Sorry for weighing in late (in this case WAY WAY WAY late) again, let's just say that for me **** has hit about 15 fans in the last couple of weeks and I've been spending most of my time putting out (not literal) fires and running interference and doing damage controls.
ANYHOO --
A few random observations:
I really think that what did Melinda in was TOO MANY COMPLIMENTS. She never got one critique from ANY of the judges that was anything negative; a few nit-picky things from Simon and occasionally Randy now and then, but nothing along the line of some of the comments Jordin and Blake got on occasion, on their off nights. On a certain subliminal level, I think it led a lot of people to believe that she was home safe; I think she had a few off nights leading to comments along the line of "That sounded like a group of Siamese cats caterwauling on a fence" or "Simply ghastly" would have maybe woken more people up to keep her in because hey, maybe she's not safe after all. (Which she obviously was not). Tho I will agree that Melinda, like LaToya London in Season Three, may have been a bit too "adult contemporary" for the average AI voter.
re. Blake: I do think he really kicked his game up a notch on the final night, but there was just no way he was going to be able to carry off that winning ballad. (Which, I must say, was a DEFINITE improvement over the usual sappy crap that they usually write for the winner; those guys have a future.) I even enjoyed "You Give Love A Bad Name" much more this time around, because I just approached it from a different angle. And his beatboxing can certainly lead to lower costs in getting his album produced -- after all, it usually takes a couple of guys in a sound booth to make THOSE kind of noises, Blake can do it all by himself....
I could not BELIVE Ryan on the last night when he introduced those two guys who won the songwriting contest. Here it is, these two have a brief moment in the spotlight (and a well deserved one, because they wrote a pretty good song for a couple of non-professionals) and RYAN TELLS THE ONE GUY TO SIT BACK DOWN OUT OF CAMERA RANGE BECAUSE HE WAS TOO TALL AND MADE RYAN FEEL SHORT??????? What a jackass!! This, on top of some of the interplay between him and Simon this season that took the focus off the contestants after their song (and for some reason, poor Melinda usually seemed to be the one to attract this type of thing more than the rest), is just too much.
Next season, I hope they look into having more about the CONTESTANTS during the results show if they're gonna make it an hour long. I am sick to death of them using the hour to plug various other Fox projects; make it more about the contestants, people!! Crap, the "commercials" take so much time the one going home barely has a chance to get their final song in!! However, they can keep the Ford commercials; those are always cute.
Last, CONGRATS TO JORDIN!!
I really think she's terrific and has a great future; I had a feeling early on in the competition that she was going to be the one that got better and better every week and was going to end up being the Final 3 Surprise, but I never would have projected her the winner, at least not until Melinda went out. Good job!!
