I read about the planning of extreme technical voting on a very popular website which is now defunct where we could view the videos of the previous show of each of the contestants.
On that site I read about the tech savvy middle aged men who had a chat room who worked on getting Katherine McPhee to the top with massive voting. I won’t print the name of who knew this information who ran this website but he was very privy to what went on and shared it on his website and had a link to the room listed where the planning of advanced voting for Katherine McPhee was taking place.
I saw the extreme voting with my own eyes and was disheartened when over one million votes were some how caste in one hour on polls wiping out weeks of votes from many other fans. I can only imagine what they did to get Kat McPhee second to Taylor Hicks and beating out Elliott Yamin by a small margin.

Both Adam and Kris are stand up guys, looking forward to their careers. I hope both do awesomely well. But I will never waste my time voting for Idol again, why bother if you just have a landline? Not that it matters, but I was for Adam.

It’s not odd. AT&T just released a statement that this year more than 178 million text votes were received from voters.

NOPE. You need to re-read the AT&T press release:

AT&T* reported today that more than 178 million text messages crossed its network as fans interacted with the countryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s No. 1 TV show this season à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  the highest total for any season and more than double the 78 million messages AT&T reported last year.

Text message traffic counted in the tally includes not only text votes but also other ways fans interact with the show via text, such as answering weekly trivia questions, opting in to receive voting number reminders, submitting questions to AT&T-hosted chat sessions with outgoing contestants, and participating in AT&Tà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s sweepstakes.

So, no. There were not 178 million text votes cast in the competition…

Maybe. Maybe not. How do any of us know what really goes on behind closed doors at AI?

So not only did Arkansas alone bring in nearly half the votes and therefore “cheated” to get Kris to win…but now, Adam really won and graciously sacrificed the title to bestow a little happiness to small town Kris.

edited: knock off the defensiveness

I seriously hope that was meant to be a joke. lol

Maybe. Maybe not. How do any of us know what really goes on behind closed doors at AI?

ETA: Could be the reason the voting margin has not been released. The only thing I hear being “certified” by the dude handing the card to Ryan is the total number of votes that came in combined.

4. I have a new conspiracy theory:
TPTB had a discussion with Adam when they learned the vote results prior to Wednesday night. They told him that he really won, but gave him the opportunity to turn it down and hand it to Kris, which he did because he knew he didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t need it, he loves Kris & his family and wanted to make them happy, and, heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s just that kinda guy. Everyone wins and they all make millions off of us.

I seriously hope that was meant to be a joke. lol

1. In order to really get in an amount of votes that will matter, you haveto use the text method.
2. You have to have an AT&T phone in order to vote via the text method.
3. If that is fair voting practice then I’m not sure what “fair” means anymore.

4. I have a new conspiracy theory:
TPTB had a discussion with Adam when they learned the vote results prior to Wednesday night. They told him that he really won, but gave him the opportunity to turn it down and hand it to Kris, which he did because he knew he didn’t need it, he loves Kris & his family and wanted to make them happy, and, he’s just that kinda guy. Everyone wins and they all make millions off of us.

Yeah, I like that story.

Votes, shmotes. It’s only a TV show. If you just watched TV, the average viewer wouldn’t be able to tell that Adam was the “loser” anyway.

But Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m amazed that there donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t seem to be any Kris fans out there who even entertain the idea that the system could be improved.

Well, some of us have been watching the show for years and have already known for years that the voting system is unfair and nothing has been done about it in the past. So why throw a fit now? And if we needed a sign that said the producers didn’t care to fix the voting, we got it in the Judge’s Save. Rather than change the voting method, they simply added a way for the judges to “save” someone who was eliminated too early.

My not throwing a fit about unfair voting has nothing to do with Kris having won. My overall favorite (Allison) didn’t win and was ousted by guys who, in my opinion, aren’t as talented as she is. So if I really wanted to throw a temper tantrum, I could easily do so. I could also throw a fit because Lisa Leuschner (Season 3) was ousted in the semi’s in favor of Camile and Matt Rogers. Or because my season 5 favorite (Daughtry) was ousted too early. And in fact, when that happened, I did comment on the voting being unfair…but did I personally harrass the media through flooding their e-mail and cause newspapers to write stories about it? No, I didn’t. I posted my disappointment on the forums that I went to that week and then I MOVED ON.

I’ve known the voting was unfair for years now. I’d much rather vote a few times and go on my merry way on voting nights but I feel a need to vote the entire two hours so that my favorite stands a chance because of the other fans who are powervoting. It’s not a big deal to me. We ALL have the opportunity to powervote.

Heck, I think it’s unfair that only AT&T subscribers can text vote. I don’t have AT&T, so I’m stuck trying to vote on the landlines. But had Adam won, I would not have thrown a fit. I can say that with complete honesty because I was expecting Adam to win. Not because I wanted him to (I voted for Kris, as did all of my friends), but because he had been built up in the media so much that I figured he had won the season weeks ago. But I voted as much as I could for Kris anyway because it was my last opportunity (as far as the show itself goes) to support him and obviously, I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

Good news! Lindsay’s father has been arrested and Mel’s girlfriend is pregnant!

Now maybe the world can move on

its just silly and odd that out of the 8 seasons, NOW is the time the Times wants to cover the power of texting. riiiiiiiiiiight. This has been going on since season 5, if i can recall. Thus why now? And why the Times? You always have to consider your source.

It’s not odd. AT&T just released a statement that this year more than 178 million text votes were received from voters. That’s more than double the amount (around 78 mil.) from just last year, so I’m sure the difference between season 5 and today is huge. Moreover, out of the 624 million votes cast this season, 178 million of them were text votes, representing almost 30%. Again, people keep forgetting that technological advances move at lightening speed. Things change and backwards comparisons are not really relevant. The AI voting system is ridiculously antiquated.

Would these same Adam fans be upset about unfair voting if the shoe was on the other foot and the AT&T people were out at organized Adam parties while Kris got nothing? Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m guessing the outrage on part of these same fans would be pretty non existant if Adam had won.

And I’m guessing the Kris fans would be feeling a similar sense of outrage and making a lot of the same arguments that are being made now.

I’m also not sure anybody, even Kris fans, are saying that the voting system doesn’t need to be revamped at any point in the future. But I have to just agree with the sentiment that the texting crap has been going on for seasons and my issue is I just find it ridiculous that this whole issue of unfair voting is only coming to light because Adam, the chosen one, didn’t win. Would these same Adam fans be upset about unfair voting if the shoe was on the other foot and the AT&T people were out at organized Adam parties while Kris got nothing? I’m guessing the outrage on part of these same fans would be pretty non existant if Adam had won.

Also where do AT&T people draw the line? I never power voted, but I was part of the Castro fan contingent the season before. Fans were advised to go to AT&T and buy Go Phones and all the usual crap. Many fans told the AT&T peeps exactly what the phones were being used for and the workers set them up and taught them how to use them for Idol voting (hence power voting). Sure it might not be the same as attending an Idol party, but it’s the same concept. I’m sure AT&T workers all over the US were helping teach people from all different fanbases how to use their phones effectively for Idol. I don’t even see anything wrong with it really.

Hey, those Kris Allen fans were organized! Good on them!

So were Taylor Hicks’ fans. It’s been wonderful for his career. :blink_tb:

others on phones borrowed from AT&T, which supplied about 50 display units and representatives to teach multiple à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“power texting.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 

AT&T also made about 30 phones available in a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“texting zoneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  at a watch party at the Peabody Little Rock hotel,

So EIGHTY cell phones is what this is about? EIGHTY? Seriously? EIGHTY? By the way everyone is freaking out, you would’ve thought more along the lines of AT&T giving out 8 million cell phones programmed only to vote for Kris.

Tomorrow Britney or Lindsay will have a relapse, Brangelina or Madonna will have a baby, or some actor will slug someone and this will all be history.

The real issue here is not that people can power vote, but the fact that normal viewers of the show cannot vote, due to the overloaded phone circuits. In my several years of AI voting, it has been impossible to get past the busy signals for hours at a time. Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s like pouring a gallon of water through a drinking straw. The same amount of water is going to end up in the bucket through the straw no matter how many gallons you try to pour. This, for all intents and purposes, means that the final 3 or final 2 contestants will always be tied in the phone voting in most markets. The Pope and Charles Manson would be tied because fans of both would be getting busy signals.

The whole problem is the unlimited phone voting which overloads the phone circuits and nullifies the votes of virtually all viewers except the most rabid crazy text-messaging fans.

Yeah, I used to think that it was more casual viewers who had an impact, but when lines are so jammed you cannot even get through… I doubt it. It’s just become about who is more organized and backed by texters.

Having said that, even no matter what bullshit there was surrounding this, Kris won under the rules. Power texting because your friend asked you to is okay. And I don’t care if AI is fair or not; it’s a show, not kindergarten. If you subscribe to conspiracy theories, maybe AT&T thought Kris was a better representative for their corporation. Maybe Arkansas all sat down and voted for Kris Allen. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to what happens post-show either, except for a bit more promotion initially, singing to Walmart and going last on tour. They will do what they want with the contestants they want after it’s all done.

And I say this as an Adam fan who would have loved to see him in a confetti shower, but now that has passed, it doesn’t matter. I think Kris is really sweet (albeit, not my thing musically), and don’t want to see him (along with Adam) dragged through this. I said I felt bad for whoever won if it wasn’t Adam during The Adam Lambert Show, but when it was Kris, I didn’t. He seemed gracious and sweet and the best at dealing with coming first to Adam’s second (who still gets so much buzz). I didn’t realize that this would manifest.

Still, there seems to be a subset of Adam fans who seem to be aiming for an award for “Craziest fans EVAR” and this isn’t helping deter that. Granted, asking for “No Boundaries” on the radio, stalking his brother and fangirling his ex was already proof of that. I do think Adam has a chance to not be taken down by that since he already has so much surrounding him that I don’t think this will be the main Adam story.

By the way, MJ: I don’t those fans were responsible for the NYT story, but trying to spread the story.

like MJ said, if this guy at the Times had bothered to do some real research, or at least place real focus on corporate sponsorship, then i would give the story some validity….but bottom line,he is trying to uncover some big scandal for the paper, for the sake of selling papers/getting hits …aka making money (ohhhh, the irony).

and in this day and age of blogs/twitter, you dont have to do much to start or feed a rumor.