Anchor Performances
[back to top] Anchor Performances
# | Episode / Theme | Slot | Performance | Approval Rating | σ | Result | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Burt Bacharach / Wish You Wrote
|
12/12 |
| 8 | ![]() |
|||
2 |
Big Band
|
6/6 |
| 11 | ![]() |
|||
Year You Were Born
|
10/10 |
| 12 | ![]() |
||||
4 |
Year You Were Born
|
8/8 |
| 19 | ![]() |
|||
Now And Then
|
10/10 |
| 12 | ![]() |
||||
6 |
1970s
|
10/10 |
| 16 | ![]() |
|||
Open
|
12/12 |
| 11 | ![]() |
||||
Personal Idol
|
9/9 |
| 15 | ![]() |
||||
9 |
1960s / Neil Sedaka
|
10/10 |
| 14 | ![]() |
|||
Open
|
8/8 |
| 13 | ![]() |
||||
Open
|
10/10 |
| 6 | ![]() |
||||
Finale
|
6/6 |
| 8 | ![]() |
||||
13 |
Open
|
10/10 |
| 20 | ![]() |
|||
Year You Were Born
|
8/8 |
| 18 | ![]() |
||||
Competitors' Picks
|
10/10 |
| 19 | ![]() |
||||
16 |
Country
|
11/11 |
| 16 | ![]() |
|||
Elton John
|
9/9 |
| 18 | ![]() |
||||
Finale
|
6/6 |
| 12 | ![]() |
||||
Hometown / Scott's / Judges' Choice
|
10/10 |
| 10 | ![]() |
||||
20 |
Movie Songs
|
8/8 |
| 14 | ![]() |
|||
1970s Dance Music
|
7/7 |
| 16 | ![]() |
||||
Open
|
12/12 |
| 15 | ![]() |
||||
Open
|
8/8 |
| 7 | ![]() |
||||
Rock
|
6/6 |
| 15 | ![]() |
||||
Inspirational (Idol Gives Back)
|
7/7 |
| 16 | ![]() |
[back to top] Summary
A common complaint among American Idol fans is that the producers often save the most desirable performance slot of the evening – the final one – for their favored contestants. Some detractors have gone so far as to dub it "The Pimp Spot," perhaps in reaction to the shenanigans of Season Two when Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard sang last a whopping nine times combined, including each of the final seven episodes. If Kimberley Locke had dragged Simon Fuller onto the stage and slapped him silly on national TV, would any jury have convicted her?
Thankfully, AI has been a bit more reasonable in recent years about sharing the spotlight. For instance, ten different contestants had a turn in the anchor spot in Season Six, including much-maligned Sanjaya Malakar who came through admirably with his highest-rated performance. And to be fair to the producers, they have a legitimate business interest in saving the best for last. A great anchor performance can help whitewash 55 minutes of lackluster singing, sends the audience off on a good note, and helps kick-starts the voting. "Leave 'em laughing when you go" was a basic tenet of show business long before Judy Collins sang those words.
Whatever the producers' motiviations, the Pimp Spot usually lives up to the hype: An average approval rating of Melinda Doolittle in AI6's Final Three, David Archuleta in the AI7 finale, and...can you guess the fourth? Page through the list below for the unlikely answer (or, if you don't feel like searching, just hover your pointer here.)
, 70 five-star performances (including 15 rating out at or higher), and most significantly, an elimination rate close to zero. Through the first seven seasons, just four finalists — 4! — have been knocked out of the competition from the anchor slot: Aiken in the AI2 Finale,