Saturday, April 7, 2007

Gina goes home... which means another day in paradise for Sanjaya Malakar

Gina Glocksen is out. I can't say I was surprised by this. Her peformance was really half-baked and lacked personality. The fans, myself included, got confused with what Gina really wanted to express. She can't go hot and cold like that per performance and go from rocker to diva each night. It's just bound to leave the fans cold.

Of course, I am pretty disappointed that she did leave. I felt she held a lot of promise, and she still had a lot to show. Between Gina and the skimpy-dressed Haley, I would have said goodbye to Haley any day. But hey, that's American Idol voting for you. Completely out of whack.

All this means just one thing: It's another day in paradise for our favorite guy: Sanjaya Malakar (please note the sarcasm that is coating each and every syllable of "our favorite guy"). This issue is becoming so huge that Constantine even placed a Yahoo! Answer question about it, and it goes like this:

"How will Sanjaya’s continued success on American Idol impact the show’s credibility? With all of the controversy surrounding Sanjaya’s survival week-to-week, is it too late for American Idol to regain its fans’ trust?"

Is it too late for AI to regain its fans' trust?

I don't think so. Could a lanky kid with poor vocals sabotage a high-rated show built on a 6-year foundation? If anything, AI should use all its experience to innovate and find a way to solve this issue. Perhaps a new way of voting is in order? Perhaps the judges should get the final say?

We can only ponder on the possible solutions to this plague.

1 comment:

Rom said...

Perhaps from a producer's point of view, it is no problem at all (at least on the short term perspective). Seacrest always mentions votes to be on circa 30 million - not a problem at all.

In what i think is a relatively weak season,talent-wise, compared to the past two, Sanjaya's stay gives people something else to talk about on Idol. Maybe it's the producers or just the hairstylists but his changing hairdo suggests to me that someone within is playing with the current attention on Sanjaya. And that producers don't necessarily hate it.

As i said, in my humble and unreliable judgment, vocal talent is lacking this season. (If Sanjaya is really that bad overall, how and why did the judges select him in the top 24?) But Sanjaya has more charisma than a couple of the others combined. Like it or not, it matters. A lot.

Lastly, I wouldn't bet on giving judges the final say and/or significantly changing the voting rules.

My two cents.. =P