Skip to footer

American Idol surprises viewers and contestants with a 'game changer'

American Idol recap: On Thursday evening, America's votes were tallied but Ryan surprised contestants by giving them a vote of their own. 

|
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Singers and judges Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick, Jr. pose with host Ryan Seacrest and producer Randy Jackson at the party for the finalists of American Idol XIII in West Hollywood, California in February 2014.

After being treated to another realistic and unscripted round table after-show dinner with the Idols (yes, that was sarcasm) and a performance by resident judge Keith Urban, Ryan was set to rock the world of viewers and contestants alike with what he described as a "game changer." He then announced that Idol was giving contestants the choice of whether to send someone home or forego an elimination this week and face a double elimination next week. The one caveat was that the Idol contestants had to vote anonymously and the vote needed to be unanimous, otherwise the contestant with the fewest votes would depart, after all.

Well, my world wasn't completely rocked but if the contestants opted against an elimination, then my carefully thought out predictions from the previous night would have been moot. That's almost as annoying as watching an episode of American Idol for absolutely no reason. 

Thankfully, two of the contestants felt sympathy for me and chose to follow the game plan and send someone home. With that, Ryan perfunctorily announced that Sam Woolf received the lowest number of votes and would be headed home to grandma and grandpa. 

On the one hand, it's a sad outcome. Sam had a sweet voice, boyish charm and an endearing insecurity and he'll be missed. On the other hand, that means my predictions were spot on. Every cloud has a silver lining!

What are your thoughts? Will you too, miss Sam or were you tired of watching him grasping awkwardly at a air of confidence that he may never acquire? Sound off in the comments below!

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to American Idol surprises viewers and contestants with a 'game changer'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/TV/2014/0502/American-Idol-surprises-viewers-and-contestants-with-a-game-changer
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe