SI Speculation: Drumming up the Drama

Controversy has hit Singapore Idol. I suppose it was only a matter of time. Last year, we had Top 12 contestant pulling out before the finals started (gosh, what was her name again? I just remember her as the rather pretty girl who sang Alicia Key's I ain't got you during the piano show).

This year, we have a contestant, Meryl Joan Lee, pulling out of the wild card round to focus on her studies. Well, all this pulling out business is rather old hat by now. Not really worth the column inches, IMO. Besides, she was not even a Top 12 finalist, just an over-rated and over-praised wild-card returnee.

(On that subject, what were the judges smoking last week? Meryl's singing was off-key and screechy, and the melisma was out of control. I felt it was the 2nd weakest performance of the night. And yet, the judges were falling over themselves to let her know how great she was. At least Florence acknowledged during the Results Show that Meryl had pitch problems. I guess they do sound different in the studio compared to what we hear on the TV telecast. Still, I cannot believe that such off-tune singing was not more apparent to the judges.)

The REAL controversy is Computer Glitch-gate. Matilda de Silva, initially declared one of the Top 12 finalists, has now been relegated to a place in the Wild Card show. Nurul Maideen, originally not among the top 2 vote-getters that night, is now a confirmed finalist.

All this was announced through a Mediacorp representative. With all the emphasis on transparency and accountability, it's a good thing that the mistake has been acknowledged and made a matter of public record. It could have been just as easy for the SI producers to quietly put Nurul through as one of the Judges' choices on the WC show, and nobody would have known any better.

It is also just as well that this glitch happened at this stage of the competition, and not during the Top 12 finals, or worst of all, during the top 2 voting! One shudders to think about the fan fall-out in those cases! The fact that there is a Wild Card fall-back was a lucky break for the producers, who have emerged from this relatively unscathed. They must really have good spin-doctors because I expected more outrage from viewers, and perhaps even suspicion over the vote-tallying process. Fans of earlier eliminated contestants could have been clamouring for proof that their favourites were not similarly victims of such computer glitches. People who spent their hard-earned 60 cents per vote could be demanding for their money back. So much potential for true drama, and not very much came out of it. Sigh.

I have a far-fetched theory that this computer glitch is manufactured drama. The season has been a little too smooth-sailing so far, with all the expected favourites going through, and the judges pretty much being spot-on with their predictions. No equivalent of a Jerry Ong scenario, or a shock non-progression of talents like Beverly. The closest thing we had to an upset was Emilee Kang supposedly taking the spot that was expected to go to Meryl Joan Lee. Of course, those of us who watched a different show from the judges could hear that Emilee outsang Meryl by a country mile, so it was not such a big shock at all.

In the place of real shocks, an incident like this computer glitch gives the chin-waggers something to gossip about. The BUZZ, after all, is the most important thing about a show like SI. It could not have happened at a more opportune time, with SI battling the World Cup for its share of the public's interest.

Of course, I don't really think the producers deliberately manipulated Glitchgate. It's not worth the reputational risk. But, insofar as there is a best time for a glitch to happen, this happened at the best possible time.