That is not only mean spirited (voting AGAINST people), it also guarantees a boring finish of non-controversial contestants.
I think the voting has dropped significantly, which is why they haven’t been announcing the vote totals since John left.
My hope for LaToya is that since she was Tamyra’d she have a career like hers. Maybe she can get into acting, too. Judging from the commercials that they have done she is the only one with any acting talent.
The remaining 3:
Fantasia:
Had Fantasia and LaToya been the top two and Fantasia won I would have been disappointed but even though I cannot stand Fant’s singing voice I can admit that she does have singing talent and her voice does appeal to some. What gets me though is that it seems like an even amount of people either love her voice or hate it and that just doesn’t seem enough to have gotten her this far. Even when it was Clay vs. Reuben, either side seemed to agree that the other guy had a nice voice whether they liked it or not.
I will not agree that Fantasia is unique, she is Macy Gray, not just in sound but in her kooky style and behavior, at least Macy can blame it on the drugs and booze. I can stand to listen to a song from Fantacy once in a while but I could not stand an entire album, in fact the two songs in a night were two much for me, it hurts my ears. The other night I felt a wetness in my ear on the second song and I seriously thought my eardrum was bleeding.
As for the teenage mom thing, I have nothing against that and I don’t think it should disqualify her but I am sick of her using it for sympathy. Nikki from season 1 did the same thing. Fanatsia and Nikki could never have an interview segment without bringing up the kid, they even brought the kid onto the stage. It’s like they know that people will be turned off by the teenage mom bit so they have to shove down their throats how much they love their little baby, like they are the only mothers in the world who do.
Diana:
I liked her voice early on, she can really belt it out, but she had some weak performances and has not been consistent like LaToya. I do think she does belong in the top 3 though. Frankly, whether she has the pipes or not, I think she’s just too young for this competition. She may be an old soul but it just seems wrong to have a 16 year old singing some of these songs. I wouldn’t mind seeing her win now that LaToya is gone, but something about it just seems wrong. I wouldn’t even think of buying an entire album of hers and I don’t think it will appeal to the masses.
Jasmine:
She’s cute and her voice can be pleasant. She’s had some good performances but she’s had even more weak ones. She doesn’t belong in the top 3. Yeah, I think Simon just encouraged people to vote for her with his comments. I predict he will decline to comment on her next week if he wises up by then. If by some miracle she wins this thing, I think her record will flop even bigger than Guarini’s.
So I just can’t get excited about any one remaining to waste two nights a week watching this thing. I don’t know if I will bother with next season either unless they do revise the voting somehow. I think they also need to revise how they narrow the group down, it doesn’t seem like they really get enough of a sampling of what they can do.
As for Scooter Girl, she may have had a nice voice but something about her was off. Her entire personality came off as fake to me. It was like she was trying to be as unique as possible to get noticed and went for too many different angles.
Well, I guess that’s enough Idol talk from me for a while.
Tiramisu out! 
I could not agree more. . . I deal with teens everyday that treat pregnancy as a mere inconvenience, this does nothing to help.
A final two of Diana and Fantasia isn’t particularly shocking. The only shocking thing is that Latoya was booted before Jasmine. So in the long run, it doesn’t matter much. (In the short run, it doesn’t matter much, either…)
The other Most Annoying Thing about Fantasia: when Simon dared to offer criticism, and she went right over his head and tried to milk some more applause out of the audience. A little humility every now and then might actually get her a few more votes…
Wait wait wait…you’re equating a DUI with teen parenthood? Teen parenthood is enough of a black mark on your character that it should effectively disqualify you from winning the contest? Your “singing behind a blind” comment is ridiculous. It’s not just a singing competition, it’s obviously also a PERFORMANCE competition. It’s definitely not only about the contestants’ voices, but also about their stage presence.
If Fantasia abandoned or neglected her child, that would be one thing. She hasn’t – by all appearances she’s a good mother, and now, she’s aspiring to do something big with her life. How is that a bad thing? Should all teen mothers in the media be downtrodden and miserable as a scare tactic to kids who might be watching?
I would find very interesting any voting statistics that are available. I wonder what the average voting age is. Male/Female voting ratio? Race of voter? Where the votes come from by area code? Age of voters?
I wonder how may votes come out of the state of Hawaii??
I think an analysis of the voting could show how the results can be swayed and who’s swaying them. But I think AI supresses any of this info to make it look like it’s a mixed vote by various Americans of all ages, races, locations and that the results are a fair mix.
If you’ve ever voted, you know that they do not ask you to identify yourself by age, gender, or anything else. AI doesn’t have any information to supress.
I sense and us/them sentiment growing around the divas… “us” diva voters are deprived of being able to select the winner ourselves because of “those” stupid Hawaiians, teenagers, etc.
LaToya and Fantasia suffered from the split diva phenomenon. I do not expect Fantasia to be #3 because now all the diva voters have one person to vote for, instead of having the vote split between 3 then 2 people. Diana and Jasmine’s fans were (I don’t think) diva voters. So, I think Jasmine FINALLY gets booted as the #3… mostly because Hawaii is smaller than the South.
If people were to be voting for the least deserving remaining contestant, then this phenomenon wouldn’t occur.
Yeah, but people would vote off the front-runners to protect their favorites. We’d end up with compromises of whoever everyone doesn’t perceive as a threat and no one hates that much… in this group, I bet we’d end up with Diana, Jasmine, and maybe George instead of Fantasia in the top three. There’s no reason to demand rule changes on the (erroneous) belief that your preferences will prevail over the preferences of the great unwashed masses of teenagers and Pacific Islanders who have to be kept in line for the good of the country, or whatever it is people think it’ll accomplish.
I am starting to get really sick of LaToya fans just because of their inflated since of injustice and quickness to boo, blame, and berate anyone who disagrees with them. News flash: SHE WASN’T THAT AMAZING! Her song choices were terrible, her performances were boring. She lost fair and square because of her shortcoming. Get over it.
Do you think that would really happen? I mean people were complaining that on the first show with the Top 12 that they made 4 people practice their songs, but not be able to sing them… and that was MEAN. Could you imagine how people would holler how mean it would be to vote for someone to leave? They’ll never do that.
Ooops, that was supposed to be directed at Algernon
Probably true. I didn’t think of that unintended consequence. It’d be a lot like Survivor players voting off the stronger contestants.
I happen to disagree, but then again as I mentioned earlier, I was focusing primarily on vocal skill. Given the goals of this competition, it is an inappropriate focus, which is why they’ve lost me as a viewer.
I don’t think people would perceive it as being mean. It’s simply a different way of weeding out the deserving from the undeserving. If that were the procedure to be used and everyone knew it ahead of time, I don’t see the problem. However, as skutir points out, voting for the least deserving to “leave the island” has other flaws which I didn’t consider.
It’s a moot point because given the ratings and water-cooler discussions that result, FOX isn’t going to mess with a good thing. They don’t care whether or not the best (whatever that means) contestant wins, they’re only concerned with viewership. I"m not complaining about that. Just stating the obvious.
On a different note:
Anybody notice how Clay has been redorkinated?
I have no idea how to handicap this race anymore. On the one hand, I can see this opening the door for Diana to take it, but if LaToya’s voters unite behind Fantasia, then she could roll. But, I’m not sure that will happen. I was a LaToya supporter who won’t support Fantasia. They don’t seem interchangable to me…very different styles, so I don’t know. Plus, who knows how much support Jasmine actually has? For all we know, she was number 1 last night. I think we have to take seriously the notion that she could win. If her base is mobilized, she could beat anybody.
I think this is actually going to be pretty interesting to watch, because I don’t have a clue how it’s going to turn out.
Oh yeah. But he is a lot more confident. Almost as if to say, there’s nobody like me out there right now, so i’m going to work it for all it’s worth.
And while all the booing was going on, Jasmine’s family and friends were going nuts. I love that kind of contrast. It reminded me of a visiting baseball team hitting a grand slam that totally shuts up the hometown crowd, and all you can hear is this small group of fans and the players in the visiting dugout cheerring wildly.
I disagree with the vote, but it was great television.
It’s also like he’s saying “Y’all are *not * going to bleach my eyebrows anymore.”
Thank GOD! The voice of reason surfaces. Especially given that people are insulted by their choice of “Idol” by posts such as this:
RiiiHiight. So people who voted for D.D. over LaToya (both of whom I like, and I watch none of the shows he/she mentions. NOR am I of the “springerite” inbred genre of American.
Well, I can give you the “statistics” from ONE such voter. First off, as skutir lined out so well, I watch AND vote for fun. What a concept huh? When it comes to reality, I’ll be voting with my wallet and will buy, or not buy, the Idol whom I find the best, in my taste.
Second, I’m originally from Alaska, and worked as both a University instructor in the PE Department as my part time “for fun” job, and for my “real” job, I’m a project manager at an Environmental company (no, NOT the bunny hugging type, the “we really go out and rescue the woods from abandoned hazmat etc” type).
I generally watch TLC, the History channel and the like if I’m GOING to watch TV (along with Dick Van Dyke reruns), but would much rather read (anything from Shakespear to Psy textbooks to “junk” like King and Koontz).
Third, different folks are going to have different taste in music, particularly given our choices on AI. It’s silly of not just you, but others who tend to equate a person’s taste in music with whether or not they’re intelligent, or “springerites” or what have you.
Sorry, I don’t mean to pick on YOUR post, it just epitomized my annoyance with this attitude.