The Day The Music Died... on American Idol

When the lights turned off on the American Idol stage Thursday night, so ended the driving force behind Season 10's appeal. Oh sure, it was fun hearing Scotty's rich baritone voice or witnessing Lauren's growth as a performer. Yes Jennifer Lopez is beautiful, Steve Tyler can be pretty entertaining and Randy is..... well, the same ole Randy we have grown to know and love. But none of those elements of the Season 10 mix are what made watching the show the weekly event many Idol viewers looked forward to with anticipation.

The magic of Season 10 for many Idol fans emanated from the soul of a 22 year old unemployed father from Santa Cruz, California who overcame tragic childhood loss and the challenges of Tourette and Asperger syndromes to become a national singing sensation. Week after week, James Durbin has delivered entertaining, electrifying and often moving performances. He took risks, he struggled at times with his emotions, but he always offered us his best. And with the strength of his unique and amazing talent, the best from James Durbin was very often sensational.

Idol fans become invested in the show because we enjoy the weekly opportunity of having a virtual front row seat at a legitimate national competition among performers who, in addition to their exceptional talent, also happen to be regular folks just like us. For most of us, the appeal is not limited to just one performer per season, but in the end we all have our favorite. And for many this year, including arguably the entire panel of judges, the favorite was James Durbin.

So what happened? If James Durbin was, at the very least, one of the top two favorites for the majority of Idol viewers, why was he eliminated from the competition in fourth place Thursday night? Was it viewer complacency (i.e. James' fans thought he was safe so they didn't bother to vote)... the Chris Daughtry scenario playing itself out all over again in Season 10? There might be some validity to that premise if it weren't for the overwhelmingly united reaction from Idol viewers to James' elimination. As a Chris Daughtry supporter, I remember well his untimely exit during Season 5. I read the viewer comments after the results show where Chris was eliminated. The comments from Idol fans were divided. Not so this time. Regardless of what opinion site you visit to read viewer comments, for every lone detractor, there are hundreds of shocked supporters who felt James should not have left the show in fourth place. Which brings us to the voting process used by American Idol to determine who goes home each week.

As stated above, Idol fans are invested in the show because we enjoy watching a legitimate competition. When the accuracy of the voting process becomes questionable, our confidence in Idol's ability to produce a legitimately fair competition is eroded. Once we no longer believe we are watching a fair contest.... the magic is gone. At that point, enthusiasm is replaced by resentment that the producers of the most watched (for now) show on television do not posses the collective ingenuity to design a reliable voting system which guarantees that voting results truly represent the choice of the majority of viewers.

For the sake of clarity, I am not suggesting, as some commenters have suggested, the voting results are "rigged". Unless an overzealous Haley Reinhart fan was somehow able to obtain embarrassing photos or Simon Fuller, I believe it is safe to assume the producers of Idol did not want to see James leave the show Thursday night. What I am suggesting is, due to gratuitous vanity (with perhaps a side order of greed thrown in for good measure), Idol producers have allowed a flawed voting system to endure far too long. The seductiveness of Ryan Seacrest proclaiming there were 150 B-I-L-L-I-O-N (I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea) votes cast during a particular episode is a luxury too intoxicating for Idol producers to resist. Therein lies their folly.

With advances in technology, voting on American Idol is no longer about how many people want a particular contestant to make it through to the next round of competition, but rather how innovative certain voters can manage to be. If you have the technological savvy to squeeze in 5,000 votes for your favorite contestant during the two hour time limit, you will skew the results. And that is what is happening. Imagine if our city, state and national leaders were chosen using the same voting system Idol uses. How much confidence could each citizen have that political elections represented the voice of the people? The answer, of course, is: none. We could have zero confidence in a voting system like that.

Admittedly a television show is trivial compared to matters of state. However, the confidence principle is the same. When viewers lose confidence, the credibility of a voter-driven show like Idol begins to suffer. Once that happens, as occurred this week, we see viewers abandon the show for the remainder of the season, or possibly for good.

Idol producers are undoubtedly betting that disenchanted viewers will eventually return; or be replaced by a new crop of not-yet-disillusioned fans. But as the show continues to suffer credibility damage, ignoring viewer outrage is becoming a riskier gamble for 19 Entertainment. Based on the content of the viewer feedback voiced on opinion sites all over the internet this week, the overwhelming majority of Idol viewers are convinced James Durbin was not the contestant who should have left the show Thursday night.

Either Idol producers will become serious about reviving the show's credibility and make significant changes in the voting method, or the show will become a dinosaur. And we all know what happens to dinosaurs.

But enough about Idol. The show has always been about the contestants. And justifiably, our focus right now should be placed on the most talented and outstanding performer of Season 10, James Durbin.

A wise man once wrote that if we have faith, our vulnerabilities will become our strengths. James you exemplify that truth every time you take the stage. Forged from the fires of your personal struggle, you bring a depth to your music that moves and inspires. The passion and sensitivity you combine with your incredible musical gifts allow you to connect on a visceral and meaningful level with large and diverse audiences. That is the definition of a star. Along with millions of other fans, I have every confidence you will enjoy a sensational career.

American Idol was the loser Thursday night -- not James Durbin. And they know it.