Green Room - Week 33 - Day 2

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We have the new topic: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/823231.html (due tomorrow night)
We have a Work Room to help people work things out with that topic: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/823662.html
We have people waiting for results from the Quick Fire: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/824141.html (that link contains where to read the actual entries. Some good stuff in there to check out)
and of course you have me, right here, thinking about things.

Because something was said yesterday that stuck with me over the course of the night, and of course, being me, it morphed into previous discussions. So it went from "You are concerned about the branding to Idol" to the "Things aren't the same as they used to be with Idol" and into a whole different thing altogether.

One of the responses I made yesterday was about how I throw things against the wall and see how they do. I was going to make more examples in that thread, but I thought "this would be better as it's own post" - and of course, since it was afternoon at the time, things went in different directions in my head by the time I was ready to write this morning! :)

This certainly isn't all of the changes. Probably not even the most important ones. But definitely the ones that I thought were kind of funny, and I think shows my thought process, which isn't something that I always share.

Keeping in mind that (1) it's been a learning process and (2) the first season was 9 people - 8 of them were friends of mine. Season 2 was 24 people. Season 3 was when it exploded to 75! (and so on)

Seasons 1-3 - we didn't have "byes". If you missed a deadline, you were put in a poll and *those* were the folks who were subject to elimination. If you wrote something that week, I didn't want to punish you by getting rid of you. I also didn't want folks to be punished if they had a bad week and couldn't get something in. People are busy, and sometimes have other priorities. I wanted to be fair to everyone. :)

This, of course, upset quite a few people who didn't want "people to be able to coast" and "wanted regular eliminations!" So I came up with something to allow people to take time off when they needed it, but also continue eliminations.

I actually just deleted about 4 paragraphs on other stuff because I realized I was completely rambling!

Sure I said there was going to be more, but maybe I'll do that in the comments instead. I need to actually get some work done. :D

The point being that the game changes. Sometimes it "evolves". Sometimes there are sidetracks that don't do as well. But the game in Season 1-2 wouldn't be something that could exist in Season 9, and Season 9 Idol wouldn't be what Season 2 needed - and that's a good thing.

Results - Quick Fire - Week 33

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Before I get to the "who won immunity?" I'd like to take a moment to thank the Judges for coming in for this task.

This is the very first Quick Fire in the history of Idol, so I wanted to "do it right". I think the people who were able to step up and help make this decision more than reflect that.

If people want to go back and read those entries for themselves, you can at http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/823503.html

I asked them to send me what they wanted people to know about them, so I'll include some of that when I introduce them. :)

Your Quick Fire Judges for this week were:

oneonthefence - If you've been around Idol for any length of time you know her and her work. You also know that she's been in and out of the hospital for the last few years and has pretty much had to put herself on the writing competition bench because of it. For those who *don't* know her from her time in Idol: "I am a former opera singer, music journalist, and grant writer; I've been published before in anthologies, newspapers, and magazines; I currently write and edit articles and press releases for a random buck or two here and there; and my first novel, Vivisection, is facing its own fate by resting in the hands of an agent." She told me to cut and paste things from her bio, so I'll also include this bit: " also raise the coolest three-year-old on the planet. :)"

You know him. You love him. So I really don't have to give his bio information, you already know he's awesome - former contestant from this season and CO-WINNER of Exhibit B: the_lettersea

Someone else that long-time Idol supporters will know - although he too has been absent for the last couple of seasons, out there being successful. :) You can follow Kevin Saito on twitter at @kevin_saito or check out his current sports writing gig at goldengatesports.com

His second book hasn't been released yet, but when it is, I will be sure to share a link. In the meantime, you can purchase his first via the Idol store: http://astore.amazon.com/li0cd-20/detail/1908599030

The Fourth and Final member of the panel is someone who has been a friend-of-a-friend of Idol for quite some time. Which means I've been hearing the name long enough that I wasn't surprised when I started seeing it in print.

"Anne Thériault is a Toronto-based writer, activist and social agitator. Her work has appeared in such varied publications as The Washington Post, Vice, Jezebel, The Toast and others. She thinks your dad is pretty good-looking."

You can find her online at twitter.com/anne_theriault or bellejar.ca or, let's be honest, anywhere a there's a good debate happening. :)

Thank you so much to all of you. I truly appreciate it.

I know it was a difficult decision. Not only because I have faith in the writers here. But because I know that didn't come down to a "single vote", it came down to a single "percentage" of where someone ranked them within the votes.

We came *very* close to having a four way tie, but one person eeked it out in the end, and earned IMMUNITY for Week 33. (They still need to turn something in, but they will not be eliminated this week)

Congratulations to yachiru