TiVo can predict "American Idol" losers. (Goodbye Syesha!)

The guess is based on fast-forwarding statistics.

Published April 10, 2008 10:32PM (EDT)

Entertainment blog TMZ reports that TiVo has hit on sure way to predict who's going to win -- and who's going to lose -- the biggest contest in the land. Yes, I'm talking about "American Idol."

TiVo anonymously monitors usage statistics in a pool of 20,00 of its users. The company can tell when viewers replay an "Idol" contestants' songs, and when viewers skip over it. Replaying, obviously, is a good sign. If people are fast-forwarding through your songs, you're going home.

TMZ says TiVo has predicted the "Idol" loser for four weeks straight. And tonight, TMZ says, TiVo's method predict that 24-year-old Syesha Mercado is going home.

Thanks, TiVo! But can you just tell us who's going to win so we can all go back to reading books?


By Farhad Manjoo

Farhad Manjoo is a Salon staff writer and the author of True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society.

MORE FROM Farhad Manjoo


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