Many have theorized that LeAnn Rimes cost Carly Rose Sonenclar the title of the winner of X-Factor USA last night. The duet, seen by many as a bizarre rendition of Rimes’ most famous song, sent shockwaves through the blogosphere and brought people to their knees – laughing. Now, before we start accusing Rimes and making Carly the hero of the night, we have to admit that a short, small duet such as this won’t in reality have any impact on the final decision. Yes, it might have been crafted in a Wes Craven nightmare, but it was definitely not the root cause of Carly’s loss. Several other variables – voting blocs, independent voters, missed votes, genre synchronicity, niche, and popularity – played a much, much larger role than one misaligned and disjointed song by a faded country star.
However, the impact of the duet created negative publicity for both Carly and Rimes, and in the business of democratic reality television contests, all publicity isn’t necessarily good publicity. It’s difficult to understand how viewers might have perceived the duet – because the media and the viewers are separate entities – but there was always the slight chance, with all of the contestants, that their duet could have faltered and failed as miserably as Rimes and Carly’s did. Fortunately for Tate Stevens and Fifth Harmony, they did not suffer from the jealous and scene stealing idiosyncrasies of Rimes. But did this cause the upset? Did this random duet cause Carly to lose out on the biggest prize of her life? No, it did not. If Carly lost any votes due to the duet, those votes would have been so small that it wouldn’t have made any difference to the outcome. In fact, even if Carly slipped up on the lyrics and fell flat on her face while being chased by a ten foot monster, it would still not have made a difference. We’ve noticed that the finale was already “locked in” during the final show – meaning that the votes weren’t going to change much in the end. The viewers already decided who they wanted to see take home the prize, and nothing was going to change that.
Finally, before we lock the X-Factor door and walk into the silent auditorium, Rimes’ duet with Carly will go down in history as a massacre – but it won’t affect Carly in any which way; instead, Rimes will forever be remembered as “that bitch” who screwed over the X-Factor finale. Carly is too fresh in the music industry to have any blemishes.
What do you think? Do you think Rimes cost Carly the win? Vote in our official Celeb Dirty Laundry poll below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.