And then there were three — female contestants remaining on "American Idol," that is.
With two more girls — Naima Adedapo, 25, and Thia Megia, 16 — culled from the "American Idol" herd by a series record 55 million votes on Thursday night's results show, you have to wonder if there really is something to the accusation that voters have a gender bias.
It started out so well, too: Seven of this season's 13 finalists were women. However, the first four voted off — Adedapo, Megia, Ashthon Jones and Karen Rodriguez — just so happened to be ladies, turning the initial female advantage into a quick and noticeable 6-to-3 deficit.
Yes, bearded crooner Casey Abrams had to rely on a historic save from the judges last week to advance. But he survived Thursday's cut and will take part in next week's challenge to perform a song from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Read also: Our 'American Idol' Plea: Save Casey Abrams!
The show's male-skewing voting results is not a new trend. While "Idol" produced three female winners in its first four seasons, including the series' only woman-on-woman final battle in its third, four of the next five winners were male. What's more, all but two of the runners-up were guys during that stretch, which spanned seasons 5 through 9.
Yes, only three women have made it to the final night in the past five seasons, a 30 percent success rate. Pretty miserable for a show that is largely viewed by members of the fairer sex.
Maybe it's about talent — or a lack thereof. Naima Adedapo's reggae reimaginings of popular songs were an ill-conceived idea that was never going to end well for her. There's a reason her unintentionally wacky performances have been made fun of by everyone from Joel McHale on "The Soup" to my 68-year-old mother ("What was that?," she asked, in a lengthy email that also included a long sigh about TV being so much better back in "her day").
And Thia, the youngest "American Idol" finalist ever, may have been overmatched due to her underdeveloped physicality. She may have been better off entering a few years from now after working on becoming a more seasoned performer, the element of her game that needed the most work.
Then again, even the booted-off pair brought up the possible bias in a conference call on Friday. "Once they get a crush, they're done," said Adedapo, referring to the millions of teenage and tween girls who might be rabidly voting for their favorite boy contestants. Megia also lamented that the male contestants can rely on the girl vote.
It'll be interesting to see whether the coming episodes support the gender-bias theory and affect the fates of the three remaining female contestants. Until then, Haley, Lauren and Pia Toscano still possess a better-than-average chance to emerge victorious in May. But based on the recent track record of "American Idol" voters, they might consider looking into cross-dressing.
John Sellers would care about "American Idol" a lot more if contestants could select songs only from the library of the band Guided By Voices.
