I have to admit the choice this week was so bad it made me honestly wonder about the integrity of the voting process. Just when it looked like the votes were becoming logical, Carmen Rasmussen’s vote totals fly up.
Rickey’s gone and Carmen wasn’t even in the bottom three?!? Just makes me gladder and gladder that I don’t waste any time on Wednesdays watching “The Show That Should Be 2 Minutes Long.”
I’m appalled.
Rickey had the second best performance last night and has been consistently strong. How the hell can Carmen still be there?!? Even Simon didn’t like her last night (maybe she provided extra “favours” to him after her poor showing)! Is the voting public that stupid? I mean, I don’t give my fellow human beings much credit at the best of times, but that’s just terrible.
I hate people.
I can’t help but think that Simon’s comments was what prompted people into voting for Carmen. (CRY)
Could it have been an act of manipulation on Simon’s part? No way, right?
Tiramisu:
“Rickey may have gone soon anyway, but Carmen is the one who should gone tonight.
I really wish we could vote people off instead of on.”
My thoughts exactly! It would be soooo much easier for me and not much would be needed in terms of “strategic voting”. I voted for Rickey as much as I could, but Trenyce got the most votes from me. I guess both Kims did too because he’s the one that slipped through the cracks.
Carmen’s situation reminds me of Julia’s though. So, maybe the next episode will be the charm. What’s the theme for next week anyway?
Teen girls (and older men) love Carmen, so she won’t go yet. I bet Kim C gets the boot first.
While Rickey doesn’t deserve the boot, he simply wasn’t compelling enough to get people to vote FOR him. I mean, he really didn’t have much of a following.
I’m also stunned at Carmen’s stubborn not-being-goneness. But I’m perfect happy to say goodbye to Ricky. I think he’s probably a very sweet guy, he won my heart at first with his “hercules” shtick, but as a singer and performer? Wake me when it’s over.
I’m getting a little irritated at the Ruben-pushing. Between the commercial and the fact that he was the only one to have any solo, no matter how short, in the opening song, I think there’s too much favoritism being shown. Whether he’s getting the votes or not, it isn’t fair to the others. Everyone should have equal face/voice time.
Rickey was one of my favorites on the show (mostly because he seems really nice). I was upset when I found out he was voted off. I’m not sure if he was top 3 material but he definately should have made it past this week. My choice to go this week was Carmen.
I’ll join the chorus of “What the hell happened there?!?”. Both Carmen and Kim C did much worse than Rickey. It’s even more appalling since they combined last week’s and this week’s votes. That means that not only did Carmen get more votes than Rickey this week, she got enough to overcome her deficit from last week too.
It’s pretty obvious that many people are voting for reasons other than talent. I don’t remember one person in this thread that disagreed that Carmen did a poor job this week, so I’m pretty confident that I’m not missing anything in her performances that would keep her around.
And Gundy, I mentioned to my wife last week that it looks like there are sparks flying between Clay and Carmen and it seemed even more obvious this week.
There seems to be no restriction on the number of votes you can call in. That makes it ripe for rigging with autodialers by infatuated nobodies with some tech savvy. Does Carmen have some geek stalker(s) out there in cyberland?
[slight hijack] What happens when you call in? (I’ve never done it.) Is there a recorded message telling you “Thanks for voting for Ruben! Ruben drinks Coke and drives a Focus!” or something to that effect?
Also, am I the only one that thinks that FOX is collecting the phone numbers of those who call in to vote for Future Evil Telemarketing Purposes (“Hello! Would you like to test drive a Ford?”)? [/slight hijack]
Is Ricky the only one who hasn’t gotten one last chance to sing or his fans after being voted off?
What’s up with that?
-j
**
Perhaps this is what kept her on – everyone knew she and Trenyce were in trouble, so the calls came pouring in to save those two.
You spotted it earlier than I did, and my boyfriend was pretty sure Clay was gay. So much for HIS gaydar.
The show was collapsed to a 30-minute format last night. And, IMHO, it was horribly mis-timed. They had to jam all the meat of the show into about 5 minutes – including the last commercial break. That left no time for anything much.
But it could be a blessing. I have always felt sorry for those kids who have had to stand there and sing their hearts out after being eliminated. I give them so much credit for being able to do it!
And did anyone else think Paula looked really, really strange last night?
Has anyone else noticed that the expellings have been evenly distributed along gender lines? Vanessa was followed by Charles, who was followed by Julia, who was followed by the self-eliminating Corey. Ricky is out this week, so if my theory holds, next week it should be a woman.
Also, was it simply coincidence that last year’s final two were male and female. It just seems too odd to me. But then maybe it’s just me…
According to the AI FAQ:
Now whether they actually check if things go the way the judges want is another story. Interestingly, on the AI home page, there is a poll asking if Rickey should have been voted off. The results right now are:
18% - Yes, he wasn’t as good as some of the others
43% - I thought it was going to be someone else
39% - No, not at all
Total votes are 32, 404.
So as ISiddiqui said, maybe it’s not so much that people didn’t like Rickey, but he didn’t have as big a fan base as Kim C and Carmen, so he lost out.
I noticed that too. When she kissed him on the cheek, I was watching to see if she made a hole in the orange. I’m wondering if he’s wearing to much makeup, had a bad tanning cream experience, or was exposed to radiation.
I was surprised that he was voted off. I’m not a big Ricky fan, but I didn’t think he deserved to go this time around. Talentwise, I would’ve put him to be voted out after Kim C., Kim L, Josh, and Carmen (not in any order). I felt really sad for him especially when he hugged Trenyce and judging by the way his shoulders were shaking, it appeared he was crying.
In past opening songs, there have been other contestants who have had solos, although I think (and I might be wrong) that Carmen has had more of them than the others.
annieclaus, she did. I noticed that she looked especially worn and I swore I saw some eye area wrinkles (ironically, this was directly after Ryan had introduced her and said she was “looking younger than ever”).