The 2008 American Idol (#7) HTF Top Ten Challenge: *** John Swarce wins! *** (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Meyers]

Sounds like fun . . . I'll take a spot.

Question: My oldest daugher (age 15) is a HUGE American Idol fan. Is she eligible to register on HTF and enter this contest? I did not see any age requirements on the registration page or on the AI #7 contest rules page.

 

[RAF]

Let her sign up. I imagine we still will have a couple of "audition" weeks to go before we actually reach Hollywood and a "final 16."

 

[loganhunter2002]

Sign me up.

"I am your brother, your best friend forever!!!!"

 

[Scooter]

Can I use the potholder I made this one year at band camp????

Regards some changes...seems they may have taken a page from Canadian Idol, in that, the singers will be allowed to play instruments during later parts in the competition. C.I. allowed that during the VERY initial auditions.

 

[RAF]

Scooter!!!

Long time.

Yes, you can use your pot holder from band camp. Just make sure you hide it if/when the police come calling. I believe the last time they confiscated it.



C'mon in. The water's fine!

 

[gregstaten]

Placeholder.

(Yes this is my first post in nearly two years! Amazing what having an 18-month old will do to your Internet time - and your DVD collection habit...)

-greg

 

[RAF]

Greg!! Another "blast from the past". Glad to see you here.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I am your brother, your best friend forever, and count me in!

***Entry Recorded ***

 

[Betty R]

Placeholder -- I'll give it a try!

 

[RAF]

We now have over 20 potential entries at this time (based on unofficial "placeholders") and I fully expect that number to grow before we get to the official "entry" time. As we are still in the "audition" part of AI7 it will still be quite some time before we get to Hollywood and the final 24. Then we have to get down to the "Final 16" (assuming "Final 14" is not an option) before we open this for your lists.

Do any of you AI regulars have an idea as to when the "Final 16" will occur? I'm 'guesstimating' it to be about a month from now unless I'm missing something. We'll be ready to roll when we reach that point and I'll edit the title of this thread at that point to indicate "Entries Now Open." In the meantime, keep those "placeholders" coming. It's good to see a mix of old and new (best) friends here.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Looks like Feb 28th will be the results show that pares the field down to 16.

Jan 15th-16th: National tryouts
Jan 22nd-23rd: National tryouts
Jan 29th-30th: National tryouts
Feb 5th-6th: National tryouts

Feb 12th-13th: Hollywood Part 1-2 (Top 24 revealed)
Feb 19th: Top 12 Men perform
Feb 20th: Top 12 Women perform
Feb 21th: First Results Show (2 guys/2 girls go home)

Feb 26th: Top 10 Men perform
Feb 27th: Top 10 Women perform
Feb 28th: Second Results Show (2 guys/2 girls go home)

Mar 4th: Top 8 Men perform
Mar 5th: Top 8 Women perform
Mar 6th: Third Results Show (2 guys/2 girls go home: Top 12 revealed)

Mar 11th: Top 12 performance show
Mar 12th: First finalist voted off

 

[Bryan X]

Placeholder!

***Entry Recorded ***

 

[Yee-Ming]

I just realised something: if your list contains names that didn't actually reach the final 10, how are those scored? "Zero" is the ideal score, equating a spot-on prediction, so names that didn't actually make top 10 need to be 'penalised' somehow. For instance, perhaps they could be treated as finishing 11th? Otherwise getting it badly wrong actually works in your favour.

 

[RAF]

Good question, and one that I think that we actually have covered by the way the scoring works (unless I misread your question). If you pick a contestant to finish, say, 8th and that contestant actually gets voted off in the 15th position then the score for that person would be 7 (15-8). In other words, if some of your choices never make it to the top ten they don't get a "zero" score but the difference between what you predicted and their actual final position in the contest. To take this to an extreme example - let's say you picked a contestant to come in first and he/she actually comes in 16th (assuming a "Final 16" scenario). That contestant gets a score of 15, not zero.

Make sense?

 

[RAF]

Thanks for the information, Patrick! Based on this (and assuming no schedule change) then I will close the entries on Tuesday, March 4th at 8:00 pm EST. A "Final 16" pool for the "Top Ten" makes it a bit more challenging. I'm also amending the rules to reflect a "Final 16" and changing the title to reflect the deadline.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Got it.

The only other problem then is that when voting off at that stage, is it necessarily clear that of the two being booted off, one actually finished bottom and the other second bottom that round? I can't remember whether they ever actually did it that way, IIRC it was more like halfway through all 8 (say) a few are told they are safe, then one is told he's going home, then they continue telling others they are safe, or not safe until a pair is reached, then one goes home and one stays.

All to add to dramatic tension when in reality Seacrest could announce everything in 30 seconds, but then there wouldn't be much of a results show, would there?

We had a similar problem last year (Chris Richardson I think, and someone else) and by consensus agreed both had been voted off 'together'.

 

[RAF]

Yes, everything you say is true and we have it all "covered" as well. In any case where two people are voted off in the same night and there is not a clear indication of which one received the fewest votes of the two then we simply average the positions for scoring purposes. That's exactly what happened with the Chris Richardson situation (last year, I believe) He and another contestant (I'm sure another member will supply the name) were voted off in positions 6 and 5. Because it was never made clear as to which one was "6th" and which one was "5th" I assigned a point value of 5.5 to each of them and moved on.

I totally agree that in the early stages of the "finals" there is a better chance that dual eliminations may not clearly state the actual order of elimination. Generally this does not happen once we reach the "Top Ten" because AI is famous for making this a "one elimination per week" format. It both builds suspense and drags it out (like most things in AI as you observed). And that's why I prefer to go with a "Top Ten" Challenge rather than trying to pick, say, the order of the Top 16 or so. The Chris Richardson situation at positions 6 and 5 was an unusual one and, if I recall, somehow tied to events beyond the normal AI program which may have pre-empted the normal flow of things.

Don't worry Yee-Ming, we not only have tried to account for most contingencies, but will adjust as the situation warrants. Sometimes one of the challenges of the "Top Ten Challenge" is actually keeping up with the occasional monkey wrench that's thrown out there by the show.

 

[Yee-Ming]

The "Idol Gives Back" show, IIRC, and they said it didn't feel right to kick someone off after such a feel-good show, but the following week two would be sent home instead, with both weeks' votes cumulatively counting. I suppose if they'd postponed the inevitable by disregarding that week's show, voters would've been P.O.ed that their votes were meaningless, or had less impact if combined into only one elimination. And no doubt someone would've sued...

 

[Parker Clack]

01. David A.
02. Michael Johns
03. Carly Smithson
04. Kristy Lee Cook
05. Kady Malloy
06. Chikezie
07. Brooke White
08. David Cook
09. Luke Menard
10. Ramiele Malubay

***Entry Recorded ***

 

[RAF]

Yes, that was it! Thanks for the memories.