Analysis: Producers demonstrate pure genius with Joanna debacle

Now that news of Joanna Pacitti's abrupt ouster from the Top 36 of Season 8 is making the rounds, it is a good time to take a step back and digest what this all means for the competition.

It was only yesterday that many (including IDOL LIVE) believed Joanna was not only a shoe-in for the Top 12, but also that she was your next American Idol. She had all the qualifications necessary to validate her as a credible champ, combining beauty, youth, a unique name, a great voice (taking Hollywood Week out of consideration), previous recording and performing experience, friends in the industry and so on and so forth. So how could things turn sour?

Before recycling the same old "omg she was a plant ya see!?" argument, it's important to realize this was never a problem with the producers. They very blatantly stressed her past brushes with the music industry over the course of the show at every possible chance, something they neglected to do last season with Carly Smithson (showing that they did in fact learn their lesson this time around), so that was surely not the problem here. Instead, it was the rumblings that were generated by Star magazine that Joanna knew a few 19 execs, specifically Roger Widynowski and Michelle Young, whom she shared an apartment building with, that was the final nail in her coffin after months of reports on her platny past.

But the producers certainly know what they're doing in this isntance, as they've had a while to mull exactly how to carry out this cut. Why else was Joanna hardly shown during Hollywood Week? Because they did not want to waste precious screen time on someone they knew very well would not be part of the show once the important voting rounds began.

In fact, this is pure genius on their part. Now Joanna will get the public's sympathy for coming "so close, yet so far away" once again (following her elimination from the Broadway revival of Annie as a little girl and her failed record deals with MCA and Geffen), which will prop her up to be signed by a label under the Sony-BMG umbrella, and 19 will be able to manage her successfully thanks to the renewed wind that will be blown in her sails.

The scandal will also be a boon for Idol, as many who were upset at the fact that the judges allowed Joanna to advance so far will now be satisfied, providing a more focused and content audience that will only have to deal with Tatiana and Nick as distractions. Add to this the fact that every time Idol creates or suffers a scandal, ratings jump.

This will also benefit Idol in that Felicia Barton will be seen as an underdog, and if she fails to make it through to the Top 12 on her first try, you can bet your bottom dollar that she will be included in the wild card round. And to make things even more interesting, she will be chosen as one of the judges' picks to the Top 12 (again barring the fact that she does not make it into the Top 12 on her own). This will keep the dark horse dreams alive and will be an interesting storyline throughout the season.

To many, Felicia seems like an odd pick to succeed Joanna. But she was in fact the logical choice to replaced Joanna with, as she shares a few qualities with the latter including similarlity in age and appearance (to an extent) and a personable demeanor. She has also attained a healthy amount of online buzz despite the lack of screen time she has received up until this point, which the producers must have taken note of. And the fact that her raspy vocals are something so different than the vocals of a cookie-cutter contestant makes her that much more interesting. And then there's the whole "Joanna was a shoe-in for the Top 12" idea, which opens up a spot that was all but guaranteed for her and will now allow another "favorite" to make the cut.

It will surely be interesting to see how things pan out in the next few weeks, but just don't think that this is the last we'll see of Joanna Pacitti and that Felicia will be nothing more than a placeholder. That would be a mistake to the greatest degree.