Reality shows that are talent-based, such as Top Chef, Project Runway and American Idol, need to institute a 'mercy rule'.

The way things are now, after 3-4 weeks it becomes apparent who the top talent is and, unfortunately, who the bottom talent is. Then the shows go through a few agonizing weeks where the bottom talent ends up in the bottom three of the week, is berated by the judges for bad taste and terrible workmanship, and one-by-one they are let go. Those episodes are boring because they are quite predictable, even though producers do their best to make it appear like anyone can go home, and also they are boring because we waste our time viewing sub-par output from these contestants.

I think a better approach would be to start off with a slightly larger set of initial contestants (say, 20 instead of 14) and then after 3-4 weeks where one contestant is removed each week, we go through a reboot/wipe-the-slate-clean episode where 4-6 contestants are removed at the same time. This way, the show lasts the same number of weeks as now, which the producers want, and we get to let go the poor souls who are just not good enough to be there. Plus it adds a high-drama episode (the mass elimination episode) that I'm sure the producers will know how to market for maximum effect.

Win win!