Quick spoilers for last night’s American Idol elimination, after the jump:
Tuesday night, I suggested that Siobhan Magnus was testing the theory that Idol voters cast their ballots on the basis of the last thing they hear, because her performances had a pattern of starting off dull, then crescendoing to a big dramatic finish. That approach failed her this week; that, or viewers finally got tired of the formula.
Whatever you think of her singing, I was expecting Siobhan to go farther in the competition, simply because she’s so polarizing. At least anecdotally, she seemed to have people who really loved her and people who really hated her, and that’s an asset up to a point: I thought her core voters would carry her to third or fourth place.
So where do we go from here? I suspect Casey is not long for this world, but his bottom-three-mate Michael could go first. I continue to be puzzled, though, by the persistence of Aaron Kelly, and I welcome your theories. Maybe he occupies a solo niche as a country singer (he is one, right?), but I also suspect he inspires a kind of protectiveness in the audience. If he turns in a string of strong performances, I guess he could make it to the final, but can you really win this thing by making the audience want to adopt you?
Then again, there are no wrong reasons to vote for an American Idol, only reasons I disagree with. And there are plenty of those this season!
Incidentally, is there any show on TV that makes you more glad to have a DVR than an American Idol results show? I ended up zipping through what was an hourlong ad for the new Shrek movie and assorted other products in about five minutes. Ah, for the innocent days of the half-hour Idol elimination show.
