Wow, I was almost shocked that Candice Glover won American Idol tonight, since year after year after year the "best singer" for the season almost never actually wins! One way to measure this is using the average scores for each contestant using
WhatNotToSing. This year was particularly startling when you look at the rankings of the average score for the top 4 best contestants with the highest average scores: 1) Candice, 2) Kree, 3) Angie, 4) Amber. Yes, the ranking of the Top 4 actually matched the ranks that they finished! Let's look at past recent seasons in comparison:
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| Season 11 |
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| Season 10 |
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| Season 9 |
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| Season 8 |
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| Season 7 |
Yes, you have to go all the way back to Season 7 to find a winner who had the highest average WNTS score among all the finalists. Last year, Erika, Jessica and Elise had the highest average scores, but Phillip still won. In Season 10, Pia, James and Lauren had the highest scores but Scotty won. In Season 9, Crystal and Siobhan had the top scores (considerably higher than eventual winner Lee). And in Season 8 Allison, Adam and Alexis all had average higher scores than Kris. Even in Season 7, David Cook did have the highest score, but Michael John was second, then Carly Smithton and then David Hernandez. We have never had a season like Season 12 when the orders so clearly matched the actual elimination order of the contestants. And Candice's average score this year (71.4) was substantially higher than any of the other contestants this year. The only contestants over the past 6 years with higher average scores than Candice have been:
1. Pia Toscano (80.8) Season 10
2. Crystal Bowersox (74.9) Season 9
3. Allison Iraheta (72.8) Season 8
The best singer for a season finally won again! Pretty neat stuff!
