American Idol, Season 5 **Official Discussion Thread** Part 2

[damo]

So...Is Taylor winning as much of a sure thing as we all thought?

I think so. This season has been very anti-climactic.

 

[damo]

Why didn't the judges make a big deal about Elliott switching the verses in Open Arms?? Randy mentioned it in passing, but that was about it. I feel like the judges have been very relaxed about forgetting lyrics for this top 12.

The songs that these guys are singing are so chopped up, it doesn't really matter.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Please don't spoil it for the West Coast viewers, as they don't see it at the same time as we see it on the East Coast.

I would strongly suggest avoiding this thread until after it airs for you because it's very unfair to ask the east coasters to not discuss this topic until after 1am. As far as spoilers go - it's not a spoiler after it's been made public.

On the DialIdol issue.. that's a sticky situation because even with 3 phone lines, the competition is going to be stiff because the desire to vote for all of the contestants outweighed the amount of lines available to vote on, as seen by the constant busy signals unless you were out in the boonies or in typical "non idol" territory (in other words, definitely not on the east coast!)

I've heard a lot of people say that this contest will be won by text messaging, and I think they are right. With the texts you don't have the busy signal issue and you can easily log up to 1000 votes in one night if you are diligent (okay, obsessed )

Now, with DialIdol unable to measure 3 lines per singer, I would be looking at how well the fans spread their votes across the 2 lines they were voting on. Taylor's fans voted pretty evenly and both of his lines finished first. Elliott's fans were consistant and his lines finished solidly together in 4th and 5th place. Katharine's fans were broken. They voted solidly for her on 02, but line 05 was last with over a 4% decrease in votes. IF this trend continued or got worse for line 3 (08), she could be in real trouble because it looks like Elliott's fans and Taylor's fans were more diligent in voting on whatever line they can get in with.

This also happened with Chris last week. His first line did well but his second line was dead last like nobody even knew it existed. I have to wonder if the people arguing that they could never get through to his number ever tried to dial the second number.

We purposely only voted on 09 for Taylor since our computer was running Dial Idol - in order to get a feel for how the line the computer wasn't monitoring was doing. The first hour we got in 2 votes. We didn't get in the bulk of the votes until the last half hour of voting when we got a total of 52 votes off of 2 phones dialing constantly. So at least in our area (Elliott territory), Taylor fans were voting on line 09


So I call second place to be a dead even heat right now. There is no definite way to call it off of Dial Idol - not without that third line's numbers. Not when Katharine's line one solidly beat Elliott's line 1 but Elliott's line 2 solidly beat Katharine's line 2. It's a dead heat.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Interesting numbers..

For the judges choice song -

Katharine's song Somewhere Over the Rainbow on the MP3 times out at 2:54

Taylor's Dancing in the Dark times out at 1:37
Elliot's Open Arms times out at 1:20

I knew it sounded like Katharine had more time, but what the heck? She was able to sing as long as Elliott and Taylor COMBINED? That's not too fair, huh?

 

[damo]

On the Ellen Show, she just asked ex President Clinton and ex President Bush if they could do something about Chris Daughtry being kicked off American Idol. What a gal!

President Clinton replied he didn't even have that much power when he was in office.

 

[LoraJ]

dialidol confuses me. Why does Taylor have the least amount of busy signals, yet he's predicted to be safe?

 

[Nancy]

Call me pessimistic, but I'm a Philadelphia fan. If Taylor does not go right up to the finals and then get second place, I may just have a stroke. Philly peeps....you know exactly what I'm talking about.

I'm not a Philly peeps, but a Buffalo Bills (and Sabres) peeps...trust me I know all about getting to the finals and coming in second. That said I'd be really surprised if Taylor actually won this thing. Why? Just a gut instinct, but I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Nancy]

Interesting numbers..

For the judges choice song -

Katharine's song Somewhere Over the Rainbow on the MP3 times out at 2:54

Taylor's Dancing in the Dark times out at 1:37
Elliot's Open Arms times out at 1:20

I knew it sounded like Katharine had more time, but what the heck? She was able to sing as long as Elliott and Taylor COMBINED? That's not too fair, huh?

Wow...that is really interesting! How about the other songs? Did you try those? I'm now wondering how they all compare.

 

[Nancyg56]

Ok...on to last night's review:

SONG ONE

Elliott - Completely butchered a great Journey song. No worse than I expected, of course, but certainly no better.
SONG TWO

Elliott - The usual lousy performance.
SONG THREE

Elliott - Yep...craptastic, as usual. Hopefully, that will be the last time we're ever subjected to him, saving only the one performance shortly after being told he "had a bad day".
Who should go home: Duh.
Who will go home: FINALLY!!! (and about three weeks too late)

So are you saying that you don't like Elliot????????

 

[dturner]

Well, even though my two favorites are gone, I watched last night.

Elliott - just ok to me

Katherine - she actually impressed me for the first time this season with Over the Rainbow - I still think she performs like she's in a musical (which is her thing I know) she would be GREAT on Broadway.

Taylor - Taylor is Taylor - I think he did really good.

Top Two: Katherine and Taylor

 

[DizBelle]

How long were the phone lines open last night? Was it for 2 hours or 3 hours after the show?

 

[damo]

Wow...that is really interesting! How about the other songs? Did you try those? I'm now wondering how they all compare.

Katharine, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, 2:33
Katharine, I Believe I Can Fly, 1:41
Katharine, Ain't Got Nothin' Blues, 1:17
total song time 5:31

Taylor, Dancing in the Dark, 1:35
Taylor, You Are So Beautiful, 1:56
Taylor, Try Little Tenderness, 1:49
total song time 5:20

Elliott, Open Arms 1:27
Elliott, I Believe To My Soul 1:45
Elliott, Won't Do For Love, 1:18
total song time 4:30

 

[wdwgirl03]

Am I the only person here who thinks Elliott is not that bad looking? He's certainly not movie idol good looking, but he's not bad. The comments about him looking like a troll seem weird to me.

That said, Taylor rocks. What a sexy, vibrant man he is....music is in his soul and is his gift to the world. I can't imagine any other ending but one with him as the American Idol, he's without a doubt the best. I loved Kat's Somewhere Over the Rainbow, but she nor Elliott and his hometown boy likeability can hold a candle to Taylor.

No, you're not the only one who thinks Elliott is not that bad looking. Especially when you look back at what he looked like early on.

Though I completely disagree about Taylor. It seems like the judges only put him through for kicks in the auditions, like "oh yeah, you can go through!", and I really didn't expect him to make it to the top 24 (neither did anyone in my family). But then again, I guess I should just be quiet because a lot of people would probably say that about Elliott.

And no offense to all you Taylor lovers, but I just don't see him being as successful as everyone seems to be making him out to be. Maybe it's because I don't like him. And maybe if he wins he'll prove me wrong.

Go ahead, I'm ready to get flamed, but I just don't see the attraction to him...

 

[gypsydoodlebug]

I just bought my AI concert tickets!!!!!!! Found a presale code at the Poptarts ( yeah, I know... ) Web site for Louisville, Ky. DH doesn't know about our date night, yet!

 

[jaimee1024]

I love Taylor...have a been a huge fan since his audition. But am I the only one who thought he struggled a bit with You Are So Beautiful last night? It doesn't really matter, but I'm just curious. The way he was standing he looked like he was bracing himself to keep from jumping up and down and dancing. And he made several facial expressions that to me showed his frustration at not hitting some of the notes. I still loved hearing him sing...but I don't think that was his best vocal at all.

Did they give Paula some downers last night? She didn't like anything. I think she's being so tough on Kat because she's jealous of her. Kat has 100 times the talent Paula ever had as a singer. (straight up!).

I got in several votes for both Kat and Taylor last night. I basically just dialed the numbers in order (started with 2 and 3...then 5,6 and so on...) When I would get through I would keep hitting redial until I got a busy signal, then I would move on to the next number. I didn't keep count though.

 

[wdwgirl03]

I haven't been able to get thru for 5 minutes now...I am guessing they are down. I managed to get 200 votes in. Whew! 70 in the 1st hour, 60 in the next 30 minutes, & 70 in the last 30 minutes. Time for a break!

Ok, can I ask how you managed to get in so many votes? (and whoever said they got in around 100 for Taylor). And who were you voting for? My sister and I were voting pretty much nonstop for the whole 2 hours for Elliott and managed to get 3 total votes in!

 

[damo]

From DialIdol:
"Unfortunately some unforseen technical difficulties will only allow DialIdol to support two phone numbers this week.

It was supposed to be able to support three but unfortunately that was not possible and in order to provide the safest option DialIdol will only support two numbers this week"

So, the results may not be as accurate as they have been lately. Hmmmm.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Bottom line - Elliott's going home. Why??? Idol statistics tell me so!! (And yeah, I'm that big of an Idol dork!) In all 4 seasons the contestant who sang first on the top 3 night went home. Nikki McKibbon, Kimberly Locke, Jasmine Trias, and Vonzell Solomon. Let's see if history repeats itself.

Oh great, so there is a "curse" for the top 3.

I said before that whoever goes against Taylor in the finale, I would vote the whole 3 hours because I just do not like Taylor. But if it's a Kat-Taylor finale, I may just not vote at all. (well I probably will, but I really like Elliott!!)

 

[wvrevy]

So are you saying that you don't like Elliot????????

Whatever gave you that impression ?

Aside from that, though, I think you'd be hard pressed to find too many people at all - Elliott fans or not - that think he did a better job than Kat last night. But he gets the sympathy voter to feel sorry for him and pick up that phone anyway.

I'd say he had no chance to have a career in music, but someone out there is buying all those Michael Bolton and John Tesh albums, so there's no real accounting for musical tastes. Still, I'll bet anything that anyone here would like to wager that every other member of the top 5 will outsell him with their debut albums (post-Idol, that is), assuming he gets some kind of deal after losing this year. And make no mistake about it, both he and Kat will be losers at some point during this competition. It's just a matter of whether it's this week or next.

 

[Nancy]

Katharine, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, 2:33
Katharine, I Believe I Can Fly, 1:41
Katharine, Ain't Got Nothin' Blues, 1:17
total song time 5:31

Taylor, Dancing in the Dark, 1:35
Taylor, You Are So Beautiful, 1:56
Taylor, Try Little Tenderness, 1:49
total song time 5:20

Elliott, Open Arms 1:27
Elliott, I Believe To My Soul 1:45
Elliott, Won't Do For Love, 1:18
total song time 4:30

HMMMMM...Interesting.

I wonder who edits the songs and makes the final arrangement decisions. Having a longer song for Katharine really could have backfired if she sucked up Somewhere. Good thing her last song was so short! Elliott really got short changed, maybe that's why his performances are as memorable as the others, they were so short you didn't have time to get drawn into them.