daylies music: Idol Stalker - Watching American Idol

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Idol Stalker - Watching American Idol

Posted: 27 May 2009 09:02 AM PDT

If you've been watching American Idol, you probably know that AT&T is one of the show's biggest sponsors. Now that season eight is behind us, The New York Times is claiming that the telephone company might have helped secure a victory for Kris Allen. The allegedly "provided phones for free text- messaging services at two Allen parties in Arkansas on the night of the finals" and that "AT&T reps showed party-goers how to "power text" — cast 10 votes at the touch of a button — which violates show rules."

Wow. That's a pretty serious allegation considering that the article goes on to say that those power texts "have an exponentially greater effect on voting than do single text messages or calls to the shows toll-free phone lines."

So far, no one has come forward about seeing anything like this at any of the Adam Lambert parties. Of course, Adam's fans are now saying that the competition is rigged. I can't remember a year, though, when these types of rumors didn't surface after the finale.

Fox hasn't addressed the controversy but AT&T said: "In Arkansas, we were invited to attend the local watch parties organized by the community. A few local employees brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested."

Interesting… That sounds very close to admission of guilt to me. What do you think?

UPDATE: Fox has released a statement which can be seen here: http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/05/american-idol-a.html