Will Lee DeWyze Be This Year’s Kris Allen on ’American Idol?’

It was unfortunate to see Michael Lynche bid farewell to “American Idol” on Wednesday night.

Lynche was granted the judges’ safety net five weeks ago when he was initially the odd man out in voting. In the following month Lynche proved the votes of confidence worthy with consistent performances and a wonderful personality. In the end it wasn’t enough, although he and Casey James were memorable with their cover of “Have You Ever Loved A Woman?” in the duet portion of Tuesday’s show.

The larger question now is whether or Lee DeWyze is emerging as this year’s Kris Allen. As you recall if you watch “Idol” regularly, Allen improved throughout the season and hit his stride at precisely the right time to nip heavy favorite Adam Lambert in the final.

Throughout this season, raspy Ohioan Crystal Bowersox has been the hands-down favorite. Her humility and references to her motherhood are the antithesis of Lambert’s flamboyance but her lead status has seldom been challenged. That changed Wednesday when she and Lynche shared the bottom two with DeWyze and fellow rocker Casey James safely planted on the couch. While host Ryan Seacrest mentioned there wasn’t a particular numeric order to who was seated where, it does raise larger popularity issues.

It seems difficult to imagine Bowersox not making it to the final. James and DeWyze fit too much of the same niche to see them facing off in the last round. Yet this week’s vote should be a warning to Bowersox supporters that nothing is a given and that DeWyze may be closing like Allen did last year.

At the beginning of the season DeWyze was played up as the kind of rags to riches story “Idol” loves to promote coming from a previous job at a suburban Chicago paint store. At some point though, the fairy tale needs to be expanded by talent and self-confidence, something DeWyze initially lacked. With that change apparent, Bowersox’s unabated run to the title may be in jeopardy.

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  1. tubafour said:

    Peter, I hate to invalidate the entire thesis of your article….BUT Crystal was NOT necessarily in the “bottom two” last night. Did you not hear Ryan repeatedly say the results were “in no particular order”?!?! In fact, according to reliable phone monitoring websites like DialIdol, last night’s voting order based on total votes was: 1. Crystal 2. Casey 3. Lee 4. Michael Since emerging as the front-runner back around the Top 12/Top 11, Crystal has never been less than the #1 or #2 votegetter. The bigger question you should have raised is whether or not Lee is even going to make it to the Final 2 since Casey beat him this week?

    May 13, 2010
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  2. JamesBurt said:

    I find your analysis to be extremely disingenuous. Last year Kris’s win was the product of a stadium full of people power texting with the help of AT&T at the University of Central Arkansas. Kris did not overtake Adam with his talent. All marketing data and social media prove this to be false. Adam was more popular in 49 states. Adam’s strongest performance according to many was on the night of the final when he sang, “A Change is Gonna Come.” Adam was Google Trending that night; Kris was not. The proof is in the pudding as Kris is the poorest selling American Idol in the history of the show. Adam was the real winner. As a Christian it is immoral for you to continue a lie.

    May 13, 2010
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  3. mediabias said:

    Well your account is nothing like reality. In addition to the AT&T scandal, Danny Gokey, another “Christian” [who had a scandalous history of mocking and blogging hatred towards Adam Lambert along with his Christian cousin] got booted and his votes went to Kris. The “Not Adam Lambert” contingent. Meanwhile I’d love to see an analysis of Kris Allen from a Christian point of view. He has continually Twittered sarcastic mocking comments about people (middle aged women dancing, a guy in a ponytail(?), a “papoose” and other juvenile comments as well as photographing a woman in a wheelchair gambling at a slot machine and broadcasting her on twitter, invading her privacy, mocking and humiliating her across the internet. Further, he and his buddy Charles are on video making “gay” jokes. Adam Lambert, born a Jew, has never done things like this. In fact, just last weekend Lambert saved Allen’s hide after Allen tweeted mocking middle aged women by asking his (Lambert) fanbase to not “attack” other artists. Even though it had nothing to do with Lambert he carried the water to cover it up. You are backing the wrong horse. I’ll take the Jew anyday.

    May 13, 2010
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  4. lourdes1 said:

    hello mr. elliott, as a christian myself, i really wanted to agree with you about kris allen, the legitimate winner of AI9 although i knew adam lambert was and is a much much better singer than kris. i did not want to listen with some of the complaints about kris being a christian was supported by us. because it was a singing competition and not anything else, i thought christians can show the world they were not biased. i really do not have any idea if it was the christian votes or the at&t conspiracy that made lambert lost the competition but i hate to tell you this, with lambert current success in the US and especially in the international scenes, i do feel sorry for kris allen. i would not want to be in his shoes right now. it was not his fault though but the people who put him there. if it happened kris came second and adam won, end of the story, there would not be any uh ahs and everyone will move one.

    May 14, 2010
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  5. ladonnaromberg said:

    Funny. I am an atheist who fights for gay rights and has a Jewish boyfriend, but I voted for Kris Allen. Kris Allen is the only AI contestant that I have ever bought an album from. I will travel to a different state to go see him this summer. I am so excited. I voted for Kris Allen. That being said. I think you people are disgusting with all your whining. Kris ALlen is the American Idol winner. He won fair and square. He is equally as talented as Adam Lambert. Maybe you should go listen to his album and perhaps you wouldn’t be so ignorant. Kris Allen has more writing credits than Adam Lambert ever will. Kris Allen has a hit single. He is doing just fine as the American Idol winner. Adam Lambert is actually the one who was disappointment so far. He was supposed to become some iconic rock god and be as popular as Elvis or Michael Jackson. I do not like Christianity, but I am also smart enough to see the great talent in Mr. Kris Allen.

    May 15, 2010
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  6. lourdes1 said:

    hi ladonnaromberg, yes, i did try to listen to kris allen’s album but the nasal sound did not suit my likings. i can’t help it if some people have dead ears and can’t distinguish between good and bad music. would you like to read an e-line book ‘ADAM LAMBERT SECOND TO NONE” there are some theories there why kris allen won. the author is still standing high and they cannot touch her because she has the facts.

    May 15, 2010
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  7. JamesBurt said:

    @ mediabias It would not have mattered if Kris got Danny’s votes, Ada still would have won except for the cheating in Arkansas because he had well over 50% of the most likely voters voting for him. He was leading in 49 states.

    May 15, 2010
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  8. ladonnaromberg said:

    Hi Lourdes. What is the grand prize of winning American Idol? A recording contract. Did Adam Lambert along with Allison get a recording contract anyway. Yes. So I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. It is better to be the runner up on American Idol because then you don’t get all this backlash of hate and complaining. It happens every year. Kris Allen is a talented young man. All the contestants worked hard on American Idol so whoever won deserved it. Adam Lambert is an amazing talent. He is just not my style. I love his voice until he reaches those high notes. Sure, it amazing that he can do it, but it gives me a headache and not something I want to listen to on the radio. The two are like apples and oranges and you can’t even compare them. One excells as the singer songwriter musician band type. The other excells as the stage, theatrical, belt those notes type. I can tell you one thing that hurt Adam Lambert with the votes. The favoritsm that the show and the judges showed him. It made me sick and a whole lot of other people. Americans love the underdog. I felt like I was watching Adam Lambert Idol and that took away from what the show was about. I agree that Adam Lambert was the most skilled at singing than any other idol contestant probably in the history. The sound of it just does nothing for me. He also had the best stage presence. But there is just something about that Kris Allen that I just love. I adore him. You claim that some people can’t distinguish between good and bad music. What. So every person on the planet should prefer CLUB music???? I would think not.

    May 15, 2010
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  9. ladonnaromberg said:

    And a few more things. I am not going to purchase a book called “Adam Lambert Second to None” but I did read the article which explained what it was about. Sure, there were a lot of votes from Arkansas. It was Kris Allen’s home state and not much goes on there so people made a huge deal about it. There were not 38 million votes, that was a lie. But even if they threw out the votes that were powertexted by people who received free phones, I think Kris Allen still would have come out the winner because I heard it wasn’t even close. You have to remember. Many people simply loved Kris Allen “like me”. And some people vote against the favorite. Then sometimes you have fans that don’t take the time to vote for their favorite if their favorite is the frontrunner because they think others will vote instead. If you want to blame anyone, blame AI for promoting Adam as the sure favorite to win and blame his fans for not powertexting enough. AI tried to make it a contest between Adam and Danny, but Kris was always more popular than Danny based on the single sales. And he wasn’t far behind Adam. Try those facts out for size. I heard it midseason on the most popular radio station in my town before the judges or the media even gave Kris Allen a chance to be in the finale. Kris Allen gave a great rendition of Heartless. That helped him make it into the finale. I don’t think GOOGLE trends is totally reliable because Adam and Kris are two different genres and attract two different types of fans. Kris’s fans are more laid back while Adam fans would more of the obsessive type. I am basing this on their styles. And by the way, that author needs to get a freaking life. No need for you to feel sorry for Kris Allen. He has made a music video which reached No. 1 of VH1. I hear his hit single on the radio all the time. He gets to perform live. He has his own band. He has an album. He gets to travel. And I am sure he is better off financially now than what he was before American Idol. Success is subjective. You don’t have to be a multi-millionaire or an Icon to be considered successful in life. To think otherwise is shallow. And look at Elvis and Michael Jackson. They died young. How about that for success. Let’s hope Mr. Adam Lambert doesn’t end up the same.

    May 15, 2010
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  10. ladonnaromberg said:

    @Jamesburt…Sometimes fans don’t take the time to vote if they think their guy is the frontrunner. However, the fans of the underdog will sometimes put in the extra effort. I didn’t care for the American Idol bias all season and many felt the same. I am not from Arkansas either. It wasn’t even close. I bet if you take away half the votes from Arkansas, Kris Allen would have won. 38 million votes from Arkansas was admittedly an extreme exaggeration. Adam Lambert himself even said this.

    May 15, 2010
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  11. lourdes1 said:

    @ladonnaromberg, you claimed adam lambert fans are the obsessive type but you yourself sounds like an obsessed kris allen’s fan and a fierce one too.

    May 16, 2010
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  12. JamesBurt said:

    The votes were close that night. Roger Taylor from Queen was told the numbers. “We did play in the finale of American Idol with the two final guys, one of whom is called Adam Bolton (wrong name!). He didn’t actually win, he only got 49 millions of votes, I think but he is one of the most phenomenal singers and I think at some point in the future we’d love to – Brian and I would like to do something with him.” You people are lying on a Christian site, shame on you. The 38 million Arkansas votes is absolutely accurate. Kerry Kolsch stands by the that number and would love to have AT&T dispute it. She has an expert legal team ready that would love to get discovery from AT&T. It was not just the AT&T assisted votes that made Kris the winner. It was the fact that they blocked and diverted Adam’s phone lines for about three hours. Kris was and is far behind Adam in popularity. Adam is more popular in 49 states and around the world according to all available marketing data including their respective official fan sites. Adam’s fan site has been at least 5 times more popular from day one.

    May 16, 2010
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