Is the Fix in For Archuleta?

241. I am in the business of rating peformers on their musical ++talents and I can say without a doubt, David A. is theme park material at best. I really lost interest when Michael Johns and Carly were dumped. The judges comments are unoriginal and stale and maybe they need to realize that they are not the ultimate judges of talent. Its already in the bag for Archuleta and he is certainly not the most talented. He is a novelty that will fade like the pet rock.

Posted at 3:24PM on May 14th 2008 by Pmw1969

242. David A. has a fantastic voice, let's face it. Absolutely fabulous. But that's about it. But then, so does David Cook! And David Cook ROCKS. He's gorgeous, talented, humble, and ... well, I cried when he sang Roberta Flack's "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." WOW. I was blown away. I can't imagine that David A. has the ability to take an old classic and turn it into a current hit. I'd go see David Cook in concert any where, any time. David A., sorry, but I would not go to see you anywhere, you'd bore me to no end. David Cook deserves to be the next American Idol - hands down. Paula, Randy, Simon - thanks for helping little David out, but this time "Goliath" should win - "Goliath" being DAVID COOK - he's so much bigger than David A in every way!

Posted at 9:35PM on May 16th 2008 by IdolFan-Kissimmee

243. Not sure if they rig the actual vote count, but this is a Fox show, and they do lean to the right -- a side notorious for tampering with vote counts... Anyway, I'm positive they are trying to at least unfairly sway the voters towards Archuleta because I have now twice observed them re-editing the 'recap" clips at the ends of the show to -- in DA's case -- correct a mistake where his voice dropped out right at the end of the song in the live performance. In the recap, he miraculously hit the note clearly with no dropout! I had to rewind my DVR to confirm what I thought I heard, and the dropout WAS THERE! Then not in the recap.

I'm an editor and I've also competed on a syndicated talent show before. They simply took a good clip from the taped dress rehearsal and inserted it into the recap clip. Easy as pie; takes just a minute to do.

But tonight on the final they did something way worse than that -- they re-edited one of David Cook's good notes and made it go FLAT! I have a very good ear for pitch, and did not notice this blatantly sour note they showed to us in the recap. If you still have the show on tape or DVR, go back and check this yourself. It's his first song, I think U2 sings it? Anyway, it's the line of the chorus that goes... "Still haven't found what I'm looking for...." The recap shows Cook singing this line twice, and going about a half-step FLAT on the word "for" during the first line.

I did not remember hearing this at all, so again, I rewound the DVR to confirm my suspicions. Yep! I watched the whole performance over again to be sure. He sings the chorus lyric a total of four times in the entire song -- once near the beginning, and three times at the end. Therefore the recap clip MUST have "supposedly" come from the end of the song. And the last time he sings it he slows it up and sings it way different than the recap, so it had to be during the first two cycles of the final three.

So I listen to this about five times, and darned if I can make out the sour note so obvious in the recap. But I remember what they did previously with Archuleta, fixing his screw-up in the recap, so I figure they either took a sour note from one of DC's dress rehearsals and inserted that.... OR WORSE... used some sort of de-tuning effect on that one note. Actually, that is what it sounds like to me. The flat note actually sounds somewhat artificial. So given that plus the FACT that DC has a history of solid performances on pitch throughout the competition, I strongly believe the recaps are being tampered with towards the purpose of influencing the votes in favor of Archuleta.

All talent contestants know its way better to "go last" than first because that's what the audience remembers the most. Fox knows this, too, and by tampering with the recaps, they are trying to REWRITE OUR MEMORY of what actually happened earlier on the show!

It kind of makes me sick. Is there no integrity left anywhere these days?

CA

Posted at 5:45AM on May 21st 2008 by Crag Antler