Groups of 8, judges influencing the winners

American Idol: Season 3 Forum

Are the judges influencing the winners of the groups of 8. The judges select what group you enter into. This was inspired by thoughts on another thread. What do you think?

Fuscia ........

Well, as you know, I've posted lengthy opinions on that question all over this site during the last few days so I won't go into another long explanation here. The short answer is Yes!.

The Judges have "stacked the deck" in each of the Groups of 8 and I completely understand why they did it. Were I one of the Producers of the show, I'd have done exactly the same thing.

That should not detract from the entertainment value of the program in any way. Think of it this way -- when you go to the horse track, you pick your favorites from the horses that are running. Someone else has already chosen which horses will be in which races and how much weight (handicap) they will each carry.

It's still fun to try and pick a winner, isn't it? It's still fun to stand at the rail and cheer and urge on your favorite, even though you know it has absolutely no effect on the final outcome of the race.

Old Scout

Just an aside smile -- scout, on the few occasions I've been to the track, I pick horses because I like their names ! Once when with an "expert" I had a first race winner and then won the daily double with that scientific method. The expert was not happy Good analogy tho'.

I am wondering fuscia ... do we know for a FACT that the judges put the Groups of Eight (GOE) together, and how do we know this ?

- Is it possible that they drew numbers for GOE placement as they did for the individual auditions ?

- Is it possible that the groups were put together for the sake of variety in image and style ?


scout, you may want to post your theory one more time in here or place a link in here to the post/thread where you feel you've best explained it ?

Anyway, simply said, scout's theory allows for at least 2 out of each GOE being the judges/producers predetermined "finalists", -- correct ? ... leaving room in the Wildcard selection and vote for at least 3 more plus "America's Choice" where America is again choosing from whom the judges have chosen ?

If we presume that the judges did indeed put the groups together, I will have to watch to determine if I think the deck is stacked this season. As I've said elsewhere, I was definitely suspicious last year with the Clay/Ruben/Kim grouping.

I don't know for a fact, but I do think that they stack the deck.

Interesting thought....

I wonder if there is a way to find out for sure?

Well, I just sent off another e-mail to the Idol questions department. I don't know if I will hear back, but I will post if I do.

There is another producer named Simon...its not Simon Cowell but there is another guy named Simon...I kept thinking they were the same but they arent..

Damn..I cant remember his last name.

But there are other judges....this is an article I found...it didnt have the names but it specifially stated other producers and staffers:

From AI2.


Unlike the show's first edition, on-camera judges Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson didn't see American Idol 2's Miami applicants until they'd passed two auditions before various producers and staffers. Justice, for example, didn't face the three judges until Thursday, when Fox taped footage that may air on the series.

The other Simon is Fuller ... Simon Fuller.. Just look at this excerpted article [AU] and how many fingers are in the many pots they have cooking:

.....................

... Simon Fuller, the Idol creator whose show helped make Sebastian [Australian Idol] our newest star and in turn has made him, and many others, a lot of money.

.... the endless post-Idol mania for Sebastian, was just a small part of the multi-faceted marketing and business empire which has evolved out of the phenomenon of the show.

Idol was created in 2001 by [Simon] Fuller, the 43-year-old British music mogul and former manager of the Spice Girls who now heads 19 Entertainment. Along with Simon Cowell, an international BMG record executive (and judge of American Idol) and Alan Boyd from the UK production house FremantleMedia, Fuller has transformed Idol into a billion-dollar franchise.

Both BMG and FremantleMedia, which produces and holds the rights to the show, are subsidiaries of the German media group Bertelsmann. (Subject to regulatory approval, BMG is soon to be jointly owned by Bertelsmann and Sony, and will be known as Sony-BMG.) In turn, FremantleMedia is the parent company of Australia's Grundy Television Production ... which, as the local rights holder, approached the Ten Network when the decision was made to finally bring Idol Down Under last year.

According to Grundy chief executive Andrew Brooke, Australia was originally going to have the show first, but eventually the UK got it followed by the US before it spread around the world.

Twenty-one countries (including France, Russia and Kazakhstan) screen versions of Idol.

The TV ratings are enormous. By the end of Australian Idol's run, its ratings averaged about 2 million a week while the final show, screened live from the Sydney Opera House, was watched by 3.65 million, making it the most watched non-sports show in 2003 and the Ten Network's highest rating show of all time.

World Idol, which brought winners from 11 countries together (including Sebastian) for a two-part special which began on Boxing Day, drew 2.4 million locally and hundreds of millions overseas.

And the third American Idol, ... was watched by 29 million when it began in the US on Monday.

While Grundy maintains the rights to the show and, as the local broadcaster, Ten benefits through the ratings and millions of dollars in advertising and sponsorships, BMG potentially has years of Idol profits. All parties involved in the local production of Idol who were contacted by The Weekend Australian were generally happy with how the three-way relationship transpired.

However, BMG's general manager of marketing and Idol judge Ian "Dicko" Dickson, admits when Australian Idol 2 begins later this year, the record company would like to be involved in the image-making of the contestants a lot earlier.

"I think it was an enormous success but I think we, if I'm honest, would have liked to have our PR and styling team to enter the show a little earlier than they did," Dickson says.

The record company, which has the rights to the first pick of every Idol contestant, expects to sell 50 million singles and albums over the next four years on the back of the format worldwide.

Locally, BMG has signed three Australian Idol contestants -....... and so on.