2nd Update: FOX 16 posted a correction to the story: an AT&T spokesperson told FOX that “AT&T does not divulge or confirm how many votes were cast in any state.” The story appears to be a rumor of unknown origin.
UPDATE: TV host, Billy Bush just tweeted this: “Source at the top says Votes were NOT close on idol. IE kris blew out adam lambert”
So, check this out. The state of Arkansas was representin’ in Idol votes last night, according to FOX16. I’m guessing the lions share of these were mostly for winner Kris Allen.
AT&T says about 38 million American Idol votes came from Arkansas last night. Chances are, most of those came from Kris’ home town of Conway. Hundreds turned out to watch Idol finale and the town seemed to erupt in cheers when Ryan Seacrest announced that Kris was the winner.
Ryan says there were nearly 100 million votes last night. So do the math. Seriously. Regional voting at it’s fiercest!
I’ll post more news as it comes….
I’m sorry, what? How do you figure that, because he was on top? Perhaps he just, oh, IDK, had more votes.
If Adam had won no one would be complaining about voting practices right now, even if the 38 million votes RUMOR came from his side of things.
And there’s no way votes for Adam could have helped do that??
I doubt those supposed 38m votes from Arkansas were all done via Gizmo or DI. So if all of Arkansas was texting for Kris and his fans crashed DI and Gizmo by power-voting, I’m starting to wonder if any of those 100m votes were for Adam. *rolls eyes*
Obviously not as rabid as Arkansas politicians. :mrgreen_wp:
I don’t get the Arkansas politician line. You mean Bill Clinton? Because he was their governor before he became President.
I guess if David Archuleta had won last year, it wouldn’t have been a joke. Because I saw PLENTY of people buying and handing out gophones for fans to use to vote for Archie last year. I also saw people telling each other how to use Skype and such. But wait…he didn’t win, so their efforts didn’t work.
…Or is it that Kris fans were just much better at it than Archie fans?
I think you only have to look at the news coverage the two finalists have gotten in their hometowns/states to see why such a tremendous number of power votes could have come in for Kris. It’s just a whole different mindset. There were even quite negative articles about Adam in San Diego papers, and the local newspeople there seemed pretty dismissive or uninterested in the whole thing. They certainly weren’t in any sort of get-out-the-vote mode for Adam.
Quite the contrary, you have Kris getting not only near daily positive coverage in his state, but organized local campaigns aimed at getting people to power-vote for Kris in the most efficient way, i.e. texting, including the use of Go Phones registered in other area codes for extending the voting window.
I just don’t think the number is unreasonable. I’m one person and I put in between 12,000 and 15,000 votes per week the entire Idol season during 2 hour voting windows.
Oh i was referring to this guy..
http://www.robbiewills.com/2009/05/20/american-idol-votes-are-in/
The speaker who has so much time on his hands…………
I’m off the “Arkansas vote train” to explain Kris’s win BTW, was just having a little fun, since we’re still talking about it
Because it is well known within the American Idol production team that Nigel Lythgoe did his best to screw with Archuleta. Why do you think Simon Fuller sacked Lythgoe last year.
Does your location matter when voting , or whether you are using a landline or cellphone, because I dialed for 4 hours Tuesday night and got through a total of 6 times? I assumed everyone in the country was having the same problem but am blown away by the fact that you got in 12,000 votes to my 6. I’m using a Sprint cellphone from New Jersey. Most weeks I can barely get through for the first hour but the lines loosen up during the second hour to the point where maybe one in 10 attempts gets through. I know text messages always go through but I don’t have AT&T
Doubtful that 38 million votes came from Arkansas. Look at the population of Arkansas using WolframAlpha — not even 3 million people.
# People in Arkansas
Brewster, interesting, but isn’t that just a rumor?
Please correct your story. Fox 16 in Little Rock has retracted theirs, and shown their bad (but enthusiastic) journalism. 38% of the votes coming from Arkansas’ tiny population? Definitely not logical.
* CORRECTION
Based on incorrect information provided to one of our reporters, FOX16 News reported Wednesday night, an extraordinary number of votes came in from Arkansas to American Idol.
AT&T spokesman Ted Wagnon told us today, “AT&T does not divulge or confirm how many votes were cast in any state.”
We apologize for the error.
The ability for people to vote as many times as technologically possible has made the voting process the real competition and not the singing. The power to make a difference with your vote is one of the fundamental elements that made AI a success. If the public does not feel that their vote counts, the show’s appeal diminishes and the show’s popularity will fade. Ameican Idol should change the voting procedures for next year.
The public loses interest in actually voting for their favorite because now we are up against techniques like what Arkansas fans did with their phone/text/computer strategy (4,000 votes per person over ALL time zones). The record results indicates that it has become a technological competition. Next year others will find even more creative ways to beat the system. AI may get a ‘billion’ votes to brag about, but it will be done by computers and therefore meaningless.
The current voting method is unfair to contestants and the public. Tell AI what you think: askfox@fox.com
How about this idea for new voting procedures – you get 10 votes per device (landline and cell) and 10 texts on ALL carriers not just AT&T. You then choose how you want to divide them up among the contestants. Some may split them between favorites and others may give someone all their votes.
I suspect that there is big money in this for AI and their advertisers. Having all those text votes coming in means many people’s cell phone bills will show extra charges if they exceed their limit. I also think that they love to say “the highest number of votes ever…”. I used to think it was a big deal if I redialed 10 times for one contestant. Now I realize how foolish I was…
lbm, thanks for the Fox link. I sent them an email echoing your suggestion about the 10 votes per device. You know how nice that will be if you can only vote 10 times? I hope the take the suggestion.
If you read this closely, ATT never said the 38 million number was wrong. They said it was their policy not to divulge or confirm the number of votes cast in any state.
I think someone released some information in error. I’m sure Fox called to confirm the number with an ATT’s spokesperson and got the above statement.
Fox had no choice but to retract it, (even if the figure is correct) because no one will now go on the record with that figure. Whoever released it to begin with may have been fired or suspended by now. I’m sure it is part of the ATT contract with AI not to release figures.
I’m not saying the 38 million is true, but I don’t think ATT did a very good job of putting out that fire.
I think AI should address the whole power voting issue (all contestants have fans that do it) and use lbm’s suggestion above.
I think we would all be thrilled for our own personal reasons if each device was limited to 10 votes each. Imagine how much more free time we would have on Tuesdays?