Idol Trends

Tonight is the American Idol final. NPH is not a big Idol fanatic, but he is interested in the sociology of the thing. He can name for you the previous four winners (and finalists), and he does a mean Simon Cowell impression.

This is the fifth Idol finale, and NPH is curious about the public's perception of the racial makeup of past winners and finalists; NPH notices and ruminates on such things as these, but does anyone else? A few salient figures:

• The fifth final marks the four-and-a-halfth time that a white person has been in the final (Justin Guarini, the inagural runner-up was half-white and half-black)
• This is the third-and-a-halfth (again, Guarini) out of five years in which a white male has been in the final.
• This final is the fourth out of five years in which a white female has been in the final
• There has only been two-and-a-half (need I explain?) African American finalists (Guarini, Ruben Studdard, and Fantasia Barrino)
• Two of the two-and-a-half African American finalists won the competition
• If Kelly wins tonight, she will become the third white female to win
• If Taylor prevails, he will become the first--yes, the first--white male to win American Idol.
• Never has there been a non-white or non-African-American finalist.

Do with that information what you will, dear reader.