Kris Allen shocked he won American Idol

Kris Allen was shocked (and he wasn't alone) when he heard he was the new American Idol.
Photo by Kevin Winter, Getty Images for Fox

Did cheating play a part in who won American Idol last week?

The New York Times reported Wednesday that AT&T might have swayed American Idol finale results by providing cellphones for free texting and lessons in lessons in casting blocks of votes at two parties organized by fans of Kris Allen, 23, who was the winner last week.

At this time, it appears that no such "power texting" parties were thrown for runner-up Adam Lambert, 27, who was expected to be the winner by a landslide, the NYTs reported.

AT&T's cellphone network is the only one that can be used to cast American Idol votes via text messages.

“In Arkansas, we were invited to attend the local watch parties organized by the community," a spokesman for AT&T said in a statement Tuesday according to the NYTs report. "A few local employees brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested.”

Let's see. You're a huge company that sponsors a show that rides on votes, many of which are made via texting on your network. You're "invited" to "parties" at one of the two finalists' towns....and you go. Not only do you go, but you provide--yes, you, because your employees do not own the demo phones--a "small number" (how many is "small") of phones and texting tutorials "to those who were interested."

Are you kidding me? These so-called tutorials showed users how to send 10 or more texts by pressing a single button. And power-texts can influence voting results in ways single texts and phone calls can't.

And what about AI rules? At the end of each show, a statement on the screen warns that blocks of votes cast using “technical enhancements” that unfairly influence the outcome of voting can be thrown out. So, were they? Did Fox disqualify the power-texted votes?

According to the NYTs report Fox Broadcasting has declined to comment on the matter, but I doubt Fox will remain quiet for long if these allegations are true.

News of the voting support were first reported last week in an article in The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the NYTs reported.

UPDATE:

Fox and the show's producers issued a statement late Wednesday reaffirming Allen's victory.

"The results of this competition are fair, accurate and verified," Fox said. "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."

Uh...alrighty then.

In its own statement, AT&T said that "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."

My Call...though I'm probably wrong

How else could Kris Allen win American Idol? Don't get me wrong--guitar and piano-playing Allen is OK, but that's it, just OK. Glam rocker Adam Lambert, on the other hand, showed up on that stage week after week looking like, singing like and performing like a superstar. If that's not an American Idol as per the show's own standards, then no one is, and Fox might as well rename the show to American Prom King or Queen.

My theory has been that textaholics (whose affliction is worse the younger they are) were responsible for the results. Cute-boy Allen became the favorite among prepubescent and pubescent girls since the first week, when the 13 finalists were being chosen. And those girls are faithful to their imaginary lovers.

So it was no surprise, though it was frustrating, that Allen sailed through week after week, regardless of his performances (which got better with time but which was not great in the beginning), while Adam ended up in the bottom two or three several times.

But to actually win the show? That's just nuts...or tough luck for Glambert.

No wonder nationwide SAT scores are dropping. This country needs a texting intervention, if you ask me.

Source: The New York Times
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