Open Finales (according to IDF)

[Misirlou]

Since Carter´s obviously winning tomorrow, I wanted to ask which finales does IDF consider to be the most "open"; AKA the one where the winner wasn´t so obvious and the other contestants legit seemed to have a chance at the title. Pretty much the opposite of S8 and S9 where Sawyer and Jordan were obviously going to win.

[Dai]

I would say S6, S10, S12, S13 and S15.

 

Edit: Aliyah, Jesse, Hannah or Laith didn’t have a shot, but I included S10 and S12 because it was probably very close between the winner and the runner-up of their respective seasons.

 

Edit2: Forgot about S15.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Daillon

[Bouli]

I'd argue Season 15; honestly, I had no idea Chevel Shepherd had as much momentum as she did. I thought it was pretty even between her, Chris Kroeze, (because of his massive hometown support), and Kirk Jay. I kinda figured Kennedy Holmes was out of the running due to being in the Instant Save, proving that she didn't have nearly as much support as people initially assumed. Before the Semifinals, I thought Kennedy was going to win the whole thing.

 

For earlier seasons, I wonder if Season 2 and Season 5 count? The vote between Jermaine Paul and Juliet Simms was so close (52% to 48%), either one of them could have won. I don't know how close the vote was on Season 5, but I remember watching that finale and genuinely having no idea if Tessanne Chin or Jacquie Lee would win or not. (I didn't think Will would because anecdotally, I didn't see as much support around him as Tessanne and Jacquie).

 

I'd also argue Season 11; I genuinely had no idea who would win between Wé McDonald, Sundance Head, and Billy Gilman. It seemed like they all had massive amounts of support - Wé had her audition leaked and got a lot of attention for her speaking voice, Billy had fans from his childhood, and Sundance was just right for the show's demographics. Plus, Wé had even gotten the public vote in spite of not charting in the iTunes Top 10 like Christian Cuevas and Josh Gallagher did. Instead, they ended up in the Middle 3 instead of her. I really thought any one of the Top 3 could have won that season.

[MatthewPalermo]

S15 without a doubt. I think there was a possibility for all four finalists to win, something I can't really say for any other finale.

 

Going down the line, starting with Chevel. She was dominant in social medial standings, but never to a point where her win was guaranteed. She was minivan's favorite contestant by far.

 

Chris was a huge sleeper, and his entire support was hidden and carried him to second. It was entirely Wisconsin "small town" votes that got him as far as he did. If more people went as hard as they did, he definitely could have won. The streaming bonuses helped him too.

 

Kirk ending in 3rd was a huge surprise to me, I didn't think anyone could stop him all season. Like Chevel, Kirk was dominant in social media standings, but he was winning almost every week, even when his vocals were weak.

 

Kennedy was definitely last place, but her huge pimping over the course of the season combined with "Confident", a performance that basically put her in first place on social media (or close to it, I don't remember exact numbers) made winning a possibility, It was an uphill battle, but not impossible. 

[pepperman]

Season 2 100%    Going into the finale, everyone thought that it was gonna be a tight race between Tony and Juliet.  Chris even had some momentum and was thought to have an outside shot.  Literally nobody was talking about Jermaine.  I remember being shocked when Chris Mann was announced in 4th place cause everyone thought Jermaine was a lock for 4th.  and then he WON lmao.  We had no clue of Blake's power at that time.   

[rp3598]

I would say season 11, 14, and 15. In those seasons I could see anyone in the top 3 winning and then season 12 and 10 both seemed to have a toss up between the final 2 but I think alisan and Chris were going to win regardless.