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Should ‘American Idol’ change its voting system?

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Los Angeles Times

In the wake of all the what-went-wrong, post-Pia Toscano hand-wringing (not to mention the Casey Abrams near ouster) in recent weeks, there’s been a lot of talk about a need to revisit the way voting works on “American Idol.” And the people doing the talking aren’t just fans bereft of their favorite singers.

“Idol” producer Nigel Lythgoe recently said the show might consider adopting a system in which “Idol” voters determined the bottom three, and then the judges decided which contestant would be sent home.

And now judge Randy Jackson has said that he too thinks a few changes to the elimination process might be in order, in part because the voting is biased against women. “There’s a lot of young girls and young women voting.... They really vote more for guys than girls,” Jackson told Ryan Seacrest on Friday in an E! News interview. Jackson predicted that this season, “at the end of the day, two boys will be left standing. Two boys.”

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Jackson’s proposed solution? A second judges’ save, like the one that pulled Abrams back from the brink.

“We might need to have, in the top 13, one save, and then in the top 10 -- up to the top five, another save, because I felt that Pia was starting to hit her stride,” he said. “I think we have to come up with some sort of system, because what we want, ultimately ... is a duel to the finish. The two best ones to be there at the end, duking it out.”

Season 4 second-place “Idol” finisher Bo Bice, meanwhile, has expressed wariness about “Idol” voting changes that could disenfranchise the show’s fans. “The format has to change a little each year to keep things fresh, but ‘American Idol’ is built on fan response and interaction,” he told the New York Post. “It has always relied on the American public to help build a superstar.... I can tell you right now, America will always have a say in the end.”

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