Idol Chatter & Voice Views

For weeks, I had read comments from viewers of The Voice saying Cassadee Pope’s victory was bound to happen.

They were looking at her number of Facebook and Twitter followers, comparing them to the other contestants and figuring there was no way she could lose given the wide disparity.

Cassadee, indeed, won, of course.

But what happened Thursday night on The X Factor pretty much nixed the idea that you can look at Twitter followers and Facebook likes and draw some sort of grand conclusion about the outcome of a singing show.

Otherwise, Carly Rose Sonenclar would be $5 million richer today.

People were making such a big deal of Cassadee’s pre-Voice following, that I looked up Twitter and Facebook numbers for the three finalists on The X Factor as well earlier this week.

Here’s what I discovered …

Twitter
Carly Rose: 488,030 followers
Fifth Harmony: 215,723 followers
Tate Stevens: 144,235 followers

Facebook:
Carly Rose: 256,682 likes
Fifth Harmony: 57,900 likes
Tate Stevens: 48,600 likes

In other words, Tate overcame huge social media odds to win The X Factor.

Which just goes to show that the loyalty of a contestant’s fans and the momentum they build on the show has a bigger hand in determining the outcome than social media statistics.

I still think Carly Rose was the most impressive voice The X Factor discovered this season.

But she wasn’t on a show called The Voice, was she?

And while Tate continued a string of steady performances straight through the finals, never straying from his chosen genre, Carly Rose had a train wreck of a duet with LeAnn Rimes and was tasked with performing two very tired singing-show anthems.

Tip to future mentors: The old “Hallelujah” trick doesn’t work every time.

Tip to future X Factor mentors: The X Factor certainly matters, and it helps to focus on a contestant’s personality.

There’s no doubt. While Tate isn’t flashy, he had what The X Factor fans were looking for.

People love him. They love his back-story, too.