American Idol Semi-Finals: Cumulative Grades

Here’s how it works. I calculated a numeric grade for each contestant based on all the letter grades I’ve given over the three semi-final weeks. Since singers are supposed to improve each week, I progressively increased the value of each round. For instance, the first semi-final week is graded out of 20 points, the second is out of 25, the third is out of 30.This gives each singer a score that is out of 75 points. I came up with a scale to determine how many of the remaining 25 points each singer should earn so that the score is out of an even 100 points. For instance, if a singer earned anywhere between 59-61 points out of 75, they will be rewarded 20 points out of the 25 that was left to earn. I also gave an extra credit point to each performance I gave an A- or better. The complete number system will be included at the end of this article.
Final grades (out of 100)
Guys:
Alex Lambert- 88
Michael Lynche-85
Casey James-84.5
Lee Dewyze-81
Tim Urban- 81
Aaron Kelly-77
Andrew Garcia-76
Todrick Hall- 76

Girls:
Crystal Bowersox- 100
Didi Bermani- 89.5
Siobhan Magnus- 88.5
Katelyn Epperly-84
Lilly Scott- 82.5
Lacey Brown- 78
Katie Stevens- 76.5
Paige Miles- 67


What Stands Out:

-Andrew Garcia is tied with Todrick for being the worst male performer. Contestants should be getting better each week, yet he is getting worse and worse. I couldn’t believe that his final numbers were this low.

- Crystal Bowersox is by far the best singer on the show. We all know she’s been the most consistently brilliant, but it’s interesting to see just how dominating she’s been. There’s no other contestant who earned a 90 or better.

- I think these numbers accurately reflect the fact that the top women are better than the top men. In fact, three females (Crystal, Didi, and Siobhan) have higher final scores than the top male. Will we be looking at an all female final three?

Complete Conversion Charts:

Week one (20 points)                       Week Two (25 points)               Week Three (30 points)
A= 20                                                    A = 25                                          A = 30
A- = 18                                                 A- = 23                                         A- = 27
B+ = 17.5                                             B+ = 22                                         B+ = 26
B = 17                                                  B = 21                                           B = 25
B- = 16                                                 B- 20                                            B- = 24
C+ = 15.5                                             C+ = 19.5                                     C+ = 23
C = 15                                                  C = 19                                           C = 22
C- = 14                                                C- = 18                                          C- = 21
D+ = 13.5                                             D+ = 17                                        D+ = 20
D = 13                                                  D = 16                                          D = 19
D- = 12                                                 D- = 15                                        D- = 18
                                                                                                                  F = 16
Here is the scale to determine the final 25 points. The range of numbers represents the contestants’ scores after the first three rounds (out of 75). The second column is how many out of the remaining 25 points each contestant earned.

68-75 = 24
65-67 = 22
62-64 = 21
59-61 = 20
56-58 = 19
53-55 = 18
50-52 = 17

Extra Credit: Each contestant earned an extra point for every A- or A performance they gave over the last three weeks.