Killing a Mockingbird

I never thought I would lose sleep over American Idol. Yet following last night’s shocking, unjust, and ultimately heart-breaking elimination of Pia Toscano, it happened. Sure, I’ve lost sleep over the outcome of other trivial things like sporting events: Penn State’s last second loss to Michigan in 2005 was brutal – I ordered a ribeye steak from Outback to cheer myself up but couldn’t even finish it. The overtime loss of the U.S. soccer team to Ghana in the 2010 World Cup was painful as well, but at least I was in Rome with Melissa and her family, so that took some of the sting away. Sporting losses hurt – perhaps too much in some cases – but at least there is some sense of objective justice in the loss. A referee might make a bad call, but ultimately when one team beats another on the field or court there’s at least a veneer of fairness to it. It might hurt, but I am consoled by the fact that on some level the right thing happened.

But last night’s “loss” on Idol – Pia was my favorite as well as Melissa’s – was pretty tough to take. I’m surprised I’m so disappointed by her elimination, and I think there are several reasons for it. For one thing, the results were completely unexpected. Who would have thought Pia – easily the best singer, presumed front-runner, favorite on many gambling sites, high scorer on DialIdol, most activity on Twitter (almost all positive) – would land in the Bottom 3, much less be heading home? Ryan Seacrest didn’t even give his usual excessive hints that there would be a shocking elimination. The entire show had a surreal feel to it: Pia in the bottom 3? A former contestant named Constantine butchering “Unchained Melody?” Some old shirtless guy named Iggy Pop performing? At one point I thought the whole show was some sort of belated April Fool’s joke, and kept waiting for the punch-line at the end after Pia’s name was announced as the bottom vote-getter.

So the shock is certainly part of it, but along with that is the sense of great injustice. While not everyone liked her personality or musical style, there was little doubt Pia had the best voice in this year’s competition, and perhaps in American Idol history. The best singers rarely win on this show, and to some degree that is expected. But they at least make it to the end: Tamyra Gray finished 4^th in Season 1, Clay Aiken finished 2^nd in Season 2, Chris Daughtry finished 4^th in Season 5, Melinda Doolittle finished 3^rd in Season 6, Allison Iraheta finished 4^th and Adam Lambert finished 2^nd in Season 8, Crystal Bowersox finished 2^nd in Season 9. Perhaps all of those contestants should have finished higher or perhaps won the competition outright, but at least they all made it to the Top 4 (in retrospect Jennifer Hudson should have finished higher, but at the time it wasn’t altogether shocking that she finished 7^th). That Pia Toscano finished 9^th behind far inferior singers is a travesty, and there is nothing remotely approaching “fair” in that result.

Ultimately what I think makes Pia’s early ouster so hard to take is that it’s sort of like killing something that seems quite innocent and pure. In the classic film based on Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the main character (Atticus Finch) explains that as a child his father told him he could kill all the loud, boorish, blue jays he wanted, but that it was a sin to kill a mockingbird because they never harm anyone or anything, they just make beautiful music and “sing their hearts out for us.” If anyone ever sang their heart out in the most beautiful way, it was Pia Toscano. She was exquisitely poised, dignified, modest, humble, and shy – she has readily admitted to stage fright and extreme nervousness before each performance – even her name means “tender” in Latin. She always acted with grace and dignity, and always seemed to remain grounded despite the whirlwind dervish of AI. I never felt Pia bought into her own hype and never became full of her own Idol-specific persona. Despite the criticisms from the judges, she never felt the need to overdo her performances beyond letting her vocals impress in their own rite. She just stepped up to the microphone and sang beautifully. While what is presented on TV and what a person is like in real life do not always coincide, from all appearances Pia is the quintessential human mockingbird.

And perhaps that’s why her elimination is so hard to take. Watching her shock and absolute devastation last night was the first time an Idol result ever made me truly sad. Pia auditioned multiple times for the show, attended New York’s premier arts high school, and sang the National Anthem multiple times for New York area baseball teams (including the Mets). Clearly her passion is singing, and she has devoted her life to music. After singing as perfectly as one can sing throughout the competition and being widely considered the frontrunner, she must have felt safe heading into last night’s show. Her dream was just a few weeks away from materializing, and yet she had it cruelly swept away in a matter of moments. In a break with standard procedure, after her elimination was announced she was asked to sing a reprise of “I’ll Stand by You,” a brutally ironic twist considering the audience’s apparent desertion. She faltered through the last few notes before completely breaking down into uncontrollable sobs as she turned from the cameras and buried her face in her hands. As the credits rolled Ryan Seacrest almost begged the TV audience to tune in next week. After the cameras were off the studio audience apparently remained in their seats (very unusual), almost as if they refused to believe what they had just witnessed. Pia blacked out several times after she finished singing. She eventually made it off stage, but was so fragile and out of sorts she needed a medic to help her.

So America killed a mockingbird last night. There has been outrage aplenty, with former Idol contestants and numerous celebrities such as Tom Hanks voicing their disgust. Pia’s elimination was one of the Top 5 topics on Facebook and Twitter over the past 24 hours, almost all of it negative. Too little, too late.

The next questions are how and why this happened. In trying to wrap my brain around why Pia was eliminated so early, three possible scenarios come to mind: 1) the results were fudged or there was a technical error in counting the votes, 2) there is a flaw in the voting methodology, 3) there is something wrong with the way people vote. I think the first option is unlikely given the degree of scrutiny this show faces, but it should be noted there have been technical problems and complaints over alleged impropriety in the past. And this week’s results showed major discrepancies with the unofficial DialIdol results, which very rarely happens. It’s not enough to have a strong suspicion of fraud, but it does raise some questions about exactly how Pia received fewer votes than a few other relatively unpopular contestants. It doesn’t help that AI maintains a thick veil of secrecy around all its voting results. Still, the second and third options are the most plausible, and they go hand in hand to a certain degree.

In terms of voting methodology, the American Idol system is severely flawed, primarily due to its allowance of unlimited votes by a single individual. With phone lines, text message voting, and now online voting, the same individual can vote tens of thousands of times. This heavily favors younger voters, who are generally more motivated and “tech savvy” than the older viewers. A mature, polished contestant like Pia is therefore at a disadvantage when those casting by far the most votes are younger people who might be attracted to contestants closer to their own age and maturity level. It’s quite possible that Pia had the most individual supporters, but those supporters were neither capable nor willing to vote thousands of times for her. Of course this isn’t a fair system: Idol should at least limit the number of times an individual can vote, effectively leveling the playing field for viewers of all ages. Such a change is unlikely given how much they like to boast of the numbers of voters each week.

The way people vote is also seriously problematic. The criteria for voting are ostensibly based on a contestant’s singing ability in conjunction with their stage presence, performance ability, and overall persona. Yet these criteria are rarely used, as evidenced by very clear patterns of voting over the 10 seasons of American Idol. No one from either coast has ever won the competition. Six of the nine winners come from the Southeast, which is not surprising considering southerners are 10% more likely to vote for a southern contestant. Since 2007, only 3 females have made the Top 5. And of course the most glaring fact is that white males have won 4 of the last 5 seasons and finished 2^nd in the 5^th. Given those numbers, Pia never really had a chance. She was a female contestant from Queens, of Italian and Puerto Rican descent. Despite her immense singing ability she was swimming against the very strong current of AI voting trends.

American Idol's most rabid fans. Any wonder why most of the remaining contestants are white teenage males?

The biggest criticism of American Idol voting is that it is dominated by teenage girls, who seemingly cast the lion’s share of the votes. And more it more it seems the bulk of those girls come from the Southeast and Midwest portions of the country. I’m not going down the road of racism and sexism in this blog, but the order of elimination in the finals looks really bad for AI: black girl, Hispanic girl, Asian girl, black girl, and now Italian/Hispanic girl. All remaining contestants are white except for Jacob Lusk, and in a final group that started with 7 girls and 6 guys, it seems wrong that there are now only 2 girls left while all the guys are still in it. Even worse, female contests – specifically Naima Adedapo – are speaking out more and more about need to tone down their looks and especially any hint of sexuality because it intimidates and turns off the vast number of teenage female voters. There are rumors that consultants advised both Haley Reinhart and Pia to underplay their looks as much as possible to avoid alienating the female portion of the audience. The fact that young, attractive, white males comprise the bulk of the remaining finalists lends credence to the harsh criticisms over the teenage girl voting bloc.

The judges deserve their share of the blame for Pia early departure.

In terms of voting trends, the judges this year – and particularly this week – also share a big chunk of the blame for Pia going home. Voting trends pretty closely with the degree of criticism a contestant receives from the judges. Simon Cowell was often brutally honest and overly harsh, but there was always at least a shade of truth to his critiques. The judges –other than Jennifer Lopez at times – have failed to call out contestants when they have performed poorly this season. Moreover, the judges failed to calibrate their critiques appropriately. On Wednesday Pia delivered the best vocal if not the best overall performance, yet received more criticism than any other contestant. The judges’ critiques were mildly helpful, but gave the impression that there was something significantly lacking in her performance. On the other hand they said nothing negative about Jacob, James, and Lauren for clearly inferior performances, and Randy Jackson’s minor criticism of Stefano met with fierce opposition from Jennifer and Steven Tyler. If Pia was already facing an uphill battle because of her sex, hometown, and ethnicity, unfairly receiving more criticism than any other contestant was a major blow. The judges need to give critiques based on a contestant’s performance in relation to the others – they deserve significant blame for Pia’s elimination.

The best way to remedy these voting problems is to ditch the horribly misused Judges’ Save and change to a format similar to So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD), a show also helmed (and judged) by American Idol boss Nigel Lythgoe. The popular summer dance show – in many ways superior to AI and often far more enjoyable – allows the audience to vote, but the judges choose who goes home out of the Bottom 3. This works extremely well for SYTYCD, which has saved excellent dancers from early elimination, many of whom have eventually landed in the finals – in contrast to AI, my favorites on SYTYCD virtually always survive to the end. In that show the Bottom 3 dancers (3 guys, 3 girls) “dance for their lives” and the judges choose which guy and girl go home each week. This continues through the first half of the finals, until only 5 contestants of each gender remain, at which point it comes down entirely to America’s vote.

Russell Ferguson was in the Bottom 3 the first week of Season 6 of SYTYCD, but ultimately won the competition. Idol should move to a similar format.

If American Idol adopted this format it could be very, very effective. For one thing, it would eliminate the risk of someone like Pia going home so early. A contestant like her would be a virtual lock for the Top 5, which is deserved. If such a format were employed this season Ashthon Jones still would have gone home the first week, Thia Megia would have probably gone home the second week, Stefano Langone would have gone home next (instead of needing to save Casey), Karen Rodriguez would have been next, and Naima would have been sent packing last night instead of Pia. That’s the way it should be from a fairness standpoint, and in terms of the results show it would fill the hour much more effectively than video montages, lengthy recaps, and overblown suspense. The SYTYCD results shows are positively jam packed, with the Bottom 3 announced early, followed by contestant performances to remain in the competition. A couple of guest performances usually occur at the end while the judges deliberate. AI could use this format to improve the results hour itself, give the contestants more opportunities to perform, and in the end have the best Top 5 possible. Is there any doubt Pia would be there this year?

Yet despite all the angst over fairness and voting patterns of the teenage girls in the audience, ultimately I have to take the blame – at least in part – for Pia going home last night. I have watched 95% of American Idol episodes since 2006, yet I have never bothered to pick up a phone (or computer) and either dial a number or text for my favorite. My favorite this year was Pia, and while my votes probably wouldn’t have made a difference, I can only blame myself for not expending what little effort it takes to cast my vote. I have never voted for a reality show contestant before, but now I’m going to start. Whether I was too cool or too lazy in the past, if I’m going to be upset about the results I have to at least do my part. There is great injustice in Pia Toscano finishing 9^th – she deserved better. I liked her since watching her perform during Hollywood Week, while Melissa and I sat on our bed in the Aria during our trip to Vegas. She has one of the best voices I’ve heard and I will probably attend her concerts and buy her music, but I bear some of the blame for her going home last night. It’s truly a sin to kill a mockingbird.

M. MANDY SCRIPSIT

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