants more closing spots than others? |
