Over on mjsbigblog—which I did not know existed until Rickey.org linked to this, but which looks like an excellent source of Idol information—MJ's posted an interview with Idol producer Ken Warwick on Ryan Seacrest's radio show. Apparently, the new rule to be announced tonight was previously tried on the French version of the show.
According to Wikipedia, the past season of Nouvelle Star featured a rule in which the judges could veto any one elimination in the season, giving that contestant another shot.
In the case of the French version, the season appears to have been extended an additional week to make room for this. My understanding is that the American season schedule is pretty much set in stone, and has no such leeway. So either saving one contestant will mean saying goodbye to the person with the second-lowest number of votes or, more likely, the week following such a reprieve will have two eliminations.
But we'll find out tonight, I suppose.
(The producers seem determined to make things difficult for those of us trying to run pools... I'll figure out how to handle this once I know what we're dealing with.)
Posted by Shmuel at March 11, 2009 3:10 PM