I'd hate to see Katharine leave so soon, but she did deserve the wake up call she got last night...bring it or fuck off.

Next week should be interesting, and I think the country theme will afford Bucky Covington one more week...I'm going to call it early...next week Paris is going home.

MATT

I think I've lost total interest in this show. They really dropped the ball on 21st century night with those terrible, terrible songs. A few alternatives popped into my head this morning, songs with a bit more of a modern edge but still a real pop sensibility:

Katherine: "Maps" (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) - I'd love to hear that instead of the same shmoopy crap she always sings.
Mandisa: "No Man's Woman" (Sinead O'Connor) - You wanna sing a song about Jesus? Here's a better one.
Chris: "Fall to Pieces" (Velvet Revolver) - One of the few rock ballads from the last decade that doesn't suck. Sensitivity and bombast at the same time.
Taylor: "Float On" (Modest Mouse) - I think that could have been really cool.

So how does an AMERICAN IDOL OFFICE POOL work? Do you pick one name from the start or what? As much as people obsess about the show here at my job, i might be able to make some good money (or at least get some cash back from my terrible NCAA bracket).
:)

Me too. I don't see anyone from this season becoming a star. They're all so 'meh'

The way we did our AI pool (I came up with the top portion, the non-bonus portion):

Everyone who wants to play ponies up a certain amount, I think we did $12/person (even though there are only 11 weeks of guessing)

For weeks 1-4 (12 to 9 contestants left), each player specify their 1st choice, 2nd choice and 3rd choice to be eliminated for a given week.

Points:
1st choice booted = 4 points
2nd choice booted = 2 points
3rd choice booted = 1 point

Max points for weeks 1-4 is 16 points.

----------

For weeks 5-8 (8 to 5 contestants left), each player specify their 1st choice, 2nd choice to be eliminated for a given week.
Each player gets 4 points if their 1st choice goes home, and 2 points if their 2nd choice goes home.

1st choice booted = 4 points
2nd choice booted = 2 points

Max points for weeks 5-8 is 16 points.

----------

For weeks 9-11 (4-2 contestants left), each player specify their 1st choice eliminated for a given week.

1st choice booted = 4 points

Max points for weeks 9-11 is 12 points.

Add up all the points, and whoever has the highest number of points is the winnah!

Tie-break could go to who has to most 1st choice boot-offs correct over the 11 weeks.

-------------------------------------------

Now someone else decided to add bonuses if you have the bootee amongst your 3 guesses in the early round, and get the correct placement of any of the other bottom vote-getters.

For example from this week's boot-off process, had you guessed 1st choice = Katharine, 2nd choice = Lisa, 3rd choice = Ace, then you'd get 2 points for listing Lisa in your bottom 3, and then you'd also get 1 point for listing Ace as 3rd lowest vote getter.

Another example from this week's boot-off process, had you guessed 1st choice = Bucky, 2nd choice = Katharine, 3rd choice = Ace, then you'd get no point at all because Lisa wasn't listed for any of the bottom 3, so no bonus points kick in. (These were my pick, and I got no points this week. Boo hoo!)

Another example from this week's boot-off process, had you gotten all 3 contestants guessed in the proper order, 1st choice = Lisa, 2nd choice = Katharine, 3rd choice = Ace, you'd gotten 4 point for Lisa, and then 2 points for Katharine and another 1 point for Ace for a total of 7 points.

(So each week now has a possible 7 points for getting all 3 places correctly).

The bonus points are kind of confusing, but it does give people some ways to get points for guessing the bottom 3 correctly.

I'm not sure how bonus points are going to work when the number of contestants dwindle in phase 2 (8 contestants remain), or phase 3 (4 contestants remain). I'm just going to let the ladies in the office sort out that part of the points scoring for now.

Patman's office sounds like a fun place to work.

Next year we should do a DVD Talk AI pool.

When does AI stop showing up the bottom 3 vote-getters and just goes to the bottom 2? I can't remember.

I think its when there are 5 left. Thanks for the info on the office pool! i might get something like that going here.
:)

I'm just glad there were others in the office who offered to do the logisitics of the pool (collecting ballots via email, and putting everything in spreadsheets and PDF files to keep the players updated in the standings).

Loved the fact that Simon admitted after hearing the playbacks, that Katherine did not sound good! I thought she did that sound painfully. They didnt seem surprised at all she was in the bottom 3, but Im sure they were confident she wasnt going home.

My only question is who the hell is voting for Bucky? I would imagine Kellie is getting the country vote and Chris would take the rocker vote, and let's be honest, there is no way Bucky would secure any "attractive" votes like McPhee and Ace.

I would like to hear Chris cover "Hurt" although I am not sure that meets the country definition.

Good call on the Velvet Revolver song for Chris this past week and Taylor doing Modest Mouse. Those would have been very interesting to hear.

He must get enough to get by but I will bet he is always in danger of having the lowest votes. Still, he is from the south and there is probably some southern pride in voting for him as he probably reminds a lot of southern folks that he is one of them and just a regular guy.

As of this edition, each and every winner of AI has been from the South as were 3 of the 2nd place winner.

Carrie was from Oklahoma. Why is that the South?

I know some country music fans who are voting for Bucky because, to them, he is all they have on the show.

Traditionally, Oklahoma is part of the South. Although, that's somewhat debatable.


Anyway, this week's AI was by far the worst. I can't believe Katharine was part of the bottom 2. It looked like SHE was shocked to be in the bottom 2. And how the hell did Bucky miss being in the bottom 3? Even still, I say he's out next week.

From your first link...

It does make sense of why I sometimes hear from the media that Oklahoma is a Southern state but, where I grew up, Oklahoma was never spoken of as a fellow Southern state. Ever. Traditional South is one thing, Contemporary South is another. I felt no allegiance to Carrie Underwood, but I do sometimes find myself rooting for Bucky. I admit it.

In other news, it would be fun to do an AI pool next year. I suck at it and would likely lose, but it would be fun anyway. Let's just hope they are all better than these guys next year. I am still pretty down on the lot of them save Taylor after Tuesday.

I'm just sitting here morning surfing and letting my iTunes shuffle through my 2000+ songs and a song just came on that I think that Ace should do sometime in this competition...

"Always" by Erasure.

He could go into his falsetto and melt the crowd... or Paula at least.

... and Chris needed to do "Superman" by Three Doors Down last week.

Except that it is country week...

Rascal Flatts "I melt" would be good for him...but he seems to be on the brink of leaving so he needs to step it up this week. Father Figure and Butterfly were his best performances, everything else has been so so...

He is not a favorite in this forum..........

That's why I said that he needed to do "sometime" in the competition.

And I am not a big Ace fan either. I could take him or leave him.

She was in the bottom 3, but that does not mean she was in the bottom 2. The other person was just told he was safe, Katherine was not told she was in the bottom 2.

I believe she was not in the bottom 2, she was only left on stage to make good TV.

Please clean up your language, I do not want to read this (neither do my kids) and it is against the Forum Rules

Ive seen these kinds of posts a few times lately, whats the inside joke?

Did anyone see Lisa on Regis and Kelly? She was still singing Kelly Clarkson's "Becasue of you" and this time it was just with piano accompaniment. She sounded soooo bad and flat. Why would you continue to see a song that got you booted? Well maybe not get you booted but certainly didnt save your butt..?