Results like tonight shouldn't be surprising. Just look at Vanessa from last year, or Tamyra from AI1. Both got kicked off way before they should have been.
This show has never been strictly about talent. It's all about who has the ability to connect with a certain fan base who will vote for you no matter what (JPL, John Stevens). Teenage girls vote for these two like there's no tomorrow, much like Clay last year (but at least Clay was very talented).
A big problem this season is that Latoya, Fantasia, and Jennifer are all 'the divas' this year. This splits the fans votes and allows others to slip through the cracks. JPL, Camille, and John have nowhere near the talent of those three girls, but they make it through because they have solid fan bases. Fantasia seems to be the one out of those girls who really stands out and can connect with people, thus receiving more votes than either Jennifer or Latoya.
I see this competition coming down between those who really connect with the audience: George, Jasmine, JPL, and Fantasia. John Stevens will probably do well with Big Band next week but don't be surprised to see him in the bottom three as the result of backlash from this week. A good example of something like this happening is last year when Rickey Smith had a bad week with Disco but wasn't in the bottom three. The next week he came out and blew the roof off with a fantastic rendition of Lionel Ritchie's Endless Love (one of my favorite performances in AI history, and he had the guts to do it when Lionel Ritchie was the guest judge), but was booted off the following night.
Toni, you're right. These people don't connect with the fans as well as last year's contestants did. Clay and Ruben would own this competiton.
This show has never been strictly about talent. It's all about who has the ability to connect with a certain fan base who will vote for you no matter what (JPL, John Stevens). Teenage girls vote for these two like there's no tomorrow, much like Clay last year (but at least Clay was very talented).
A big problem this season is that Latoya, Fantasia, and Jennifer are all 'the divas' this year. This splits the fans votes and allows others to slip through the cracks. JPL, Camille, and John have nowhere near the talent of those three girls, but they make it through because they have solid fan bases. Fantasia seems to be the one out of those girls who really stands out and can connect with people, thus receiving more votes than either Jennifer or Latoya.
I see this competition coming down between those who really connect with the audience: George, Jasmine, JPL, and Fantasia. John Stevens will probably do well with Big Band next week but don't be surprised to see him in the bottom three as the result of backlash from this week. A good example of something like this happening is last year when Rickey Smith had a bad week with Disco but wasn't in the bottom three. The next week he came out and blew the roof off with a fantastic rendition of Lionel Ritchie's Endless Love (one of my favorite performances in AI history, and he had the guts to do it when Lionel Ritchie was the guest judge), but was booted off the following night.
Toni, you're right. These people don't connect with the fans as well as last year's contestants did. Clay and Ruben would own this competiton.