How Much Did Arkansas’ 10 “American Idol” Votes Per Resident Help Kris Allen?

noah | May 21, 2009 10:00 am

A Fox station in American Idol winner Kris Allen’s home state of Arkansas is claiming that official Idol cell phone carrier AT & T stated that 38 million of the 100 million votes cast in the wake of Tuesday night’s performance show came from The Natural State. Whether those pushed Allen over the top and into the winner’s circle last night is up for debate, of course, given that it’s not like preferring his one-man acoustical jams over second-place finisher Adam Lambert’s tricked-out theatrics is a requirement for living there or anything. (It’s not, right?) Reading the comments on MJ’s Big Blog last night, I saw claims from some people whose voting totals Tuesday night were in the four-digit range. Which is, um, crazy? But not surprising, what with the speed offered by new-fangled communications technologies, and their relative cheapness as opposed to the 900 numbers that would have likely been used had Idol struck up its band in the 1990s. One thing that a lot of Idol conspiracy theorists noted in their immediate reactions to the show was how the margin of victory wasn’t mentioned by Ryan Seacrest in his tortured run-up to announcing the winner. (It came complete with a freaking stuffy British guy!) Which was odd, because last year, David Cook’s steamrolling of David Archuleta was trumpeted right before his win was announced, and last week, the thin margin separating Adam’s and Kris’ vote totals was also touted. Was the margin too wide, or too thin? (Access Hollywood talking hairdo Billy Bush claims the former.) I’m sure the powervoting habits weren’t limited to only Kris fans, judging by other online proclamations. Anyway, the more I think about Kris’ ascent, style–which, again, was startlingly contemporary for a show that just last year discovered post-grunge–and overarching nice-guyness, the more I realize that I would have been OK with either outcome; indeed, closing out last night’s bloated fnale with Adam and Kris trading runs on “We Are The Champions” may have been the most fitting way to wind down a season that started rough and suffered from a lot of bad decisions (by the judges, the producer, and the public), but somehow pulled off a finale that actually had suspense, drama, and two pretty decent singers. Yes, the bad taste from the self-promoting types who tried to turn a televised talent show into their revenge for the whole Carrie Prejean debacle lingers, and it probably will for a while. But the friendship struck by Kris and Adam, and the goodwill sparked by it on both sides, is certainly making it sting a lot less. Conway reacts to Kris’ win [Fox 16; Pic via American Idol]