There’s a limited amount of times each person can vote. Depending on how much time they’re willing to spend dialing, that number might be 200 votes, but it’s still a finite number, and every time you spend a vote on one person you’re not spending it on someone else.
Let’s say someone was willing to make the effort to vote 10 times. Maybe Clay is their favorite but in the past they either feltsorry for Josh, or wanted to be supportive of a Marine, or for some other reason decided to swing a few votes his way. So the last few weeks they’ve vote 8 times for Clay and 2 times for Josh. Now their opinion about Josh have changed, so they don’t spend any votes on him, maybe they spend them all on Clay or spread them around everyone but Josh. The votes themselves are positives, but not spending them on a particular performer amounts to a negative for them.
For myself, I used to like Josh but am sick of him now. He’s all over the place singing, and he’s getting more and more ungracious every week about taking the judge’s criticisms. All of the performers by now have gotten criticized by the judges at one point or another, and Josh is the only one who gets all pouty. As he manages to point out each week, he is in the military, I’d think he’d be a little more thick-skinned.
Well, I’m not an idiot, thankyouverymuch, and my “strategy” is to vote for the person I think should win this competition, NOT the one everyone else thinks should win and NOT the one I think is the biggest underdog.
Ruben is good, but I don’t happen to think he’s better than Clay, so Clay gets all my votes. Period. If that means Ruben goes, well, then Ruben goes.
That doesn’t mean he should’ve been anywhere near the bottom 2 this week – Josh absolutely deserved that “honor”, no question about it. But I’m sorry, if Ruben’s own fans don’t want him to win badly enough to vote for him, then they only have themselves to blame, not all the other fans who are voting for their favorites. That is how this thing works, afterall.
I mean, sheesh, why the hell should I throw any votes towards Ruben if I want Clay to win?? How ridiculous of a suggestion is that?
All this says to me is that Ruben’s fans aren’t nearly as loyal or as interested in him winning as are the fans of some of the other remaining contestants. It’s a shame – and an outrage, absolutely – but who’s really to blame here? I’d suggest it’s the Ruben fans who aren’t voting, not the rest of us who are, whether you agree with our “strategy” or not.
Shayna, do you think of yourself too much? It is obviously that RickJay and Jurhael were taking about people that loved Ruben, wanted him to win, but voted for their 3rd favorite because they felt he was safe.
You voting for Clay DOESN’T fall in the ‘strategic’ voting!! Read Rickjay’s post: ‘stategic voting could get Ruben OR CLAY booted’.
ISiddiqui, I’d tell you where to stick your rolleyes smilie, but we’re in the wrong forum for that. I find people (and RickJay seems to have a bad habit of this) who call other people – even in general – idiots, just because they don’t agree with him or his way of thinking, insulting, even when it’s not directed at a particular person, including but not limited to myself. And I’m quite satisfied with the height of my horse, so I think I’ll just be staying up here for the ride, if it’s all the same to you.
He wasn’t talking to people like you! He was talking to people who liked Ruben, but didn’t vote for him because they thought he was safe! It if perfectly obvious from his post. And yeah, those people who did do that were idiots this week, because their guy almost lost out!
Shayna, I really have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. If you think Clay should win and you vote for Clay, then by definition you are doing exactly the opposite of what I was complaining about.
I think Shayna has a point. It is insulting to call someone an idiot just because they don’t vote the way you think they should vote. It’s also impossible to say that America voted for their second and third choices because they thought Ruben was safe. I thought his performance wasn’t as good as Kim Locke or Clay and he’s moved down in my rankings each week. I’ve gotten tired of his mediocre performances and am now throwing my votes toward the people who have been criticized and have made improvements to change. Ruben’s been phoning in his performances and IMO, his showing in the bottom 2 is just a reflection of it.
This question has probably been answered before, but…
Is there any external auditing of the voting process at Fox?
For example, on Jeopardy, they have to go to great lengths to avoid appearances of “$64,000 question” type improprieties.
While Ruben appearing in the bottom two can be explained by the psychology discussed above, I suspect that it will also have a positive ratings boost for Fox. (“Anything could happen… I must watch.”)
Is there anything keeping Fox from claiming he was in the bottom two despite a bazillion votes? Or from accidentally disconnecting his phone line for a half hour?
Fox wants this show to be unpredictable. I’m sure they’re worried about the seeming lock that Ruben (probably) or Clay (possibly) has on this contest. So they juggle the vote totals (or don’t even pay attention to them) to put a little suspense in the game – and boost their ratings for next week.
Anyone wanna bet that next Wednesday, Seacrest says something like “More of you voted in this round than ever before on American Idol”?
Just to clarify, Shayna misattributed the second quote in her post to Jurhael, but it was actually mine. Don’t want anyone unfairly accused.
And Shayna, as ISiddiqui and Rickjay have pointed out, you totally misunderstood the “strategic voting” comments. Voting for who you think should win the whole shebang is exactly what we were saying you should be doing. Anyone who wants Clay to win should definitely vote for Clay. Don’t assume he’s safe and throw sympathy votes to the other contestants.
I can see why FOX would be motivated to cheat the system, but the risks are enormous. The benefit of cheating could be 1 Neilsen point; the potential drawbacks, however, include worldwide disgrace, lawsuits, criminal investigation, massive ratings drops, and the loss of the show as a cash cow.
Yeah, but this is FOX, remember? Worldwide disgrace, lawsuits, massive ratings drops, etc., are just pimples on FOX’s backside. Besides, FOX doesn’t produce the show. The producers are 19 Productions, or something like that.
Trenyce was very talented. I think she had a great voice, and her look could be really great. I’m sorry to see her go, but that IS the nature of the show.
Rueben is great. His voice is wonderful, he preforms really well. I don’t think he NEEDS to win the competition, because he will be able to get a contract with or with out the win.
Clay is such a good singer, God bless him, but he’s such a dork. I’m just not sure the pop market is ready for him. I’d think he’d be better suited to music like Micheal Bolton or something. haha He IS very talented, though…
Kim is also a wonderful singer. She has a great voice, and her look gets better every week.
Josh does have a nice voice for some music. I thought (besides when he flubbed up the words in the middle) he sang that song “Bad Blood” really well. I liked it a lot. He’s good looking, he seems so adorable with his daughter, he makes the girls swoon… If people are voting for him just because he’s a Marine SO WHAT! What’s wrong with being supportive of a person who put his life on the line when he signed on to protect our country? I haven’t voted for him, but I wouldn’t be upset if he got into the top 2!
Anyway, that’s just my opinion, for what it’s worth.
Due to the fact that Josh hasn’t been eliminated yet, I’m sure I’m not the ONLY person who feels that way!
Game shows are closely scrutinized. They’re probably not labeling this a game show much like Mark Burnett is not calling Survivor a game show.
Ummm, how has his life been put on the line? So far all I’ve seen is his fat ass on television, stinking up the joint with his horrible Garth Brooks impersonation. I’d be a lot more supportive of him if he actually was doing his job instead of holing up in the A.I. mansion taking advantage of the free product placements. My brother has just returned from Turkey where he was actually doing his job. To put Josh in the same category as my brother and all the people in the service who really are putting their lives on the job is a slap in the face.
I think that when ever you sign up to be a Marine you are putting your life on the line. Do you KNOW any Marines, Grace?
He could be shipped out at any time. I don’t know his personal history with the Marines, but it’s not like they just let you get manicures and twiddle your thumbs. There’s a very good chance (especially with all the current events going on) that he could be called up and shipped off somewhere.
I know quite a few Marines, Breezy. Mostly friends of my older brother - who was also a Marine. Plus, there’s my younger brother who is currently working for Nato in Italy. I think I know plenty of military people.
Apparently, my brothers should sign up for all sorts of game shows because according to your logic, they should get free passes to move ahead because they’re military and not because they have any talent. As much as I love my brothers, I wouldn’t vote for them just because they were military. Heck, I wouldn’t even vote for them based on talent. They have absolutely zero singing abilities and the winner should be based on abilities and not how good the contestant looks or if he is :rolleyes: putting his life on the line. :rolleyes:
Exactly! America was screaming loud and clear to send a message to Ruben that despite the ass licking he’s getting from the judges, we are bored to tears with his lackluster performances – decent singing voice or not! Go to some of the Idol message boards and read what people are saying…
Randy Jackson was just plain wrong in declaring Ruben the winner. The American public gets to decide that, and what I hear them saying is that while Ruben may be good, he’s not a shoe-in. He has as much room for improvement as every single one of those other kids (with the sole exception being Josh, who has light years of improvement room!), yet none of the judges ever bothers to tell him that. They may think they’re influencing the American public with their praise, but it’s actually having the opposite effect. Many of us are scratching our heads in bewilderment as to how he gets away with his boring, one-note “performances”. I say it’s high time he got the message that he has to do what every one of these other kids has done and WORK at this competition and step up his game. Hopefully now he will!
That’s why he was in the bottom 2 last night – not “strategic voting.” Unless you want to call telling it like it is “strategic voting.”
I still don’t think anyone should be voted on just because he/she is military. Especially Josh because I think he’s been rude, disrespectful, unable to take criticism, and he practically threatened Simon on Tuesday night.
