Why AT&T didn't fix 'American Idol'

Many of you will, perhaps, remember how Woz was very suspicious (and then suspiciously changed his mind) about the voting on "Dancing with the Stars".

Now we are tormented with cries that local AT&T representatives in Arkansas gave lessons in sending up to 10 simultaneous texts to people at "American Idol" viewing parties. The surprise winner (to some, at least) was Kris Allen from Arkansas.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Fox and the two companies that produce the show, FreemantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment, denied that the "enthusiasm" of local representatives nefariously influenced the result.

After all, the "Idol" rule book states: "A weekly monitoring procedure will be in place to prevent individuals from unfairly influencing the outcome of the voting by generating significant blocks of votes using technical enhancements. The producers reserve the right to remove any identified 'power dialing' votes. Note that this applies to both toll-free and Text Messaging votes."

However, I have plowed through the whole of this rule book and can find no restrictions as to how many times you can actually vote.

The key word, therefore, is the word 'unfairly'.

(Credit: CC JonDissed/Flickr)

One has to assume the technology simply identifies multiple texts sent within nanoseconds of each other. Whereas the hands of normal human beings that would be voting have to at least pause to press send more than once.

Voting is open for a strict two-hour period after the show and only AT&T subscribers can vote by text. Everyone else has to call. There is even a little kink that those who happen to be outside of their phone's area code cannot vote.

So one has to wonder whether the actions of a few enthusiastic AT&T employees could really have swayed the results.

Strong rumors suggest the voting wasn't even close. So even if every single inhabitant of Arkansas voted 10 times, that would still only be around 28 million out of the allegedly 100 million votes cast.

And it's not as if this purported Arkansas cabal won't have been the only voting group out there. There is even a very fine site called "Vote For The Worst" which tries to get people to, indeed, use their cell phones to shoo in the least talented. Vote for the Worst is claiming that it put Allen over the top. Or under the bottom, depending on your perspective.

Naturally, one wonders about the wisdom of allowing people to vote multiple times. Money can be a wicked beast when trying to create reality show rules.

But it is surely far more likely that Arkansas' Allen, who was suitably middle-of-the-road and had never been in the bottom three, simply received far more votes than Adam Lambert, who hails from San Diego.

Lambert is the more original artist by far. But his black fingernails and rock diva personality are not so easily digested in the South.

And just in case none of you has noticed, only one "American Idol" winner has ever not come from the South. Yes, abstinence enthusiast Jordin Sparks from Arizona.

The fix, I fear, is out.

[wwilesx]

While this is interesting, even if the fix was in would it really matter at the end of the day? I mean, is the American public somehow defrauded if one person wins over another? Were we cheated out of the cost of the text messages or phone call? I mean, we can take it to the Woz extreme and remember that none of these interactive "reality" voting shows actually publish the voting results. All they do is tell us who won. For all we know, they my kick off a guy who actually won the vote but isn't what they consider an artist they want to invest significant amount of money with. *shrug*

At the end of the day the people who watch the show happily make the assumption everything is on the up because that is part of the fun and appeal of the show. If the illusion of competition was not sufficient for people to invest time and the costs for the texts and phone calls then people simply wouldn't watch or participate in the show. Besides, we can't even guarantee that our elected officials are voted in on the up and up yet there is an expectation of legitimacy out of a reality show? ;)

[Emmy2]

wwilesx,

It's not the viewers who are defrauded, it's the hapless contestants and their families who don't understand that they can't win based on their talent, but that they also have to hire a campaign manager and perhaps pay "volunteers" to get out the "vote". Having said that, given that "America" and "fraud" are pretty much synonymous these days, it probably makes sense that an American "idol" would be a scammer.

[MississippiKay]

I recommend you do some research before writing articles about American Idol voting. 1. The final vote was 4 hours, not 2 hours. Although many avid fans voted with Go phones from multiple time zones or used Gizmo to vote for 7 hours. This was particularly prevailent in Arkansas and Texas where the local AT&T store actively marketed multiple area code phones. 2. An individual voter can easily vote 4,000 times with power texting Go phones and a 20 person call list. That means that you only need 12,500 people to generate 50,000,000 votes and win. Note: Some individual voters cast over 40,000 votes in the final using multiple Go phones. 3. There were organized computer voting groups that supported Kris by casting votes for Adam that help the line as long as possible -- most Idol voters know to vote, here the words "thank you for voting for contestant #1..." and hand up. If you stay on the line and listen to the entire message you can eliminate 3 or 4 Adam votes. This not only results in blocking the Adam lines but American Idol claims to throw out these kind of computer generated votes. There were many more irregularities in this year's voting but this is enough to call for a change in the voting method.

[protagonistic]

But this all presupposes that Adam voters are all honest and only voted once. I find it hard to believe that this stuff is not going on on both sides which should even things out in the end. BTW, I don't watch, don't vote and couldn't care less about American Idol.

[alegr]

I can't help but wonder why those "greek dancers" got a top spot in one of BGT semifinals. Was it "Vote for worst" job, too?

[ErnieTheBear]

They could elect a jelly donut, for all the effect it would have on me and my life.

[carrmuse2]

I Think you are missing a really big part of all this controversy. No matter how many votes were involved . ( which I assure the number could be quite large if you consider people can text as many as 50 votes per minute depending on how good their manual dexterity is.). We won't even discuss the fact that one of those so called small parties had 2,000 people in attendance who were given phones by AT&T and then instructed on how to power text.. Did At& T offer the same accomodation to Adam Lambert fans? I believe it is a major conflict of interest for AT&T to promote one contestant over the other and then supply them with the means to power text. It may not have changed the vote totals but it certainly puts both AT&T and American Idol in a very suspicious light. If they were worried about ratings before they better get ready for a major backlash.

[avonjax52]

Bottom line is this, Adam had a ridiculous amount of Google hits and out sold Kris on ITunes by a mile. I'm from the South and I voted for Adam who was by far the best contestant that Idol has ever seen and probably will ever see again. If the vote wasn't even close then I'm certain there is something fishy. And two other things, I used to work for AT&T (BellSouth) and believe me I'm sure all the allegations are true, and carrmuse2 you are right, Fox needs to worry because after 5 years of never missing an episode of Idol, this outcome has turned me off the show for good. No more two wasted nights a week for nearly 5 months to see "America" crown the wrong singer over and over.

[spikerogan]

Of-course FOX fixed this! Come on folks. Fox fixed the News for five years, and spoon fed their ignorant fans false info to support a wrong war, and cover war crimes.

WHY would they have any decent folks in "entertainment"?

Pop is all low brow junk for the mindless masses.

And let's not forget AT&T and "warrant-less wiretaps" where was AT&T there looking out for their customers privacy?

[Emmy2]

I've also watched the show starting with season 1, when they openly talked about the computer voting and intimated that Fox would block it, which they apparently have not done. Instead, they trumpet the fact that the vote total was equal to 1/3 the population of the US. *Clearly* this is not just nimble-thumbed individual tweenagers staying up beyond their bedtimes. If some of the "organized" voting includes monetary payments to "volunteers", it may be illegal. I'm kinda torn about whether I'll continue watching "Idol" if they don't attempt to clean up their processes. On the other hand, regardless of who "wins", it's the gig of a lifetime for the final 10, so, as a longtime supporter of struggling musicians, I have to hope it doesn't get shut down for fraudulent behavior.

[Dalkorian]

So wait a minute here, let me make sure I get it. If you try to fix an election but fail, you're innocent?

The show may have been poorly rigged, but it was rigged nonetheless.

[macrhino]

I think the statistical evidence is overwhelming. The vote was rigged. If the differential was large, it was rigged well.

[wooha3]

Why would Simon Cowell unfairly tell viewers that "Bono was honored that Adam was going to sing his son"; tell viewers explicitly to vote for Adam before the "finale" voting; go on numerous talk shows to promote Adam; in every interview, state that Adam was the best, and undeniably build up the viewers expectation that Adam should win, UNLESS the producers and judges knew that Adam was not getting the most votes throughout the weeks of the competition. When there were only six contestans left, Adam was in the bottom three, and Kris was in the top three with Allison and Danny.

I dont believe when Kris won that it was an upset or surprise. Simon Cowell created an unrealistic expectation that Adam should win so everyone expected it even if they liked Kris, Allison or Danny best.

Producer, Simon Fuller has stated unequivocally that there is an electronic system in place that prevents unfair block voting. Also, Fuller has the power to declare Adam the winner, if he felt Adam deserved it.

Kris, Adam, Danny and Allison will do well regardless of all the bickering. I personally like all four of these guys, but voted for Kris at the finale using redial on a land phone and could only get a busy signal for the first three hours.

Also, waiting to hear the A T & T message to the end on a call to vote for Kris couldnt block calls to Adam, as one poster suggested, they have different phone or text numbers.

[avonjax52]

It was the Top 5 not six and Kris was in the bottom 3 also. We don't really know for sure if it was Kris or Adam in the bottom 2, they never really said. The reason Simon made the voting comment is because often voter apathy and assumption that their favorite was safe has caused some contestants to be voted out early. I think this may have been what happened to Chris Daughtry. But this season was the most blatant with the Arkansas fiasco and people voting against Adam.

[corey1956]

I was very disappointed in the outcome of the show, but even more disappointed to hear that AT&T underhandedly cheated by allowing Kris Allen fans to powertext their votes. Regardless of how many votes were cast through those powertexts, it's absolutely not fair to any other contestant, most of all, to Adam Lambert. This goes against the rules of the show, but because it was the sponsor who did the deceiving, Fox will just allow the rules to be broken. To me, that only confirms how this show is rigged. AT&T & Fox are now trying to downplay their wrongdoing. Regardless of the outcome, this was downright cheating, no matter how you look at it. There is a huge flaw in their voting system. I, for one, will never watch this show again because I feel that the voting is not fair. Also, it seems that America is voting for the contestant based on his/her popularity instead of their talent. I'm not into rock n roll, black fingernail polish or mascara on a man, but Adam Lambert was by far the better contestant. He is definitely nultitalented. Kris Allen, on the other hand, won due to his popularity as a cute, meek, good ole christian boy from Arkansas. He definitely had very little vocal range & no stage presence at all. Actually, he was very boring to watch perform. This show needs to change their voting rules before they lose a lot of their viewing audience.