In a very rare move for “American Idol,” executive producer Nigel Lythgoe effectively revealed the vote total for an eliminated contestant prior to the season finale.
Lythgoe confirmed on his Twitter that Haley Reinhart, who was eliminated Thursday, received “over 25 million votes” for her Top 3 performance. The context suggests “over 25 million” is more likely to be 25.5 million or 26 million than 30 million, so his comment also implies that Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina, the final two, shared about 70 million of the 95 million votes cast.
“Idol”‘s few vote count reveals, which are always somewhat ambiguous, have usually come when the voting was notably close. In this case, the confirmation of Reinhart’s vote count either reveals the extent to which Scotty and Lauren were more popular than Haley or cements the fact that one of the final two contestants is clearly more popular than the other (thereby suggesting next week’s finale might not have a close voting outcome). Regardless of the correct conclusion, it is clear that this was not a “pick ’em” for the top three; America had a clear favorite or pair of favorites.
— In other Haley Reinhart news, Lythgoe strongly implied that the third-place finisher will release a record with mentor Jimmy Iovine, who leads Interscope-Geffen-A&M. He wrote, “Jimmy played me a song for Haley’s record yesterday. Let’s hope all the people that are professing love buy it and give her a great start,” wryly referencing the fact that Haley Reinhart supporters have aggressively ripped Thursday’s results announcement.