American Idol 13: Final Thoughts and Prediction

Before anything else, I'd like to say something. American Idol has been plagued with bad news cycles this season. Everyone pounced on the program once more like a hungry shark that smelled blood in the water. A lot of people kept on saying “The worst season ever?” and “Is Idol over?”, and it only furthered this media pile-on until it became something close to common wisdom.

Yes, the ratings shrank throughout the season. Why? What can explain that? The same phenomenon that explains why people like to back a winning horse and jump off a sinking ship. When something becomes “media common sense” we react in the worst of ways. Besides, American Idol is 13-year old show!

American Idol is not over.

If you ever loved this show, fight for it even when they have a bad season because that is going to happen! Talent was not as strong this year as prior seasons, but that's in no way a statement on the talent of next year's group of contestants. But, what you should never do is join a mob mentality that only spreads like wildfire and creates expectations that are drastically unrealistic.

After all… it’s #$@&ING REALITY TELEVISION!

Anyway, let me get with my prediction. The Nokia theater shined and Jena Irene and Caleb Johnson stood on that stage to go three rounds and leave it all on the stage. By my count, Jena took the last two rounds and Caleb took the first. It's almost a split decision that favors Jena Irene. As much as I'd like to think that the momentum is clearly in Jena's court, I have a funny feeling that Caleb's doing his own damage with the voters.

Truth be told, I'm not as confident as how I predicted say Scotty McCreery's win during his season, but I'm taking on a HUGE limb here and say that Jena Irene will take the title and go on to become the thirteenth American Idol and she will be the first wildcard winner. And yes, I've been wrong the past two seasons! Haha.