The first two voted off in a row could be two girls or two guys, thus making the top ten, who go on tour, six of one gender and four of the other.

I just keep thinking about who are the great people that we missed who could’ve grown over those three weeks and might have even won.

These contestants have gone through auditions and hollywood and most of them are not exactly green to the music industry, so I see no reason why they need even more time to feel comfortable on stage.

I think even from this years top 10 there are two, who come to my mind that would have done better with the old format: Matt and Lil.
Both would have done better if they had more chance to build up confidence.

i don’t think last season worked out as planned from TPTB, so I hope they maybe see the advances of the old format.

One question: so in top 24, how many weeks does it last? There are three rounds for both boys and girls’“ does that mean six weeks or three weeks?

Three weeks. 2 guys and 2 girls are eliminated each week.

We can only speculate but if they had done the 24 format this year, the top 13 or top10 would have shaped up differently. And, two of the singers that were given a spot from Week 1 were gone in the first three weeks (Alexis and Michael) So I’m guessing thats the opposite of fatigue some fans may feel…they were completely forgotten about!

The Top 24 has its drawbacks as well, no system is perfect, but as far as fairness goes, it’s far superior IMO.

ETA: I’m using a bit of hyperbole when I say “for the very first time” — I’m sure we’ve seen them before at some point, but it’s their first time in the solo spotlight.

The early weeks are just about who sucks the least, instead of the top 36 were it is a focus on who is the strongest and and the excitement of a contestants first performance.

Strongest contestant based on what? Is it only talent or is it attractiveness or luck with a song choice or judge’s influence/begging, i.e., Michael Sarver?

I know we focus too much on Season 7, but it’s the the last season where you can make a radical contrast since it had a very, very different early format and even a different later format, considering the new judges’ influence as well as the poor time management issues.

Think about this, for instance, during the top 24 round in season 7, when the “boys” first sang in their group of 12, David Cook was rated by “What Not to Sing” as the 6th best. Michael Johns, Jason Castro, David Archuleta, Robbie Carrico, and David Hernandez were all rated higher than Cook. What’s interesting about that is that all of the guys who rated better than Cook made the top 12. Robbie did not. And on the same night Chikezie, who also made the top 12, was rated as one of the worst.

Now, granted there were no girls in Cook’s group, but if we throw in the ratings the first group of girls got, six scored better than Cook and only three of those women made the top 12. In fact, one of the women we would have lost under that system is Brooke White.

But, back to Cook, if we used the season 8 format — leaving aside that there are only boys in his first performance group — he would’ve been gone immediately — especially when you consider what he looked like. All the message boards were commenting on the fact that David wasn’t a bad singer or that his stage presence wasn’t bad, but his hair and pudgy mid section was dooming him right off the bat!!! He wasn’t immediately pretty like Archuleta or Johns or Castro.

The second week — top 20 — Cook moved from number 6 in his group to #3. Just behind David Archuleta and David Hernandez.

The third week — top 16 — Cook moves to — guess where? — number 1! Highest rated guy of the night. He steadily moved up (and in a few weeks, he would take over the entire competition.) Suddenly, on week three of the semis, Cook not only sings well and has stage presence, but he’s HOT, OMG, EEEE! LUV!

Under the new system, none of that would’ve happened. Under Season 8′s format Cook would’ve been middling, definitely not one of the strongest and definitely not the most “exciting” on the stage because he hadn’t yet found his footing. There would’ve been no opportunity for that, because he would’ve been out and sent back to Missouri/Oklahoma immediately. And we would’ve missed quite a ride.

Link for “What Not to Sing” season 7:
http://www.whatnottosing.com/seasons.asp?id=7

These contestants have gone through auditions and hollywood and most of them are not exactly green to the music industry, so I see no reason why they need even more time to feel comfortable on stage.

Very, very few of these contestants — none of them, really — have ever performed on live TV in front of 20 to 30 million people. Many of them admit to being nervous, let alone their possible careers hanging on the results…. No pressure, as Michael Myers aka Guru Pika said.

To me that means people are just thinking about how season 7 was an enjoyable season and season 8 was not, and they are placing the blame on the format when it was really just poor contestants.

The format was a big part of the process that selected the contestants.

Also, who are these great females from last season who didn’t make it?

Well, I’ll name three that were at least better than both Lil and Megan, and comparable to Allison in my opinion: Jesse Langseth, Mishavonna Henson, and Felicia Barton. But women were hurt greatly by this format and Simon and Randy’s hormones. OOOH, Megan, you’re such a hot … package!

Weeps aloud.”

and this would have been soooo good.

“If they had used the Top 24 format this year, we could have had three more performances each from Danny Gokey!

Weeps (in a different way).”

LMAO!!!! All I can say is “Dream On” and aren’t you glad we didn’t have to suffer more.

The top 24 format just drags on. It leads to fatigue by the time the top 2 comes around.

You mean, for the contestants or for the audience? I have no problem in terms of the contestants. I don’t mean to sound like a hard-ass about it but this contest SHOULD be hard and the contestants should be tested because then you separate who can handle the hard work, soldier through the grind, and think fast on their feet from who can’t. Test them now, or they’ll be tested later.

As for the top 24 vs. the top 36, the top 24 is a far superior format. It allows good contestants who need to get a little comfortable on stage a chance to do that, instead of being axed all at once. It also doesn’t let people get by as easily with just being pretty or just being someone with a hard luck story. Viewers have a chance to really “live” with many more of these people for three additional weeks before they get on the big stage and you usually get a stronger top 10 for your trouble. Now, if they also get rid of the judges’ choices as well, then we can lose contestants like Megan Joy, Michael Sarver, Jorge, and Jasmine — I know some of these were voted in, but I’m considering all the format changes they made: top 36 + judges. I think that group of four would’ve never made it under the top 24 system. Not sure Lil would’ve either, to be frank. Plus, we would’ve had all those strong women in the competition that were wiped out in one fell swoop early in the season because they weren’t attractive guys appealing to the majority female audience.

To explain my lack of knowledge:

I detest the audition episodes and have watched very, very few over the years. A lot of bad singers and a handful of decent ones – not entertaining for me.

I watched the first three seasons pretty religiously (once the auditions were over). I skipped seasons 4 & 5 because of lack of interest in the contestants (and something that happened in the season 3 final performances really irked me). I returned for season 6, 7, and 8 (beginning at the top 12/13) because there were contestants I could root for.

I am not a fan of demanding equal numbers of men & women regardless of talent. If that is what the top 24 means (I don’t know, because I don’t watch that part), I’d rather it not come back.

My biggest complaint with Idol as a show is that it eats up way too much primetime at the beginning showing stuff I don’t find entertaining. Bad singing? I can do that for myself.