One thing we need to remember.

[Son of Simon]

Hail Idol faithful!

There are many, many topics on this forum regarding certain contestants for which we IdolMe folk can't understand why a certain contestant is still on the show. The reasons are varied- from performer limitations to our concensus of whether a contestant should have lasted as long as they have.

But one thing to consider is the fact that IdolMe forums, and the internet at large really only represents a certain demographic of voter, if you will. While many of us are die-hard fans, and the conversative type, other fans simply know their votes each week, and continue to phone things in without the desire to post to an internet forum, nor tell anyone of what their choices are and why. These people make up a fairly large portion of the voting base, and yet we cannot gain much information from them other than watching their results mixed with ours every week.

So maybe that's why we don't see a particularly large following on these forums for contestants that seem to remain safe every week, much to our disbelief. The Media covers who they like as well, but if you recall the Media and showbusiness icons alike showed overwhelming support for Presidential candidate John Kerry, and yet Bush won rather decisively. Media is notoriously "less than unbiased" in many situations, and it's safe to say that American Idol is not safe from this.

As we're reading these forums, we see a lot of the same names popping up, while other contestants are either ignored of spurned by members that regularly post here. So while it's a good indicator of how the "internet savvy" population might be voting, it's not always the best barometer of how America ultimately decides who stays and leaves each week.

Thoughts?

[sydneylovesace]

I agree and have kind of kept this in the back of my mind. I guess I was thinking this to give me hope that my friendly co-Ace fans would step it up a bit!
LOL Hope they step it up soon!!!!!!

[Magicmarkerman]

Interesting point of view Son of Simon...I guess i could go either way with this... I think it is possible that the 'internet savvy' group can be an accurate representation for the general voting public for a couple of reasons... 1. there is definitely a broader variety of a 'control group' through this forum. It is comprised of members from all over instead of a particular area. And 2. the age difference. There are members on here ranging the full spectrum age-wise, which gives a more diverse view on popularity amongs all the fans of the show from different aged fans, that also might be more prone to be fans of different genres of singing styles... If interesting how you might find lets say a teen ager and someone in their 40's from these forums that like the same contestant. I believe that breaks the typical demographic when it comes to the polls outside of the forums... I guess it's really too speculative, but i enjoy the forums simply because you CAN read about peoples reasoning behind their likes of a singer, rather than just the tally statistic... Now we can see that there are people voted for because of how they look, etc. which makes some of the results from the show make more sense.

[grania]

Last year, I thought that Carrie Underwood's voice was very sweet, her background very compelling, and a nice, safe choice for a lot of people with cell phones.

Bo Bice had it all over her for talent....he could've walked into Skynard or a lot of older rock bands right away and keep up with the best of him. It was demographics....dinosaur rockers aren't the ones who do a lot of voting on cell phones.

Little boys and girls are going to vote for role models they can relate to in a fairy-tale kind of way. Anyone with an edge will be more interesting to us dinosaurs, but even those of us who watch and vote are only going to put in one or two votes. I think that helps Kellie, Elliot, Taylor, and Paris a bit. They're fun to listen to, watch, and sing and dance with.

[AIdolfan]

Son of Simon, I signed up for this forum because of your thought provoking post.

Here is how I see it. Many of the contestants go into AI with a fan base in place (i.e. Bucky, Mandissa, Chris, Paris). They seem to be able to keep the momentum going a bit longer than one would think, because of their fan base and because of course the media does have their favorites. BUT..

In the long run, I really think the voters get it right. Last week was no surprise. Any one of them could have gone home and it was their fan bases that kept them alive. Not one of them did a star performance. In my opinion it was the worst show ever. If it was my first time tuning in, I would certainly never watch the show again.

The voters are not all internet power users that seek out chat rooms. Time and time again we have seen forums that post by the gazillions in favor of a contestant (Constantine comes to mind) but in the end, regular Joe and Josephine Blow make the right choices when it comes to the vote.