American Idol Season 12

American Idol is down to the final four and surprise, surprise: they're all women.  Normally, this could be a cause for rejoicing, considering men have won every year since 2007.  However, at the beginning of this year, Ryan Seacrest opened the season by saying a woman would win.  The producers proceeded to stack the deck in Hollywood Week and after so that the men who made it to the top ten were boring and not really that good.  In order to help their cause even more, the producers have been feeding the judges lines, so that they put one singer down so much that anyone who votes is swayed by their choice.  For example, two weeks ago, they repeatedly said that Janelle had lost her touch and that she was going to go home.  Who went home?  Janelle.  A couple of weeks prior, they said that Paul Jolley was bad(essentially) and didn't belong any longer.  Who went home?  Paul.

Now, because the voting is America, it could be that they really thought that all the people they sent home were bad.  But, they kept Lazaro around for weeks, when he didn't have half as much talent as any of the girls and was not even equal to the boys.  This leads me to believe that they were really voting, because of Lazaro's sob story.   But, on the other hand, Lazaro was clearly going to be the last boy gone, and they would have used the save for any woman that was in danger.

The producers of Idol have the judges say exactly what the producers want.
Is it any coincidence that the ratings have decreased?  No, because the blatant meddling by the producers is boring and predictable.  Why watch the results show, when the judges(and Jimmy) tell you who is going home on Wednesday?  Additionally, Nicki and Randy are very annoying and unhelpful.  Nicki seems to think that appearance is more important than talent(and for her, that was the case), but for the majority of these girls, they have more talent already than Nicki...  And Randy, he just says the same old tired things.  He hasn't been a good judge since he was a foil for Paula and Simon of the early years.

So, Idol's sinking, and the producers seem to think that the same old formula will get it back on top.  No, let's have some real judges and real judging.  We want unpredictability, like in season 5 for Chris Daughtry went home in the final four results week.  We want current good music.  We want contestants that are judged on merit, not on what the producers pick.  When this happens, Idol may have a chance.