On Televised Plebiscites - Part 1

Lisa Rinna got the shaft. I like Jerry Rice fine, but he was totally outclassed.

(At least according to a friend of mine who emailed me her views on the matter immediately after the most recent broadcast of of Dancing With The Stars he was totally outclassed by Lisa who "put her heart & soul into it" only to lose to Jerry who certainly tried reasonably hard but was just a much lesser competitor.)

Accordingly, herewith follows my opinion [1] regarding currently popular televised plebiscites:

Dancing with the Stars needs to be treated differently than American Idol. In the case of American Idol, the votes are more likely to reflect people's opinions about the performer's merits just during American Idol, since the contestants are otherwise unknowns.

But where the contestants are popular stars from other arenas, the plebiscite might logically be skewed based on the relative popularity of the contestants outside the context of the dance competition. The contestants, the stars, are by definition well known outside the competition. The pre-existing biases of the fans will naturally manifest themselves in the vote independent of the contestants' performances. At least to an extent.

I guess Lisa's not laughing now, eh?

Well, neither are certain would-be fans of the show.

I'm all for a good old-fashioned plebiscite, but unjust ain't right.

[1] The views expressed in this post may or may not accurately reflect my views.

Photo Credits: here