‘American Idol XIV’ spoilers: Tyanna Jones on Twitter twist; how it could send Daniel Seavey packing

Usually, singing shows are not quite as transparent as what “American Idol” is doing on Wednesday night’s new episode. Basically, this is a desperate move by the show to cling to the same sort of idea that “The Voice” has popularized with great vigor the past couple of seasons to boost social-media traffic.

As explained on Twitter below by contestant Tyanna Jones (currently ranked #4 on our weekly list), the bottom two performers of the night are going to be thrown to the mercy of voters online, who will decide instantly who to save, and then who to send home. We understand why they do this, given that the twist is a heck of a lot of fun in the moment since it really mobilizes fan followings. This is also something, to be frank, really could not be done on this show years ago, but we are in a new era and networks depend on social media more then ever before.

Now that we’ve said all of this, there is one part of this twist we hate with a fiery passion: Fairness. We know we’ve piled on Daniel Seavey as of late for weaker performances, but he ultimately has the right to last as long as everyone else in the competition. Every other contestant remaining hails from a region where they can watch the show on the east coast live. However, he comes from Oregon, and Pacific Time Zone viewers are screwed by this. They basically have to follow along on Twitter and spoil the show for themselves if they want to save their favorites. Completely bogus, and he loses a ton of his local voting block with this.

We’ll be back later tonight with song choices and a review for this episode, which you can see over at the link here. Also, you can sign up now to score some other TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)

Update: We’re hearing now that Americanidol.com will live stream the “save me” performances of the bottom two, which is them throwing a bone to the West Coast. Still, how many fans will know about this?