A couple of random notes: I’ve just updated the Top 13 contestant pages. Check them out on the sidebar. Plus, I’ve updated the Top 13 tab (look above along the header) with links to every episode re-cap.

Also, the guys who maintain my servers will be moving my site to a more powerful webserver this weekend. The last move involved my database. The site is busier than ever, thanks to all you wonderful peeps. And the case of the disappearing blog post on Wednesday–I’m still not quite sure how that happened, But it was definitely a flukey thing that won’t happen again. I promise to keep checking the page during my live blogs to make sure everything is OK.

Now that I have business out of the way, it’s time for a little rant…

After thinking about it, I’ve decided I hate the new “twist”, the Judges Save, introduced to audiences at Wednesday’s results show.

First of all, I don’t think TPTB are primarily interested in saving anybody. Well, Ok, if Lil Rounds, Danny Gokey or Adam Lambert are eliminated before Week 5, you bet the judges will save their butts. You’re looking at 3 members of the Top 5, right there. Especially now with the Judges Save in place.

But, saving favorites is a happy side benefit of what this new twist is really about–juicing up the results show. Piled on top of an already dramatic elimination will be the suspense of whether the judges will rescue the contestant using the one-time-only veto. That’s why they aren’t going to waste it early. Unless one of the aforementioned favorites is in danger, I don’t expect The Save to be invoked until at least 6 or 7, at which point the judges might use it just because they can.

Still, The Save threatens to ruin some of my favorite Idol moments. Namely, the “Shock Boots” which are usually over-the-top and often hilarious. Who can forget the looks on the faces of Constantine Maroulis, Chris Daughtry, and Michael Johns as they were SHOCKINGLY eliminated? Paula weeping and crying from her seat? The audience howling in protest? That’s damn good TV, people!

The media circus afterward is pretty entertaining as well. Elton John calling America racist after Jennifer Hudson’s boot? It doesn’t get better than that. And the hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing all over Idol land. Craziness! Ken Warwick is right, the Shock Boot rears it’s ugly head nearly every year, but at this point, it’s an indelible part of the Idol experience, and should not be messed with.

Anyway, once the so-called “shock boots” are analyzed, it turns out–gee, maybe they weren’t so shocking after all. Chris Daughtry had gotten predictable, Michael Johns’ lack of a clear artistic identity put off viewers, and Jennifer Hudson never really connected to the Idol audience.

Messing with fate is a bad idea, if you ask me. Look at Michael Johns, totally working that shock boot to his advantage as he networks his way to a record deal. And would Jennifer Hudson have had the opportunity to become an Oscar winning actress if 19 signed her? Chris Daughtry’s Idol loss allowed him to do the rock thing without totally losing his cred. (The new rule can’t be used past the Top 5–Chris went out at 4th, so it wouldn’t have helped him anyway.)

It’s all good.

So, here we go. Potential bootees, standing in front of the panel, awaiting their fate…will the judges invoke the save…or not? Dun dun dun! As if the contestants aren’t freaked out enough, now they face the possibility of being rejected twice.   It sucks.   Unless you’re a favorite–in which case, come elimination time, instead of real shock, we’ll get that labored look of someone working hard to keep their McSmugface in check.

Bleah. Stupid gimmicks are ruining my Idol.

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