Last summer's "American Idol" competitor, "Rock Star: INXS," introduced a new twist on the traditional viewer-vote (and re-vote) model of competitive reality TV shows. On "American Idol," the American public voted each week for their favorites, with the lowest vote-getter getting tossed. This led every year to very talented singers getting eliminated ahead of less talented singers, either because the less talented singers had big fan bases, or the more talented ones' fans relaxed, thinking their favorites were safe.
Thus, when "Rock Star" instead took the three lowest vote getters and had them sing again on the reveal night, with INXS making the decision of which of the three to cut, I thought it was a welcome improvement. Even if America messed up and put someone in the bottom 3 who shouldn't have been there, that person could escape elimination by singing well.
It turns out that this is the new format of "So You Think You Can Dance?" American voted, and the bottom 3 couples had to dance individually, with the three judges deciding which male and female to eliminate. And in doing so, last night, they revealed a serious flaw with this approach, and that is the susceptibility to manipulation by the judges themselves.
In the case of INXS, we can presume that INXS cared more about picking the best lead singer for the band than picking the most interesting personalities to get better ratings for the show. It's Mark Burnett's show, not INXS's. (Well, I suppose that more viewer interest might translate to more album sales, but it's not as direct a connection.)
With "So You Think You Can Dance?," however, producer/judge Nigel Lythegow has already said in the earlier audition rounds that he has the ultimate say, and based on last night's show, it seems that he's looking at something other than talent in deciding who to keep. I don't have any quibbles about getting rid of Erin, though the obvious ones to eliminate were Ben and Ashlie -- who were saved by the viewers; even they were stunned that they weren't in the bottom three couples. As for the male dancer to be cut, though, Jaymz was clearly safe (he danced so much better than Ben), leaving Stanislau and Ivan. "Stas" has a slight accent and doesn't seem American (well, he's not), whereas Ivan looks like your boy next door who happens to be a popper. Ivan, though, was terrible the night before. And after hearing about how important it is to work with your partner, and how Allie (Ivan's partner) was dragged down because of him, how is it that Ivan was saved?
I can't tell you, because my TiVo recording cut-off before I could see the actual "reasoning." But my guess is that Ivan had more perceived "viewer" appeal, so he was kept around.
Bah! It makes me wonder how "American Idol" would fare under this format. Would we be subjected to endless Randy and Paula overrules of Simon?
Admittedly, there is one advantage that I can see. I'd love to see Paula have to *pick* one singer to eliminate, rather than blather on about how "real" the person is, or how "amazing" he/she looks, etc.
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