American Idol Season 3 (Results Show): (Weds) 12 May 2004
"Oh... My... God!!" ... and I couldn't be more emphatic if my name was Janice! Sadly we haven't got 'Friends' anymore, and you would think after viewing tonight's American Idol results show that neither has evictee La Toya London.
The evidence however points to a different explanation...
Prior to the results, anyone checking out the polls on this and other sites would have been sure that La Toya would cruise her way not just to the next stage but all the way to the final.
Only 7.5% of our pollsters thought she might not make the final 3 compared to a whopping 76.1% who believed it would be Jasmine Trias checking out in 4th place.
La Toya also appeared to be well ahead in the popularity stakes with 32% of our vote.
So... La Toya! Don't take it to heart! It's clear why you didn't make it through...everybody loves you! ...
...and erm...they thought you were 'safe'.
Yes, this is a bigger shocker than the Jennifer Hudson debacle...and ok yes, I guess it is true that if our favorites are to win we need to pick up the phone and vote...
...but it's also true that if we see our favorites in trouble we do pick up the phone and vote ...and vote, and vote, and vote, and ...er ...vote. On Tuesday night Simon told Jasmine to hope that every household in Hawaii has at least five telephones; maybe those clever Hawaiians figured they don't need five lines if they can use just one and call five times.
Therein lies the problem. Yes, I can almost hear Simon Cowell's voice ringing in my ears "This isn't 'American Idol', it's 'Sympathy Idol'! ... Well you wouldn't blame him for being confused, the whole voting thing is upside down again. The two divas whom he proclaimed as being in a 'different league' are in fact in a different league...the bottom one. Amazingly Fantasia Barrino wound up with the second lowest votes tally.
Is it racism? Well you can ask Elton John if you like, but if you ask me I'll give you another -ism...and it begins with commerce.
But hey Simon & co. here's a solution for you. Why not get the phone companies to only register one vote per phone line? Brilliant!! Hold on...won't that affect text revenues? Hmmm...
Yesterday Latoya said the final 4 are all winners, whether that's true or not 'she' certainly is. La Toya has consistently impressed America with elegance, with beauty, with style and most of all with talent. There is no doubt that we will see a lot more of classy-sassy Ms London as time goes by.
We are also left with an intriguing final three. Will Jasmine Trias finally pull it out of the bag next week? Will Diana DeGarmo's star continue to ascend? Will Fantasia Barrino's raw emotion jangle America's nerves enough to jingle America's phone-lines? We don't know...tonight proves we don't...but it's kind of exciting, isn't it?