‘Idol’ judges, viewers
are unforgiving

Contestants can’t win American Idol with a great performance in the semifinal rounds—but they sure can get themselves eliminated with a poor one.

That doesn’t mean a bad effort is a deal-breaker — after all, Janay Castine is still here after two subpar weeks in a row — but it does make a contestant vulnerable. Someone like Aloha Mischeaux, who sang so well last week in the first week of semifinals, may find that too many viewers quickly forget what happened in previous weeks and focus solely on the moment. That ended things quickly for the 19-year-old from St. Louis, in the biggest surprise of the season thus far.

In such a crowded field, it doesn’t take much to get viewers to vote for someone else. A judge’s criticism, a bland song choice, or just plain old bad luck can be enough to get a contestant on the wrong side of the line.

Fans matter, but maybe not yet
The whole point of Idol is that performers build up a fan base every week they’re on the show. By the end of the season, that base is (the show producers hope) enough to catapult a former unknown into a recording star who can take a debut album to platinum. By the middle of the season, it’s sometimes enough to keep a struggling contestant in the game for an extra week or several, as the extended run of John Stevens illustrated last year.

Right now, it’s a little too early for the contestants to be so easily divided into “future superstars” and cabaret singers, and the amount of choices available make it harder to form strong loyalties toward a particular person. Therefore, the judges still have a lot of power to influence audience impressions. Praise of a risky song choice can help overcome a struggling performance, while a withering comment or two can easily prove fatal.

The studio audience might boo, especially when the offending judge is Simon, but the viewers tend to remember those comments when it’s time to call those 866 numbers.

Take the case of Celena Rae. She didn’t sing badly — and certainly wasn’t one of the worst two performers in her group of 10 — but she’s the one who Simon said would soon be singing in a hotel instead of a stage. And out she went, with the fewest number of votes among the women.

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