Scandal at American Idol?

[Sandy51]

Check it out!

http://www.drudgereport.com/idol1.htm



Sandy

 

[Mish19]

I tuned into Good Day Live today and they were talking to Simon and he also says that Clay saw the result card right before Ryan Seacrest announced Ruben the American Idol. Simon pointed out that Clay stood there staring at Ruben and he whispered something to Ruben and Ruben whispered something back.
Simon thinks he said something like "You got it Ruben."

 

[Megan's Mom]

Is that the new math that they are using?

 

[katerkat]

I also heard that Clay saw the card by accident about five minutes ahead of the announcement. Poor darling.

Honestly, I'm not sure the host reading the wrong numbers on stage is a scandal. Yes, if the numbers were really wrong... But if it's just that Ryan is, well, um... OK, I have numerical dyslexia, so I can see how someone can read 1,300 for 130,000 -- I do it all the time. Of course, I'm not a TV host, so...

 

[Parrotheader]

I actually wouldn't be at all surprised if they tweaked the reported numbers downward during the evening last night for dramatic effect. However, I doubt they did any actual doctoring of the final results in regards to who won. That would be just too stupid (not to mention it would surely leak) and be a potentially devastating blow to a network that's finally attained a fairly level playing field with the Big 3 networks.

 

[CookieGVB]

Had they stuck to the numbers of votes between them, and not announced the percentages, that would fly.

But people have calculators and figured out something was wrong with the numbers.

It sounded more dramatic with the removal of a comma, but that's part of what made people think what ELSE was being botched.

For the people only using an 800 # to be duped is one thing, but they had people sending text messages and spending a lot of money on votes...I'd definitely be upset with Fox for that reason alone if they fudged the results.

Both got recording contracts in the end, so no matter, except for the integrity factor. I think a lot of people were turned off because of it, and next season will likely bomb in the ratings.

 

[disykat]

When Ryan said it my first thought was "he read that wrong" and was surprised it wasn't immediately corrected. However, I don't get why people have to turn it into a big thing - mistakes happen.

 

[Indyman]

Originally posted by CookieGVB
I think a lot of people were turned off because of it, and next season will likely bomb in the ratings.

I doubt it will bomb. Viewers have very short memories and wil probably jump back on the AI bandwagon next time around.

 

[honeywolf7]

Interesting!

 

[Belle1962]

I think AT & T should have had some caller id system that would only let one vote per phone number be cast. I thought I saw a news interview where some people said they voted/were able to get through multiple times. (I didn't watch any of the AI shows but saw a lot of coverage yesterday morning).

 

[FergieTCat]

This has to be Florida's fault!

Who knows, maybe it was really Al Gore!

 

[Serena]

I heard on the news this morning that a company in Evansville, IN received about 250,000 calls for votes for Clay. Apparently his number was one digit off from the number for the votes.

I don't know if it's true or not, but that's what I heard.

 

[honeywolf7]

OMG!!!!

 

[suzannen]

Interesting, Serena. Another reason why they definitely need to change the voting system for next year - way too many flaws.

 

[lisajl]

Belle1962 I think AT & T should have had some caller id system that would only let one vote per phone number be cast.

I agree with you Belle. Even though I wanted Ruben to win, when I heard his mom put in 200 calls for him, I was a little upset.
This should not be allowed. I was not able to get through, but that means a lot of Clay's admirers probably were not able to get through either.

Serena I heard on the news this morning that a company in Evansville, IN received about 250,000 calls for votes for Clay.

I heard that on the news too, Serena. They showed the company and how upset they were that they got all those calls.

Lisajl

 

[Steve H.]

Originally posted by suzannen
Interesting, Serena. Another reason why they definitely need to change the voting system for next year - way too many flaws.

It's flawed because 250,000 people couldn't read the proper phone number??

 

[katerkat]

Who knows if those callers would have been able to get through if they called the correct number? (Honestly, if I managed to get through every time for three hours, I'd check my dialing, too... And anyway, didn't these people notice there was no recording saying "thanks for voting"??)

What *I* think should be done -- make it even. The phone number is 1-800-FOX-IDOL (or whatever). Once you get through, you push 1 for Ruben, 2 for Clay, etc, etc. And have a heck of a lot more phones!!

Because, folks, if they limited it to one call per phone, they couldn't get AT&T as a sponsor without all those text messages!

 

[GoldenGate]

If they charged for every call and donated the money to charity, people would not be voting excessively and give others a chance.

 

[suzannen]

Originally posted by Steve H.
It's flawed because 250,000 people couldn't read the proper phone number??

Sorry, Steve, I should have elaborated. I've already written a complaint to Fox about their voting system and that they should allow for on-line voting. The flaw here is that your only choices were phone calls or text messaging. I'm sure a lot of folks misdialed the number because they had trouble getting their calls through (I know I had trouble and apparently so did thousands of others). So, you end up having to keep redialing, and if your phone does not have redial, it increases the chance of misdialing. But, I still believe the biggest flaw is in allowing the same person to vote, say 300 times, instead of one vote per phone, email address... Did that make more sense?

 

[damo]

I've heard of many people who voted over 1000 times!!!