LJ Idol Presents:

Saying "I'm shocked" by the results today is one of those double-edged thing. After all - if you say "I wasn't expecting so-and-so to go" means you were expecting someone else!

I think we've covered that pretty well in the past.

But hopefully you will bear with me, and not think that I'm saying anything about anyone else, when I say that I was shocked when I hit "close poll", because I had no idea where things were going to land with that final refresh!

There was a point when it could have been just about any combination of names that I announced were going home tonight, and I think that says a lot about the people left in this competition.

We have two immunities that had a huge impact on this week. The first was from the Quick Fire, which went to kickthehobbit. But everyone knew she was safe. So the vote totals reflected that.

The other - well, we'll get to that in a bit.

Leaving us from the Redemption Tribe is the Co-Winner of Exhibit B (and quite frankly the person I thought was going to be a strong contender to win Spirit of LJ Idol for Season 9) lrig_rorrim

From the main tribe, we have another person who had their name bandied about not long ago for "one of the best shots to win" yachiru

Two completely amazing writers, who will definitely be missed - and who I hope will continue on with the Home Game and serving on the Jury that will decide immunity in these crucial final few weeks!

Speaking of the Jury vote - I mentioned that things were tight. What I *didn't* say is that at one point it was a 4-way tie for immunity.

When those final votes of the night came in - it was a 3-way tie.

Being a tie, my first instinct was "OK - do any of them *actually need it*?"

The answer was YES.

talonkarrde88 was vulnerable and thus receives immunity.

So the *next* person would be eliminated... except that fodschwazzle was ALSO in that 3-way tie - and I'm not going to give one person, who was tied, immunity, and put one of the others on the chopping block. So he ALSO receives immunity!

Nor will I eliminate anyone else for what the Jury clearly had a difficult time deciding on. (and even if I did, the next level up is also a tie!)

We have a Top 11.

It was another week where things literally came down to the votes of the final Judge to come through the door.

Before we get to the results - because, I'll be honest... I'm writing this before I even know them! (Just getting a little ahead by writing this out now, so that I can get you the results *as soon as they are delivered, piping hot!) I would like to take a moment to thank the Quick Fire Judges!

(Note: I wrote most of this on the first night! Back when I was emailed with a“Can you give me a couple more hours?” Honestly, I hope that Judge is OK, because I haven’t heard from them since then!)

As always, you did such a great job and I'm truly grateful for the time you took out of your schedules to show up and help us out!

Who were they? Glad you asked!

kittenboo isn't really someone who should need an introduction. But since I asked everyone for a blurb, she has one anyway: "For those who don't know me from Idol (I played a bunch of seasons, including this one) here are some basics... Wife to Scott Church. Mother to an 8 year old. Owner of 5 cats. I have been a children's counselor and a preschool teacher, but more recently an answerer of phones. Don't knock answering phones, I happen to enjoy it quite a bit."

She's a bit modest. She didn't "play a bunch of seasons", she's been a pretty major force in a few of them! I'm just glad that I was able to get her in to help be a force in the last part of this one as well!

I wasn’t going to identify the person who stepped up to the plate for us today - the one who broke the tie. But then it occurred to me, I didn’t want you to think that any of the other ones were the cause of the delay either! :) Which is why I can say that the person we were waiting for never showed - and I had to look around for someone to step in. I needed someone that I knew would be fair, and be able to get through everything quickly - someone who when put in a position to break the tie, the internet wouldn’t explode with “OMG - why her???” So I asked notodette.

You know her from Idol Season 8. Or as a Gatekeeper earlier this year. Or maybe you know her from other places Or her blog or maybe just as someone who is uniting America!
Seriously, just google her. She’s been up to a lot of stuff in the last year or so!

Over the years, Idol has been home to some of the most talented and quirky people on the internet. I'm proud to say that Reid Harris Cooper one of them!

From his bio: "Reid Harris Cooper is former child actor (now adult professional) and street art aficionado. He is also a photographer, visual artist, journalist, reviewer and promoter of all things culture and popculture (movies, books, comics, video games, art, food, television, and even wrestling). He runs a website at popculturespectrum.com. He also believes that Conjuction Junction needs to be retaught and struggles with this fact. Also, he's a sexy beast and a former LJ Idol contestant which through he previously has gained family, friends and even lovers. He is retired mostly from Livejournal, but he returns once in a blue moon yet finds Twitter and Facebook his main homes." Also of note, and I think this just goes to show where your writing can lead - "Recently I was chosen to be a reviewer for a Scholastic Arts & Writing Program for Grades 7-12. I reviewed dramatic scripts, poetry, and short fiction. In the past I was also an assistant poetry slam master alongside noted teacher/writer Taylor Mali."

Our final Judge is actually someone that I've been bugging since the Gatekeeper round. He was originally supposed to be there, but unfortunately he's a *really* busy guy. I didn't let go of the idea though, and I'm really glad that I finally was able to get him.

I celebrate his entire catalog

"Josh Wigler is a freelance entertainment writer and a host of several podcasts on Post Show Recaps. He's the co-author of The Evolution of Strategy, an audiobook series about the reality game show Survivor. He likes pizza more than people."

(Seriously, if you like Survivor - you should check out the Evolution of Strategy. It’s really good)

You should probably also know that he's close friends with Kermit http://www.mtv.com/news/1681145/hunger-games-twilight-muppets/ (it's a couple years old, and he's done so many cool things with his career, but that still impresses me!)

***

Given how close the last couple weeks have been, this time I took the precaution of having them rank all of the entries in order of their preference. (saving me from having to go back to them for tie-breakers. :D)

It ended up being close between 4 of them and *super-close* between two... and in the end, it was kickthehobbit that ended up winning immunity!

Congratulations!!

A few words from clauderainsrm:

You know that feeling of when you are in the water and start to sink and you are looking at your surroundings going "I'm going to drown. I'm not sure what to do right now. I'm going to drown."

Yeah. That's where I am right now in this moment of my life. Just remember, the next time you are poised on the verge of what feels like complete victory, that it just makes the fall to defeat that much harder.

But YOU - you brave souls who came here, aren't in the mood to hear that. You want to know what's going on with the poll, so I will put on my Happy Face of Doom and tell you!

We have a Redemption Tribe, and a Main one.

The contestant with the fewest votes in Redemption Tribe will be leaving us - and the two with the fewest will be be doing the same.

We are going into Feb with a Top 10!! :)

The poll closes Monday, Feb 2nd at 9pm EST

Good luck to everyone!

[Poll #1997291]

[Poll #1997292]

I'm going to wait for a little while longer, because I know there is a lot riding on this particular immunity and want to make sure we get it right. After that - well, I'll make a call on it. (The good thing being we don't *absolutely need to know* until the vote itself closes, so while it can be annoying, for some, to wait, it's not truly time-sensitive)

Gary-only voting tie-breaker!! Woo hoo!!!

(Not really, but I got you scared didn't I?)

***

People were really fired up yesterday - who knew Girl Scout cookies brought out such strong emotions? ;)

Seriously though - there is always room to pick everything, and each other apart. Or you could be supportive... or you could be selectively supportive while picking selective other people apart. :)

It's always interesting to see how people react to the stress of the last part of the game. It has a tendency to strip back some layers in the process. What is it going to show about you? That's entirely up to you!

(Personally, I'm suspecting it will show you all cyborgs)

***

So get to it "We're not cyborgs!!" Your deadline is tonight!
http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/829608.html

One of the challenges of putting together a mini-season is doing whatever you can to make sure that it doesn't just become the playground for a group of friends.

Not that groups of people who like each other is a bad thing. Far from it. But the danger is there of one group just running the tables on everyone else.

Heck, it's a danger in a full season as well. But there tends to be hiccups along the way that dislodge that sort of thing before you get to the very end.

It keeps things interesting and people involved.

Which is good, because Idol is greater than any one group of people. Folks who have been around for any length of time have seen "The In-Crowd" shift in change. People who were on the outside become "the cool kids" and they end up falling out of favor as the "new group" moves up. It's "the way of the world" and it's no different here.

The danger, in a mini-season, is that one group will grab hold early on and not let go... or just squeeze other people out of having a chance to enjoy their time in the game, so in planning the next one, I have to figure out how to mess with these hypothetical people. I have some ideas. :)

***

I was thinking about that earlier today, reflecting on Survivor: San Juan Del Sur with something that happened, and something that *almost* happened. When the numbers were down to the core alliance, with a couple folks they just hadn't gotten rid of yet - there was a reward challenge. Once the "other people" were out of the game - the remaining players were stopping and conferring on who would go next. Which of course pissed off the host (and executive producer) Jeff Probst. Eventually, he told them to just go ahead and tell him who was going to win. They picked Missy to go on the reward.

That's what happened. What *almost* happened is that there were two pairs left in the game: Jon and Jaclyn with Missy and Baylor. The four of them were aligned with Natalie. The plan was that when they reached Final 5, Jacyln and Baylor would allow themselves to be eliminated. Just say "OK. It's alright if I don't win."

What ended up happening though is that Natalie and Baylor decided that the deal wasn't in their best interest - and blindsided Jon.

I find that heartening - that even when you *think* you know everything that is going to happen, you can always count on someone to look out for their own self-interest and change things up!

It makes planning seasons, or mini-seasons, a little easier, knowing that the threat of a group running things to the end isn't as much of a possibility as it may seem at times. (Granted, those were still the people who got to the end in Survivor... so it can still work out of them....but not always as planned)

It's also one thing that I really do like about Idol - is that things tend to be completely up in the air at times!

Like the results from last week: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/829327.html
Setting us up for some epic battles in the Quick Fire http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/829885.html and the new Topic: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/829608.html

(There is a Work Room for those needing a little extra help: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/830124.html )

Some folks left are closer to each other than others. Some spend more time in the Green Room. All of them are really talented writers - and all of them are "a danger to go on a run" to the top! :)

Which is exciting. (at least as exciting as someone making it 100 Weeks! http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/828979.html)

I can't wait to see how this plays out. (as I plan for next time!)

You have your new topic: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/829608.html
and a new Quick Fire: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/829885.html

The question is, do you have what it takes to "make it work" enough to get through another week, as the numbers continue to shrink - and your chances of winning get that much better?

What do you have left in your tank for a Quick Fire and how does that differ from the regular one? (other than being "Open Topic" rather than an assigned one... let's face it, all Idol topics can, and often are, handled like they are Open Topics!)

Before we get to the results - let’s have a huge round of applause, or whatever text-based equivalent you can muster, for our CHAMPIONS!

It was seriously an All Star cast (I’ll be honest, it made me go back to an old idea that I had a few years back for a LJ IDOL: MASTERS edition, but I digress...) who put in a stellar showing!

Thank you so much to all of you for taking the time, and making the effort to come out to support your favorites! I know the readers certainly appreciated it, and so I did I!

Thank you Champions!

Next up - we have the decision of the Jury. Since the first week, it has been an extremely close call for who would receive immunity. Many of the weeks, the person who received it ended up needing it, and things were thrown into chaos at the bottom of the poll.

Not so this week. This week the choice was quite lopsided - and it didn’t end up influencing the results.

Congratulations to porn_this_way!

Which brings us to the final part of the update, the actual results. Unless I can come up with something else to allow my brain to meander down to avoid actually saying it.

But I don’t think that I can at the moment.

Which means that we are saying goodbye to our SPIRIT OF LJ IDOL OF SEASON 8 halfshellvenus and the person it took me far too long to figure out the “secret” of her user name lrig_rorrim!

It’s funny, because both of these two had really difficult roads to get to this point - I could have sworn that HSV was “out” at several different parts in the competition, only to pull out a magic trick and end up sticking with the fight - and continuing to put out often-understated work that it never failed to delight me when I noticed that people started to really *respond* to it.

Mirror_Girl, on the other hand, came in from Second Chance - which is about as much of a difficult road as you can get. There’s a stigma, in some circles, of not having “put in time”, and I recall there were definitely points when I worried about her. But she more than proved herself, week after week, fight after fight. She definitely showed everyone that she deserved to be part of our Top 10!

Thank you to both of you for coming out, and giving IDOL an amazing season! Welcome to the Jury, and I hope that we will continue to see you around in the Home Game and everywhere else!

You were both amazing. No, scratch that, you both ARE amazing! :)

We are gathered here today to celebrate our shared Anglo-Saxon heritage!

Even if you don’t have it. That doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate it! Unless of course, you are “too foreign”. Then, of course, you can’t understand or appreciate it!

Maybe you are too busy speaking Spanish in AZ/”being dirty” or not loving your family enough to be heavily armed.

In which case, you won’t understand! You’re probably a socialist who doesn’t know what ‘Merica is all about!

Even if I post a dozen memes on the subject! Geez people – how many memes do we need to post before you “get it”???

Everyone knows that everything written in a meme is 100% Truth!

***

Another thing that is a 100% Truth is that there is a ton of amazing work in this week’s poll. Literally. I printed it out and weighed it. It read *exactly* a ton! http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/590519.html

There is slightly less in the Home Game thread: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/589522.html but that’s only because I printed those out on paper instead of bricks!

People ask me questions all of the time.

Most of them involve “How can I send you cookies/vast amounts of money?” and “Why are you so awesome?”

Most of these conversations, and people, only exist in my head.

Other times, people outside of my head ask me questions – and I try to answer them, even if they aren’t, IMO, asking the correct ones!

One of these questions involve “what *am I* looking for in an LJ IDOL winner?

To which, my normal answer is that I really don’t have a say over it – given that I vote for everyone!

I just have to make the best out of it.

Fortunately, Idol has never given me a winner that I didn’t like, or that ultimately wasn’t the winner that we “needed”, even if it wasn’t who I *thought* the voters were going to give us.

But, if given my druthers – perhaps from some discount druthers store – what would I want to see out of the Season 8 winner?

- Being an incredible writer, who continues to grow their craft – that the vast majority of people can look at and go “Yeah, I’m glad that they won”.
- Someone who has shown – and will continue to show – loyalty and support to Idol. Being an ambassador of the competition to the outside world.
- Considering how much I rely on my “numbers” to vent to from time to time, someone capable of – next season – reminding me why I’m doing this, and when things get tough why I shouldn’t just ban everyone. ;)
- The ability to keep those above discussions to themselves! ;)

There are more things – but those are the big ones, that I can think of right now, when I am writing this list.
What are things YOU can think of that you want to see out of the person I will be soon referring to as 8?

***

Before we get to that though – the remaining contestants, and their Champions, still have to get through this week: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/588906.html
If they need extra help, they can get it at the Work Room: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/589256.html
and of course, if they are finished with all of that – then the Home Game http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/589522.html always has some nifty treats!

Two things before we get into it…

Everyone is talking about the tragedy in Colorado. Or at least everyone within earshot of me.

Absolutely horrifying.

Also, oddly fitting for a Batman movie – but that’s probably just that part of my brain that tries to process horrible things by looking for the absurd.

Lost in the shuffle of this is a huge blow for people who love comedy, particularly those with an interest in comedy writing.

Tom Davis has passed away.

Anyone who is old enough to remember Franken and Davis, and their contributions to the development of Saturday Night Live.

It’s not a shock to those who have followed his battle with throat and neck cancer. But it is still pretty big.

With those “real world” events covered – we can go a little closer to home. Mainly, what you may have missed if you went to bed early!

First, we have last night’s results (and the announcement of what power the Spirit chose): http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/588665.html
And the new topic/Champions announcement: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/588906.html
The Work Room: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/589256.html
And a Home Game thread: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/589522.html

It was a lot of action for a very short time period! This is why you shouldn’t go to sleep! You’ll lose your edge! I don’t expect anyone around here to go back to sleep until… *checks watch* maybe somewhere around Brooklyn.

Congratulations to our Top 10!