Green Room - Week 10 - Day 7

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Happy MLK Day.


(and no, people in Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi - the rest of the country DOES NOT celebrate it as MLK/Robert E Lee Day, that's your "special" thing.)


How better to celebrate the life of one of the greatest civil rights leaders the world has ever seen then to wait for Gatekeeper votes to come in!!! He would truly be honored. :)

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So, how are you doing? Do you have the day off or do you have a dream about being not at work right now?

Do you have any other dreams? Anything about Idolers? ;)

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edit to add MOST of the Gatekeeper votes are in. I am still waiting on a few more. They have until 9 pm EST. Of course I will keep things open a little longer until I am finished with the official tally. Some people *like* to give me heart attacks by waiting until last minute... ;)

Gatekeepers (and a rant)

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Before I post the results, I want to take a moment to thank the Gatekeepers.

It is not the easiest position to be in, knowing that your vote may be the one that can tip the balance in either direction. Knowing that a handful of you are going to be making a decision that will have a major impact on the competition.

In this case it literally came down to 1 vote. 1 vote that tipped us from being in a position to eliminate 23 to one where we are eliminating 11.

This wasn't an easy decision. I wish that I could say there were so many amazing entries to pick from - actually I did hear some *very* nice things from the Gatekeepers about a number of entries.

I'm going to be quite blunt though, and say something that you have never heard me say before. I don't care how long you have been at Idol. This is the first time that I've said this, and I hope it's the last - this week did not live up to expectations whatsoever.

I don't know if it was that people froze when you saw "Open Topic" or what. I still maintain that HANDS DOWN this is my favorite group of writers from *any season* - and maybe that's it, maybe I just hold you to a higher standard because of that. I know what you are capable of doing, and when I see you not doing it, I just get all befuddled.

I digress, but I do it because I think that it needs to be said. The line between "in" and "out" this time was one vote. I don't think anyone should be feeling particularly safe right now.

1 vote, and I'll be frank about this, they were nicer than *I* would have been.

It's really time to dig in and refocus. Show that talent that amazes me week after week.

Because I know it's there and I want other people to see it too.

/mindless rant and return to thanking the Gatekeepers.

Our Gatekeepers came from a fairly wide range of backgrounds and experiences within Idol, from a couple of winners, to an academic, some fan favorites, an early drop who caught my attention quite early, and one of my favorite contestants of all time - as I said earlier, this is an amazing group of people:


Season 5 Finalist (who was eliminated during a Gatekeeper round and *brought back into the game) abbismom
Season 5 Winner boxsofrain
Season 4 Winner chite
The rogue poet danialtravieso
The Dark One (and Season 5 runner up) darkprism
The complete professional in every sense of the word just_the_ash (formerly ka_crow)
The one who I wished hadn't dropped out so early! perrie
The always outspoken rm
The veteran of veterans (who has experienced both being eliminated and surviving Gatekeeper rounds) spydielives
The previous mentioned personal favorite the_dark_snack

Thank you to all of you.

Week 10 Results

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Now for the hard part.

Announcing the people who will be leaving us. It's never an easy thing to do, some weeks though just seem extra brutal.

I'll come back as usual and say a few things about them. (edit to add due to the time it will have to be tomorrow. I apologize)
Hopefully by then the rest of you will have said some a ton of nice things as well. They certainly deserve it.

Today we are saying goodbye to

_mysticalelf
alisandre
apisanthrop
chalkolitlover
gildedage
jenandbronze
liret
mermaidkween
negativeneve
teenagewitch
worldofcharlie


It goes without saying that I hope you will stick around, play the Home Game, and maybe just maybe, get a shot at getting back into the game. You guys will be missed in the competition, but hopefully not "around here".