For the past four seasons of American Idol, the winners have all been men. The last female American Idol winner was Jordin Sparks, way back in 2007, and one American Idol judge isn’t happy about it. In fact, she has been outspoken in her desire to see a female win the competition this year. That would be Jennifer Lopez, of course. she’s made no secret of her perplexity at the string of male American Idol winners in recent years. But what would happen if there was a female winner this year? Would everyone think it was just some sort of planned thing because of what J-Lo said? Would they suspect the show has somehow been set up, and that voters’ choices aren’t really the deciding factor after all? The implications of this for the hit reality performance show could be serious in several ways; if it does lose the public’s confidence and sense of trust, ratings could decline. So, if a female wins this year, will people believe it is because of the votes, or because the program was rigged?

I’ve listened to a lot of people speculating as to why most of the recent winners have all been male, and the most probable explanation I have heard is that more women view and call in to American Idol than men do.  Women naturally prefer men to other women at a subconscious level, so they tend to flock around the male contestants they believe are attractive and have that star power image.  If this is true, then how does the show get more men involved in the voting process?  Or, are the men typically boyfriends or husbands of women who vote, so they just go along with whatever the lady says?  It could be.

Either way, for J-Lo to have made such a statement could come back to bite American Idol at the end of season 11 if the voting does happen to go her way.  Someone, somewhere, is going to remember how badly she wanted a female winner this year, and something will be said about it.  It’s going to be interesting watching how Lopez interacts with contestants this year, and how she applies her own star power to influence the voting trends of people in the viewing audience.  Often, without even being aware of it, people will hear the opinions of someone famous whom they respect, and act on what they’ve heard.  We shall see.