American Idol

Sanjaya Malakar winning American Idol is a worst-case scenario for FOX.  It would single-handedly undermine any credibility the show has as a legitimate venue for talent.  FOX, therefore, is in an interesting situation right now.  Do they milk all this Sanjaya mania as long as possible and hope that voters eventually come to their senses?  Or, do they try and guard against the possibility that he might actually win the whole thing, and try to bury him, PR-wise?  I don't know what FOX will do, but for those questions to even be relevant, we need to believe that Sanjaya has a chance to win American Idol this year.

The scary thing is, I actually believe this could happen.


Hear me out on this.  For my first piece of evidence, I point you to an article by my esteemed colleague Jon, who wrote a disturbing piece which cited an anonymous insider e-mail saying Sanjaya was the number one vote-getter last week.  I didn't believe it when I read it, but now it seems a hell of a lot more plausible.

I'll tell you why.

All you need to do is look at the bottom three contestants on tonight's results show.  Sanjaya wasn't one of them.  Normally, I'd say “So what?  There's no point looking for consistency in voting.”  However, Sanjaya is clearly on a different playing field than anyone else on the show.  Sure, Chris Richardson was in the bottom two last week, but wasn't even in the bottom three this time around.  Therefore, one could make an argument that voting fluctuates significantly on a week to week basis.  But, I think we can safely chalk up Chris's up-tick in votes to a greatly improved singing performance from last week to this week.  We can't do the same with Sanjaya.

So, whereas all non-Sanjaya contestants are voted for in a somewhat fluid, quality-based manner, Sanjaya is not.  It has gotten to the point where Sanjaya's performances are completely inconsequential.  He has become a phenomenon unto himself and, if last night's abysmal performance can't enter him into the bottom three, nothing will.

There's one possibility that can bring some hope to those who want Sanjaya gone.  As American Idol sheds more contestants, there will be less singers for those Sanjaya-haters to sprinkle their votes upon.  This higher concentration of votes from the anti-Sanjaya camp could eventually send the boy wonder home. 

But, who knows?  If, a couple months from now, Sanjaya is joining Melinda Doolittle and Jordin Sparks on stage for the American Idol finale, don't say I didn't warn you.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer

(Image Courtesy of Gambling911.com)