Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Monday, March 12, 2007

Talk about Week 2 Here!


Well, the pool this week says Phil is going out, so he gets this week's picture....But we all know who it should be - Chris Serico's best buddy, Sanjaya. And seriously, does anyone but Serico want to hear Sanjaya sing a Diana Ross/motown song?

It's almost like the judges knew Sanjaya was going to make the top 12 way back when, so they scheduled motown/Diana Ross for Week 1 as an insurance policy for him not getting any further.

Anyone have any predictions as to who would sound good on what? Here's what I think is the key (I'm assuming Diana Ross is here because it's motown week and not stand on one leg week) - some motown songs don't go anywhere musically. I'll give you some examples off the top of my head of just Superemes songs that don't do much melodically - "You Can't Hurry Love", "Baby Love", "Stop! In the Name of Love"....those old motown songs are great, but they're horrible for a singing competition unless someone has some really creative ideas for them. If someone like Gina (who doesn't have an old school R&B voice) or Blake sings one of those songs, it could be an early exit.

But, not to fear, because Sanjaya sucks. Bad. Ugh. PS, my "India's voting for him" theory is holding water! The Times of India has an interesting story about him here including a bit of information that Simon has threatened to quit the show if Sanjaya wins. Has anyone heard that before, or is The Times of India making stuff up again?


So, looking at our picks, first place Lisa Wagner has 10 points, and last place Crystal Boyle has 8, so it's still anyone's pool! Lisa has Jared going out this week, so she needs one of the 2 people she was wrong about to go out. Unfortunately, she has Sanjaya still alive (why, Lisa?!), so she's really pulling for Haley or Phil to show up wasted, trip over the band, swallow the mic, and then give Paula sass.

That goes for almost all of you. What you want is to have as many people as possible still alive...It's way too early to pull for popular people to go out to try to make your move. So, if someone's in the top 12 that you didn't have, you obviously are rooting for that person to get out.

The only exception is for you people who had unconventional top 12s with people like Melinda, Blake, Jordin, or Stephanie out of the top 12. You would shoot up the standings if those people actually leave this week because they are very popular picks in our pool, and you are the only ones with them already out.


One last administrative thing - Mr. JoJo reports he has received almost everyone's $10 payments, and he and I thank you. If you haven't heard from JoJo, that's a good thing - it means he has received your payment. Believe me, you don't want to hear from him, and that's what I understand has happened with 6 or 7 of you. You do not want JoJo after you, so we strongly suggest you get your $10 in immediately.

Enjoy Tuesday's show!

Sunday, March 11, 2007

A Look at The Pool's Entries

The Competition Committee has gone over everyone's entries, and we thought it would be fun to post some trends found in all your picks.

The first thing we did was average out all of the Idols' scores on all 51 of our sheets. This is how the Idols averaged out according to the 51 2007 American Idol Pool picks:

1. Melinda
2. LaKisha
3. Chris R.
4. Chris S.
5. Blake
6. Jordin
7. Stephanie
8. Sabrina (whoopsy)
9. Sundance (whoopsy)
10. Gina
11. Brandon
12. Phil

13. Jared
14. Antonella
15. Sanjaya (whoopsy)
16. Haley (whoopsy)


Going by the list above, here are the people in the pool who have each of these finalists the highest and the lowest...One key note here - there are only 3 people that everyone had in their top 12 (LaKisha, Chris R., and Chris S.). This means that there is a great amount of diversity in all the entries:

1. Melinda
35 people have her #1 (no winners pool payout if she wins). Chris Fitzgerald had her out of the top 12.

2. LaKisha
9 people (Chris F., Christy, Darby, Dina, Karen, Lisa W., Mark, Marsha, and Will) have her #1. Chris S. and Adele have her the lowest at #8.

3. Chris R.
Dave and Jen have him #1. Paul Fioretti has him at #12.

4. Chris S.
Matty and Brooke have him #1. Heather has him at #12.

5. Blake
Paul Peters and Jennie have him #1. 3 people (Chris Fitzgerald, Mark, and Suzanne) had him out of the top 12.

Yes, this means Chris Fitzgerald has neither the pool's #1 nor their #5 choice in his top 12.

6. Jordin
Chris Fitzgerald has Jordin the highest out of everyone at #2. Mike and Kendra had her out of the top 12.

7. Stephanie
Adele has Stephanie the highest at #2. 9 people had her out of their top 12.

8. Sabrina
Liz had Sabrina at #2, so that certainly hurts right out of the gate. 10 people had her out of the top 12 - great calls for you 10!

9. Sundance
Damian and Brooke had Sundance at #2 which hurts just as hard as Liz having Sabrina at #2. 6 people had the foresight to not include him in their top 12.

10. Gina
Meredith is the biggest Gina fan. She has her at #1. 10 people had her out of the top 12.

11. Brandon
Milly, the pool's youngest contestant this season, has Brandon the highest at #2. 9 people had him out of the top 12.

12. Phil
Mark has Phil higher than anyone else at #2. 26 people had him out. So, about 1/2 the pool was wrong on Phil.

13. Jared
Last year's #51, Peter B., had Jared the highest at #4. Unfortunately for Peter, Jared didn't make the top 12. 21 people had him out of the top 12.

14. Antonella
Mark had Antonella the highest at #6. She didn't make the cut, though, and 25 people called that correctly.

15. Sanjaya
Chris S. is the biggest fan of the little creepy freak Sanjaya. He has him at #7. 35 people, about 2/3 of the pool, had him out.

16. Haley
Only 4 people had Haley in the top 12 - Brooke, Chris F., Kendra, and Mark. No one has her higher than Brooke, who has her at #5. The remaining 47 people were dead wrong about Haley. Amazing.

Have any questions about peoples' picks? Post it here, and we'll address them.

Thursday, March 8, 2007

American Idol Results Week 1

You have to be kidding me!

I really don't know what else to say. America, really? Freaky, creepy, mumbles Sanjaya over Sundance?!?! Seriously? This is some sort of joke, right?

I mean, at least Kevin Covais and Anthony Federov had enough guts to sing. Sanjaya looks like a freakish deer in headlights, and I can't even hear him when he opens his mouth.

This is my theory - India is voting. I think they're in on it. Alieda, can you confirm this for us? If not, Damian and Brooke are Indian....they can do about 1/64th of the research. If this India voting thing is true, could somebody please tell them to stop it for the good of world peace? Thanks!

You know what the worst part about Sanjaya advancing is? Next week is Dianna Ross week. What Dianna Ross song could he possible sing well? What song could he sing well period?


And Sabrina is off the show but Haley stays? Who are these people that think that Haley's better than Sabrina?! Sabrina!! For once in my life, I actually knew what it was like to be like Paula and jump out of my seat with my mouth hung open.

Last thought - it was a good thing Phil Stacey was crying after he advanced to the top 12, because he certainly doesn't belong there after this performance.



So, on to the standings. Last year, one person was 12 for 12 after week 1. This year, no one is. In fact, no one is even 11 for 12. The best anyone did was get 10 out of the 12 correct, and 22 people did that.

But no one did it better than Lisa Wagner. Lisa lost only her #11 and her #12, so her max points is still a very high 360. Marybeth and Matty are right on Lisa's tail - both lost their #10 and #12, so their max points are at 357. Amy York, and another Lane family member, Katy, are tied for 4th having only lost their #9 and #12. And Kendra Hayden rounds out the top 6 with 10 points by having lost her #9 and #11.

Fear not almost everybody, you're all still right in it. Chris Serico, we saw your post on the board pretty much resigning the fact that you're out. That's not true!!! You might have just 8 out of 12, but your max points earned is still a very strong 347! You've lost 4 people, but they've all very low on your sheet.

Basically, almost everyone is still in it since just about everybody took a beating this week. So, everyone gear up for next week, and think about ways to get Sanjaya off the show. I might hate him more than Scott Savol and Katherine McPhee combined, and that's saying something.



Three administrative things:

1. We've posted pdfs to the blog with everyone's standings here. You can click on the sheets to enlarge them. If you think this is too much, and you would rather just see who is #1 and who is #51 without knowing who has which contestants going out when, let Debbie know at idolpool@gmail.com, and we'll change the way we post the standings.

2. Membership of the pool is at 51 contestants, the same as last year! Obviously, this changes the payout schedule for the pool from what we posted earlier (when we thought it was 55). Look for a change in that post, and we will notify you when that happens.

3. The Competition Committee is preparing a blog entry that breaks down our pools' selections. For example, did you know that 35 people have Melinda winning, 9 people have LaKisha, 2 have Chris R., 2 have Chris S., 2 have Blake, and one has Gina? How about this, do you know that Chris Fitzgerald doesn't even have Melinda in his top 12? What about that siblings Damian and Brooke BOTH had Sundance #2 (ouch)? We'll have a post of fun info over the weekend and will alert you to it.

That's all for now....It's gearing up to be another crazy season, and now that all of our picks are in, we can all comment to our hearts desire about everything....It's not going to change our picks.

One last thing, congrats to Peter B. for not starting off in absolute last place. Last year, he went wire to wire in last. You've already improved on last year!!!