American Idol controversy

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American Idol has generated controversy over the years in numerous areas. Among them:

Contents 1 Voting procedures 2 Other voting controversies 3 Career control 4 Idol rules 5 Contestants 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Voting procedures

The show's voting procedures sometimes cause better singers to be voted off, while poorer singers remain.^[1] Several reasons contribute to this effect.

The show uses a form of runoff voting that is similar to the exhaustive ballot method. As with any runoff-voting method, the contestant with the fewest votes is not necessarily the least popular.^[2] This unfairness is related to vote splitting in which similar contestants (such as Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia Barrino, and LaToya London in season 3, and the males Taylor Hicks, Elliot Yamin, and Chris Daughtry at the end of season 5) each receive fewer votes as a result of the similar choices. This happens because voters do not use preferential voting in which voters can indicate that any of the similar contestants is better than any of the less-preferred contestants. Some websites try to anticipate unexpected eliminations that are caused by vote-splitting.^[3]

Another consequence of using non-preferential voting is that many voters become complacent about voting for the "best" singers, and assume their favorite contestant will continue to the next round whether they vote or not.^{[citation needed]} Some voters do not want to waste their votes on especially popular contestants, and instead vote strategically, such as by focusing votes on secondary favorites who are more vulnerable to being eliminated.^[4] If too many voters do this, very popular singers can end up in the bottom two or three (as happened to Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia Barrino, and LaToya London).^[5]

The show uses plural voting (not to be confused with plurality voting), which means someone can vote many times. In online forums fans often suggest limiting the number of votes from each phone.^{[citation needed]} Opponents point out that enforcement might be difficult, some families share a single phone while other individuals have access to multiple phones, and it would limit the ability to distribute votes among multiple favorites.^{[citation needed]} The show and its sponsors, particularly AT&T and Cingular Wireless, are unlikely to limit voting for business and commercial reasons.^{[citation needed]} In particular, Cingular Wireless charges standard text-messaging rates for each text-vote sent through their system, so any voting limit would decrease their text-messaging revenues.

Many fans are discouraged from trying to vote because of the busy phone lines immediately following the end of the show, but the effect on the results is not clear, and in recent seasons more phone lines have been added to reduce this effect.^{[citations needed]}

Occasional controversial results are likely to continue because preferential voting by telephone is not yet practical^[6] and because controversial results attract media attention, which increases the number of viewers, which increases advertising revenue, and this is the goal of commercial television.^{[citation needed]}

Some websites alter the elimination sequence (but not the final winner) by promoting votes for the perceived-worst singer.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Other voting controversies

Out of 24 million votes recorded following the Season 2 finale, Ruben Studdard finished just 130,000 votes ahead of Clay Aiken, and there remains controversy over the accuracy of the reported results. There was much discussion in the communication industry about the phone system being overloaded, and that potentially more than 230 million votes were dropped just by AT&T and SBC (over 30% of the market), making the results statistically invalid.^[1] Since then the voting methods have been modified in an attempt to avoid this problem. In an interview prior to the start of the fifth season, executive producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed for the first time that Aiken had led the fan voting from the wild card week onward until the finale.^[2]

During the first and second seasons, several Utah-based companies and related individuals faced charges by the Federal Trade Commission for deceiving approximately 25,000 consumers who were trying to vote for their favorite contestant. Consumers who misdialed a wrong number were directed to dial a 900 number to cast the vote instead of the toll-free. They were not notified of the Pay-Per-Call. The complaint was filed by the United States Department of Justice.^{[citation needed]}

During Season 4, incorrect phone numbers for some contestants were displayed at the bottom of the TV screen during the recap of one show. Fox decided to throw away all the votes and ask viewers to re-vote the next night. They had the results show on Thursday, instead of the usual Wednesday. It ended with Mikalah Gordon being voted off. This happened once again on the show; however, there was no revote. It resulted in Anthony Fedorov being voted off after they displayed Carrie Underwood's numbers instead of his; however, neither Fox nor the show creator Nigel Lythgoe did anything about the incident.^{[citation needed]}

During Season 5, there was additional controversy the week Chris Daughtry was voted off. Some voters claimed that phone calls dialed for Daughtry during the first few minutes of voting were misrouted to Katharine McPhee's lines, when they heard her recorded message thanking them for voting.^[3] Other voters claimed similar problems voting for other contestants, in some cases resulting in votes going to Daughtry that were intended for another contestant, Elliott Yamin.^[4] It is not clear whether votes were actually tabulated for the wrong contestant, or if the "Thank you for voting for me" messages that callers heard were incorrectly assigned. (If the recordings were incorrectly assigned, votes would have been counted for the correct contestant despite the caller hearing the wrong contestant's "thank you" message.) Vote splitting among the three males competing against one female also contributed to the early elimination of Chris Daughtry.^[7][8]

A campaign to bring Daughtry back into the show was started by Daughtry's fans and garnered some attention in the popular press. Internet petitions in support of the cause were started and collected thousands of signatures.^[5] Ultimately, the campaign failed to gain support of the show or its producers, and Daughtry was not returned to the competition.

[edit] Career control

American Idol has also come under fire for maintaining what some claim to be total control of the careers of the any of the contestants that sign with their management company, 19 Management. Former cohost Brian Dunkleman referred to the show as "owning" the contestants, noting that signees sign contracts to record only with companies owned by the show's producers and to allow related agencies to manage their careers. It should be noted that contestants are advised of the conditions and requirements for taking part in the contest and that signing the contract is optional but a requirement if they want to participate in the competition. Even knowing the restrictions, many contestants sign the contract anyway, as AI provides most of them an opportunity for success and visibility not otherwise available.

National Geographic Channel investigator and journalist Eric Olsen wrote:

'Branding' is what Fuller is all about. He redefines the role of manager for the 21st century. He treats pop acts as brands to be exploited over different media rather than human performers who make money selling records and playing concerts. He is a genius—he makes everyone else look like complete amateurs.

In his article, Olsen lauds Fuller for his ingenuity while at the same time berates him for the contract his contestants must sign. In essence, the agreement stipulates that the finalists are "forever and throughout the universe" properties of 19 Management.

[edit] Idol rules

• During the course of Season 2, Ruben Studdard became known for wearing 205 Flava jerseys representing his area code. Shortly after the end of the contest Studdard sued 205 Flava, Inc for two million dollars for using his image for promotional purposes. Flava responded by alleging that Studdard had accepted over $10,000 in return for wearing 205 shirts, and produced 8 cashed checks to validate their claim. The allegations, if true, were a clear violation of the American Idol rules.^[6] The lawsuit was later settled out of court.^[7] No apparent action was taken by American Idol.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Contestants

• Jim Verraros was the first and so far only openly gay contestant on the show. He was told by Fox TV to remove all gay comments from his online journal. Verraros later explained, "It wasn't because I was gay. It was because they thought I was trying to gain more votes and have that little extra edge."^[8]

• Corey Clark was disqualified when the producers found out that he lied about his criminal history. Later, he claimed to have had an affair with Paula Abdul. An investigation by external counsel later cleared Abdul of all charges levied by Clark.^[9]

• Notable contestants Taylor Hicks, Bo Bice, Bucky Covington, Trenyce, and Scott Savol all had brushes with the law at various times for miscellaneous offenses. They were not disqualified as their record was disclosed to American Idol producers at the start of the competition.

• Semi-finalist Frenchie Davis was removed from the competition when topless photos of her surfaced on an adult website purportedly featuring underage content.^[10]

• Season 3 winner Fantasia Barrino included a controversial song on her first album titled "Baby Mama" about single motherhood that has received criticism from teen pregnancy prevention groups and social commentators for "sending the wrong message" about single mothers.^[11]

• Terrell and Derrell Brittenum were twins who were featured prominently on the auditions and successfully made it past the Hollywood rounds in season 5 but were subsequently arrested for identity theft and disqualified.^[12]

• The website Vote For the Worst featured salacious pictures of Season 6 contestant Antonella Barba. These pictures have received mainstream attention including a full segment concerning the controversy on the February 26, 2007 edition of FOX News' The O'Reilly Factor and also on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olberman, both of which showed screenshots from Vote for the Worst pages featuring these images.^[13]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• American Idol
• Federal Trade Commission's American Idol case
• American Idol Outrage: Your Vote Doesn't Count
• Slaves of Celebrity
• ↑ Ending The Hidden Unfairness In U.S. Elections includes an analysis of the runoff-voting method used for American Idol.
• ↑ VoteFair.org compares order-of-preference poll results with the American Idol elimination sequence.
• Votefortheworst.com

v • d • e American Idol
Seasons	1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6
Hosts and judges	Ryan Seacrest · Randy Jackson · Paula Abdul · Simon Cowell · Brian Dunkleman
Winners	Kelly Clarkson · Ruben Studdard · Fantasia Barrino · Carrie Underwood · Taylor Hicks
Runners-up	Justin Guarini · Clay Aiken · Diana DeGarmo · Bo Bice · Katharine McPhee
Other notable alumni	Chris Daughtry · Jennifer Hudson · Josh Gracin · Kellie Pickler · Tamyra Gray · Kimberley Locke · William Hung · Elliott Yamin
Spin-offs	From Justin to Kelly · American Juniors · An American Idol Christmas · American Idol Extra · American Idol Rewind
Other	Idol Gives Back · American Idol Compilation Series · Controversy · American Idol Magazine · American Idol Underground · Font · Video game · List of spin-offs · List of episodes