American Idol vote controversy proves Fox should release vote totals at the contest's end

Even though AT&T employees in Arkansas helped Kris Allen fans place "power texting" votes for him in American Idol's finale, the results did not affect the ultimate result, Fox TV said in a statement today.

But I say the controversy makes the argument from something Fox should do every year: release the show's vote totals to the public for review, once the season is done. 

The Hollywood Reporter Web site has Fox's response in an interesting follow-up to the New York Times story today noting that staffers at AT&T -- an Idol sponsor -- provided free text-messaging services at two parties supporting Allen's in Arkansas.

The Reporter also did the math, concluding that, if the 80 or so cell phones supposedly distributed by AT&T staffers were used to vote for him throughout the May 19 performance show, he would get a maximum of 96,000 text-messaged votes -- hardly enough to sway a competition that Fox said attracted 100 million votes.

Of course, since vote totals are not released to the public, we only have Idol's word that there were 100 million votes, or that their screening process filtered out bulk voting, or that the margin between the finalists was big enough that 100,000 or so votes wouldn't matter, anyway.

I understand why votes totals aren't released during the show; they would skew the competition by telegraphing which contestants are more popular than the others.

But once the competition is done, there seems to be little problem in releasing vote totals for the finalists, broken down by week, so the public could see how the competition progressed.

I'm not holding my breath on this one. But given the intense public interest -- and laws on the books against manipulating game shows -- there seems to be a potent argument for pushing Fox to disclose how its voting totals played out.

Click below to read Fox and AT&T's statements, as published by the Hollywood Reporter: *

The site noted Fox and "Idol" producers 19 Entertainment and FremantleMedia released a statement Wednesday saying Allen is indeed the winner:

“Fox and the producers of 'American Idol' are absolutely certain that the results of this competition are fair, accurate and verified. Kris Allen is, without a doubt, the American Idol. We have an independent third-party monitoring procedure in place to ensure the integrity of the voting process. In no way did any individuals unfairly influence the outcome of the competition.”

Also, AT&T released this statement:

“Last week, countless parties were held in homes, bars, and other public places across America to watch the 'American Idol' finale. In Arkansas, a few local AT&T employees were invited to attend two local watch parties organized by the community. Caught up in the enthusiasm of rooting for their hometown contestant, they brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested. Going forward, we will make sure our employees understand our sponsorship celebrates the competition, not individual contestants. That said, it’s quite a leap to suggest that a few individuals could have impacted the final results.”

Comments

[Sal]

MIKE: Just consider the overwhelming interest in the American Idol/ AT&T voting corruption as a larger battle against corporate scams. American Idol is a reality show but the actions AT&T employees took were indicative of corporate corruption that has occurred in other venues. Corporate greed is becoming all to common in America. If people take offense on the American Idol level, then maybe they will generalize and start fighting corporate corruption in larger venues - like fixed gas prices and other market manipulations. Remember that a million dollar (a lot of money in my book) contract was awarded to a contestant whose voters were admittedly assisted, by a corporate sponsor of American Idol, with prepaid phones and technical tutorials - not to mention that the assistance helped the voters break the Idol rules. Corruption needs to be fought on all levels. Don't be too hard on the disgruntled Idol fans and the media attention they are generating. Maybe this will alert the FCC to start paying more attention to the real white collar crimes instead of worrying about censoring the Black Eyed Peas. AND maybe this will open eyes to the possibility of real election corruption that continues to be a serious problem.

[Mike]

It's scary that more news reporting time is spent on voting controversy on American Idol then all all the voting fraud in the real election combined.

[Mari]

Wow Adam. Know the definition of hypocrisy?

[Adam]

We. Don't. CARE!! And if you typed a comment above with any kind of opinion about the conspiracy or the controversy of a television game show, you should be put in a shopping cart and rolled down a very steep, bumpy hill. You represent the ultimate loser in American society - someone who is a slave to television. Get off your ever-widening rear end and put your passion to work to improve our country.

[Lana]

Who cares? If the voting was legit it would be limited to one person one vote. This show is as real as Celebrity Apprentice. By the time it comes to the top ten the results are already established.

[Bren]

I am disgusted with American Idol, their producers and AT&T. Adam Lambert is the clear winner. That is exactly why Fox won't come clean. I agree with Tamarcia Woodard that big business, meaning big reality shows, are still dishonest, greedy and manipulative. I also think there's something sleazy about Seacrest as well. Some kind of dirty politics behind the scenes. My gut tells me that none of the judges are involved.

[George T]

American Idol voting "controversy" and marital troubles for a "reality" show TV couple famous for being famous.

Hard hittin' stuff here!

[Chris Ronk]

Whatever. Things worked out for the best anyway. I wish them both the best of luck on their careers.

They are both good guys.

I don't think I will be tuning in to next years American Idol though. It really is kind of lame.

[Robin 'Roblimo' Miller]

I really don't care.

[Tamarcia Woodard]

Adam won American Idol hands down. I think Idol should go back and talley the votes between Khris and Danny. Danny and Adam should have been the two finalists and Adam should have won. When Idol gets down to the final 10 the judges should determine who leaves each week. When Idol gets down to the two finalist then America should vote. It's ridiculous to have corruption in something as innocent as American Idol. When is America going to get back to true honesty and get rid of corporate greed!

[Kerry Kolsch]

If the 38 million Arkansas votes are true and on the ground in Arkansas they are bragging about the number and that dose not include the California phones that were used to generate as many as 20 million more votes, then if American Idol is saying they are legal votes they need to come clean with the numbers. They are provoking the initiation of FCC complaints and class action lawsuits to get to the truth.