Rate & Predict American Idol

And here is the amount of screen time given to Group 1 contestants prior to the Top 36 round:

1. Tatiana del Toro – 15:04
2. Danny Gokey – 11:47
3. Jackie Tohn – 9:39
4. Michael Sarver – 8:47
5. Anne Marie Boskovich – 5:45
6. Alexis Grace – 5:16
7. Anoop Desai – 4:17
8. Stephen Fowler – 3:29
9. Stevie Wright – 3:26
10. Brent Keith – 2:44
11. Casey Carlson – 2:15
12. Ricky Braddy – 0:06

Michael Sarver and Anoop Desai

The most interesting thing to note is that Michael Sarver had TWICE the air time of Anoop Desai!  That’s amazing to me!  The big difference in air time between the two is that Anoop’s air time focused almost solely on his singing (with a digression about his BBQ thesis), while Michael Sarver’s included both his singing AND his backstory.

Could it be possible that Michael received a few more votes, because the audience is more emotionally connected to Michael’s inspiring backstory?  What if Anoop was given an equal amount of screen time, not only about his performances, but also about his personal story?  Would the results have been different?

Ricky Braddy and Danny Gokey

Of all the contestants, I believe Ricky Braddy suffered the most from lack of screen time.  He sang very well, and I would even say that he sang just as well as Danny Gokey (also remember that Paula called Ricky’s performance “flawless”).  Ricky received a whopping 6 seconds of airtime, with exactly 0 seconds of actual singing from him!

What if we had seen AND heard Ricky prior to his first performance?  Personally, I believe he would have gotten many more votes.  American Idol is a huge game of perception, and voters’ perceptions are influenced by knowing the backstories of the contestants.  For example, we feel Danny Gokey emotionally connect to his performances, because we know the sad story about his wife.  In the absence of this knowledge, would we still hail Danny as a front-runner?  Probably yes, but not likely to the same degree.

My issue is we don’t have equal information about all the contestants.  Through their editing and comments, the American Idol editors and judges have a huge influence on how much we know about each contestant, and therefore which contestants we ultimately vote for.  The disparity of air time among Group 1 definitely exhibits these biases.