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Usually, it seems that American Idol thrives on the controversy. Whatever the problem, throw it at ‘em, as it only brings them more and more viewers. The best things to happen to the show last year were Antonella Barba’s racy internet pics and Sanjaya Malakar and his hair not being voted out. That just doesn’t seem to be the case this year.

American Idol set out at the beginning of the year telling us everything that was wrong with the show last year, but also promising it wouldn’t happen again. They realized the mentor thing was a bit much and saw that we wanted to get to know the contestants on the show much better. They seemed to be just as unimpressed last year with the final two being Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis as we were. We were told again and again how great the talent was this year and promised that there were a handful of them they could see getting to the end.

Sitting through the auditions, there seemed to be some talent, but we weren’t quite as excited as the producers and judges seemed to be. However, by the time the final 24 were announced, we were starting to see where they were coming from. There was a lot of excitement for several of these contestants. We were thinking this could be the most exciting season ever. Well, maybe that’s taking it too far, but we were pretty damned excited.

Yet, once we started seeing these contestants sing live, the ones we were most excited about weren’t panning out. Kristy Lee Cook never sounded live the way she sounded in front of the judges that very first day. Once we got to the final 12, we started seeing all our favorites disappear. We’ll see one surprise elimination every year, but we faced surprise after surprise after surprise. Almost like the guys on Survivor this season with blindside after blindside after blindside. It’s just hard to gear up and get excited when you see the people you like slipping away.

The only big scandal this year on American Idol other than the surprising eliminations and a prior career of a finalist as a male stripper is what the heck is going on with David Archuleta’s dad. There’s too much going on for it to be just rumor, no matter what Mr. Archuleta’s friends want to say. First we heard that the week David forgot his words, his dad had been berating him backstage and making him cry during rehearsals. Naomi Judd, a judge from the year David was on Star Search supported the notion that he was the worst type of “stage dad” there was, and there have been murmurings that he’d been kicked off that set as well.

Now this week we hear that he has been banned from the American Idol set, because he changed the words to his son’s song. What was supposed to be Stand By Me suddenly turned into having the words to Beautiful Girls added into it. The rumor goes that Mr. Archuleta had too much access backstage, due to David being a minor at just 18, and he was the one responsible for the last minute change. The problem with this for the show is that they need clearance for each song that is sung, and just that little clip of words caused them to be charged a lot of money for doing the song without prior clearance.

Those in the Archuleta camp stress that American Idol didn’t mind this gaff at all, and that the only problem was going into final three, they feared it was giving David an advantage to have an additional person backstage with him giving him song advice. They claim this is the only reason he was kicked out. I wonder, were Diana DeGarmo’s and Jordin Sparks’ parents also kicked out? I just don’t remember stories about them being kicked out because it was giving Diana and Jordin an advantage.

In addition, there are also stories out there that American Idol is losing viewers. I do believe this, only because it seems the vote totals are down some this season. However, looking at the Nielsen ratings this week, Tuesday and Wednesday American Idol were still number one and number two, with Monday and Tuesday of Dancing With the Stars at number three and number four. The closest non-reality show is CSI: Crime Scene Investigation at number five. Two episodes of Survivor, Hell’s Kitchen, and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition are the other reality shows rounding out the top twenty.

So whatever viewers American Idol has lost isn’t enough to matter. Yet, they have to be worried … some. On a season that was supposed to be better, they’ve lost most of the better people. And the worst of it is that we can almost see their machinations behind the scenes to give them the fairy tale ending they’re searching for this year, the one they feel they have been deprived of the past two seasons.

Yet, from talking to other fans of the show, I can just about guarantee the reason they’re losing the viewers that they are is because of the number of favorites that have left the show so far. It’s that weird twist of irony. They’re manipulating the show to get the ending they want to be sure that they keep viewers, and in the process, they’re losing viewers.

Photos Courtesy of americanidol.com

For more information on American Idol, see SirLinksalot: American Idol.