American Idol 6: Melinda’s Departure and Conspiracy Theories

It’s started already. It really didn’t take very long at all – mere hours. Conspiracy theories are already popping up on some websites, suggesting that Melinda Doolittle was booted off of American Idol because of some sort of vast dark shadowy reason.

Please.

I know there are viewers who are convinced that American Idol is a complete sham and the producers determine everything. This is to be expected. There are, after all, people who think O.J. Simpson is innocent, aliens travel millions of light years to blink their running lights at travelers on lonely highways, and Paula Abdul is always sober on the show. But there is simply no evidence to support such a claim. Then again, that is pretty much the essence of a conspiracy theory – people believe it but they can’t prove it.

Why people are so interested in believing that vast conspiracies apply to American Idol is beyond me. The whole point of the show is to find out who is the most popular singer, so everybody can profit when lots and lots of albums are sold. There would be no point to purposely put in somebody the American public didn’t like.

Look at last year. Taylor Hicks won, with Katharine McPhee coming in second. Chris Daughtry was voted out in fourth place and sold more albums than probably both of them combined. Wouldn’t the powers that be have preferred to say that their American Idol sold that many albums? Wouldn’t they have wanted Chris Daughtry as the American Idol, under this nebulous conspiracy idea?

Simply put, it makes no sense. Everybody behind American Idol benefits when the American viewing public latches on to their favorite and wants to support him or her. They want to call, they want to send text messages, they want to buy forthcoming albums, they want to see them on the tour. It does nobody any good to prearrange the outcome.

Besides, there are perfectly good reasons to explain what happened here. Melinda is a great singer, but that is not the only aspect of the show. It’s not called, American Singer,, it’s called American Idol. While it is a singing competition, being an Idol is more than that. After all, how many times do we see people on the pop charts whose voices aren’t that great, but who somehow have worked their way into the collective subconscious of the American people? Meanwhile, struggling singers work at local bars, even though their abilities far outshine some of those with platinum albums.

Indeed, the whole point of American Idol is to give those struggling singers a new way to get noticed. Melinda Doolittle moved from a backup singer to the front spotlight. Numerous contestants have been in bar bands and now are well-known and have sold hundreds of thousands of albums. American Idol is doing its job, but that doesn’t mean the “Idol” aspect of it goes away. Popularity is still a factor. Voting trends are still factors.

There is no need for a conspiracy to explain why Melinda was voted off. If you want to know what happened, read my article on Why Melinda Lost. Was it a surprise to most people? Yes. Was it a vast conspiracy by evil network executives? No.