This week we’ll be meeting our Top 6 American Idol 2016 contestants after another double elimination, but before we get there, it’s time to take a look back at Top 8 and factor in everything to decide the Power Rankings for the week.
Last week’s rankings nailed the bottom 3, so let’s see if we can do that again. As always, we’ll be looking at performances, judges’ comments, poll results, social media buzz placement last week. I will say, however, that things are getting murky this week. People who were pretty low on the social media rung last week have jumped substantially. But Twitter followers aren’t always definitive as you can buy followers or have followers bought by (crazy) fans. Anyway, let’s get to it.
American Idol 2016 Top 8 Power Rankings
1. Trent Harmon. I wasn’t sure if Trent or La’Porsha should take the top spot because while the judges love La’Porsha, I think fans are leaning more toward Trent at the moment. And we all know how much Idol fans love the white dudes. Based on our poll, Trent was the top performer last week with almost 27 percent of the vote. Over on Twitter he’s at 19,700 followers. And as far as his performance goes, he was flawless, like always.
2. La’Porsha Renae. As I just sated, it was a close race for No. 1. There’s no question that La’Porsha is in the Top 2 at least. She comes in second in our poll with 16.73 percent of the vote. So Trent is definitely besting her with our readers, but on Twitter they’re neck and neck (she has 19,800 followers). As far as her performance from last week goes, the judges love her but I think she was better last week.
3. Dalton Rapattoni. Things start getting confusing here. In our poll, Dalton lands in fourth place below Sonika AND Lee with 10.99 percent of the vote. But based on his performances and the fact that he has a whopping 122,000 Twitter followers, I think he’s doing better than our latest poll is making it look.
4. Sonika Vaid. Sonika isn’t big on social media (she only has 11,700 Twitter followers), but she’s registering pretty well with our readers as she’s currently in third place with 15 percent of the vote. She is definitely riding the wave of the epiphany she recently had on the stage, so that puts her here in fourth place of our rankings.
5. Lee Jean. Lee is surprising me. He’s currently beating Dalton in our poll with 11.9 percent of the vote and he’s right on the tails of Trent and La’Porsha on Twitter with 18,000 followers. While Lee is a solid performer, his attitude on stage is a big problem for me. I guess fans aren’t picking up on his brattiness or maybe they like that?
6. Avalon Young. Even though Avalon was in the bottom three last week, I think she earned this 6th place spot after that great performance last week. We also know from Idol experience that as soon as you almost go home but don’t, you build momentum. And that’s evident with her huge Twitter boost in the past week. She went from 16,000 to 21,000 followers.
7. MacKenzie Bourg. It’s hard for me to put MacKenzie all the way down here because I think he’s one of the most marketable guys in the competition. Not to mention, his performances are always flawless. His big downfall is that he has boxed himself in. Boxing yourself in is perfectly fine when you’re an established artist because that means what you do is working. But when you’re on American Idol you have to appeal to everyone to get the votes. So that’s why he’s No. 7 in our rankings and quite possibly going to end up in the Bottom 3 this week despite having that The Voice fanbase that helps make up some of his 116,000 Twitter followers.
8. Tristan McIntosh. Tristan is another one who confuses me. She’s got a lot of fans out there, including 23,000 Twitter followers, but they don’t seem to be among our wonderful group of readers. She’s in last place in our poll with 5.9 percent of the vote. And based on her performances, she’s definitely in last place as far as our Power Rankings go, but she could very well end up safe this week, but I doubt it.