I just finished doing "Benningan's Idol" karaoke contest at six Benningan’s locations. It was organized by a couple ladies who own a travel agency so the top prize was a trip two to Cancun. I provided the music and the ladies registered the singers and picked the judges from the audience. We had fantastic singers on all three preliminary nights where one singer wins, then goes on to compete in the semi-finals and later the finals. Singers that don't win can come back to any of the other Benningan's to compete in the preliminaries.
Toward the end of a contest night, the two ladies would tally up the score and I have all singers doing a song like YMCA. As for judging, I always seem to know who is likely to win or at least I narrow it down to the top two. Funny thing is that my picks won only about half of the time. I noticed that the winners seemed to be the ones who came from show to show and were from these ladies home town. Perhaps the ladies felt more compassion for these people and decided to override the judge’s choice, not sure? I didn't want to ask them and remained neutral It's business as usual!
Steve