Idol Superstitions – Accurate Predictors, Crazy or Just Plain Fun?

As any pregnant lady can tell you, there are a dozens of superstitions that predict the sex of your child. Some are coincidences. Some are ridiculous. Most of them are downright bizarre. Best of all, they frequently contradict each other. Predicting the winner on Idol is no different. To wile away the last few days of the season, let’s take a look at the weird and wonderful world of Idol Final Two Superstitions and discover who will win the crown.

To start it off, the eeriest Idol superstition of all…

1) The Curse Of Kristy Lee Cook

Kristy Lee Cook was a blonde country singer from Season 7 whose backstory involved selling her beloved horse. After an uneven run on idol plagued by illness and boosted by patriotism, Kristy Lee seemed destined to the future common to most 7th place finishers. Even a surprising Sony/19R recording contract didn’t seem to help when her quickie album was followed by a quickie dropping by the labels.

But then, a funny thing happened…People started notice a strange pattern. Nobody really thought much about Kristy Lee when David Cook triumphed over David Archuleta to win her season of Idol. But, when a dark-horse emerged in Season 8 and eventually won the crown, some people pointed out that both Kris Allen and David Cook shared names in common with the plucky hunter from Oregon. The next season, when Simon helped back a paint salesmen from Chicago named Lee DeWyze to victory, there was no denying that a freaky coincidence was in the making. Or was it a curse?

Three white guys; three guitar players, three champions. One genre. Kris Lee Cook. All that was missing was the “ty”.

So, when a 17 year old from Garner, North Carolina walked in to the audition room and answered Steven’s “What’s your name?” question with a seemingly innocent “Scott McCreery…Scotty”, superstitious ears perked up. Sure, there was fellow “Hope You Dance” butcherer Ta-tynisa Wilson in the running, but she wasn’t male, she wasn’t featured playing a guitar and she was quickly dispatched in the semi-finals. No, Scotty seemed to be the lone contestant capable of satisfying the Curse of Kristy Lee Cook.

And, if that wasn’t enough of a sign, his middle name is…wait for it…Cooke. Freaky.

Advantage: Scotty
Accuracy: 100%

2) Performance Order

Like the home town advantage of last bat, performing last on the show is commonly regarded as an advantage. Although Nigel scoffed at the notion this week and called it a myth, the fine folks at WhatNotToSing have compiled some interesting statistics that show singing last virtually guarantees you a stress free results night. Singing last allows you one last chance to knock it out of the ballpark and make the viewing audience forget the other guy ever existed. Even if Nigel doesn’t believe it helps, the contestants certainly seem to believe. Ten out of twelve times, when a contestant was given the choice to sing last, they took it. Nobody has ever chosen to sing first. And because it is so widely believed, the Idol producers have always held a coin toss to fairly decide who sings last on Final 2 night.

But does it really help? Well, on Final 2 night, 6 out of 9 winners sang last. In other words, twice as many winners have sung last than have sung first. Only Ruben, David and Lee have managed to win when singing first.

Scotty won the coin toss and offered the choice to Lauren who decided to sing last. Statistics show that everybody who won the coin toss and let the other person decide ended up losing. Of course, honesty dictates that we point out that the sample size of that fact is only 1.

Advantage: Lauren
Accuracy: 67% (6 out of 9)

3) Alphabetically, Winners Always Come Last

For some strange reason, the winner is whoever in the Final 2 that has the name that comes later in the alphabet. Even Carrie Underwood, who would seemingly be at a disadvantage, still came last alphabetically compared to her rival (Bo should have used his real name, Harold). Season 7 had to go to the last names for the tie breaker. Adam never stood a chance.

Kelly/Justin
Ruben/Clay
Fantasia/Diana
Carrie/Bo
Taylor/Katharine
Jordin/Blake
David C/David A
Kris/Adam
Lee/Crystal

Advantage: Scotty
Accuracy: 100%

4) All Winners Come From the South

This old canard has recently been amended to be “South or Mid-West” due to the evidence introduced by recent winners. I’m not going to get into the regional classifications of various states because that is pretty mystifying to me. Suffice to say, both Final 2 contestants are undeniably from what is conventionally referred to as the South so the point is moot.

I will point out though, that last time North Carolina went up against Georgia, North Carolina won. The last time two teenagers faced off, the older one won. These facts were inspired by sportscasters who always come up with the weirdest factoids that are meant to predict what will happen next. So-and-so has a career record of batting 400 against left-handed pitchers on Friday nights in August. Such-and-such a team has never failed to win a best of seven series when up two games. The Cubs haven’t won a World Series since 1907.

Advantage: Nobody
Accuracy: Debatable

5) Majority Gender of Top 3

The winner will be of the gender that makes up the majority of the top 3. This one could be a coincidence or could be based on people preferring male or female voices and the third highest voting block coalescing around the same type of voice for Final 2. Often times, it is because whichever gender has a majority in the Top 3 also ends up being the only gender in the Top 2.

Kelly/Justin/Nikki – two females, one male = female winner
Ruben/Clay/Kim – two males, one female = male winner
Fantasia/Diana/Jasmine – three females = female winner
Carrie/Bo/Vonzell – two females, one male = female winner
Taylor/Katharine/Elliot – two males, one female = male winner
Jordin/Blake/Melinda – two females, one male = female winner
Cookie/Archie/Syesha – two males, one female = male winner
Kris/Adam/Gokey – three males = male winner
Lee/Crystal/Casey – two males, one female = male winner

Advantage: Lauren
Accuracy: 100%

6) Double Letters for the Victory

This is another name related quirk…or is it The Fates that like repeating letters? Sometimes we find them in the first name, sometimes in the last, sometimes we have to glue two names together.

Season 1: Kelly Brianne Clarkson kicks it off with double “ll”s and double “nn”s to crush Justin Eldrin Guarani

Season 2: What chance did Clayton Holmes Aiken have against the double “dd” efforts of Christopher Theodore Ruben Studdard?

Season 3: Wisely choosing to retain her last name until after the finale, Fantasia Monique Barrino worked the double “rr”s to triumph over Diane Nicole Degarmo

Season 4: Another double-double play from Carrie Marie Underwood (double “rr” and double “oo”) meant it was curtains for Harold Edwin “Bo” Bice.

Season 5: Taylor would seem to be the exception here against a double letter totting McPhee, but if you glue his first name and second name together, Taylor Ruben Hicks’s double “rr” beats out Katharine Hope McPhee’s double “ee”.

Season 6: The season 6 winner has almost the same middle name as the original recipe Idol, so perhaps that impressed Lady Luck even more. In any event, Jordin Brianna Sparks had the double “nn”s required to beat Blake Colin Lewis

Season 7: It is unfortunate for Archie that his frequently misspelled last name does not actually have double “tt”s because David Roland Cook contains a true double letter combination while David James Archuleta does not.

Season 8: Despite trying Taylor’s “glue the name together tactic”, Adam Mitchel Lambert just couldn’t overcome the double “ll” power of the Kristopher Neil Allen name.

Season 9: Leon James DeWyze cleverly went by his nick-name “Lee” and that’s just what The Fates needed to see in order to award the paint salesmen the victory over double “nn” toting Crystal Lynn Bowersox. I guess first name nicknames trump middle names or perhaps the universe appreciated the effort?

Season 10: Unlike the Season 3 and Season 9 champs, Lauren Alaina has been most unwise. She dropped the double “dd” wielding power of her last name “Suddeth” before the competition even started. Idol pundits could have told her how foolish she was especially when she was going against a contestant seemingly named with this superstition in mind. Scotty Cooke McCreery arrives with an astonishing four double letter combinations: “tt”, “oo”, “cc” and “ee”

Advantage: Scotty
Accuracy: 100% (fine 89% if you disqualify Taylor)

7) Hairography

This is a half-baked theory I came up with last week. I noticed that the person with the least attention-getting hair of the final two always wins. Kelly’s short bob was certainly less remarkable than Justin’s Side Show Bob hair. Clay Aiken worked the Ryan Seacrest Flat-Iron do and lost to the bald Ruben. Fantasia pixie-cut-like hair easily triumphed over Diana’s long tresses. Bo rocked the long hair and beard to finish second to the relatively shorter haired Carrie. Taylor’s nondescript grey hair championed over Katharine’s impressive hair and its extensions (which they ickily re-used the next year for another contestant – there is such a thing as being too frugal, Nigel). Jordin had longer hair than Blake, but he brought too much attention to his by dying it various colours and styling it to stand straight up (they even built part of his backstory on it during his audition). Let’s face it, both Cook and Kris are balding so that ensured their victory over curly haired Archie and Adam with his versatile hair. Lee’s hair is almost disappears when compared to Crystal’s impressive dreads.

This year? Lauren’s been working a new do every week, hair dye, extensions, you name it. Meanwhile, JLo must have gotten wind of my theory and that’s why she asked Scotty to shave his head. She’s in it to win it!

How could this possibly predict the winner? Glee devoted an entire episode to the subject. Impressive hair reduces one’s credibility. Perhaps people think like Rachel and suspect that hair is used just to distract from so-so vocals. Or perhaps, they are so distracted by the hair, they forget to vote? Hey, it’s not anymore random than the double letters thing!

Advantage: Scotty
Accuracy: Doubtful

So, what do you think? Can we predict the winner? Is there any other solid Idol Superstitions we’ve missed? How about some awesome coincidences? I’m sure if we mine the data, we can find more. Something like if the finale occurs on an even numbered date, the one with the most letters in their name wins?

About Kirsten 3060 Articles
Kirsten has had a long love affair with numbers. Marry that with her love of cheese and the Numbers Threads at MJs were born.