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]
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How Much Did Arkansas’ 10 “American Idol” Votes Per Resident Help Kris Allen?
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The AT&T number is bogus. Fox 16 is running a correction.
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2009/05/banana_republic.aspx
Co-sign all of the above, particularly the last paragraph. Nicely summarized, Maura. No shame in Kris’s win, even if the politics would’ve been nicer the other way.
Also, not to chime in with Billy Bush, but I have to agree that the Occam’s Razor explanation has to be a too-large, not too-small, margin. It was probably so much bigger than Cook’s over Archie last year that to report it would have smelled funny on a number of levels. Remember also that the slim margin by Ruben over Clay in 2003 was reported by Seacrest when the results were announced; if it were close again, I’m sure that would’ve been reported.
I agree that the vote margin probably was quite large, and larger than Idol anticipated. I kept my mouth shut about this, mostly, and oddly, but I suspected all season long that Adam’s vote-getting had largely plateaued. He was probably getting, every week, basically all of the votes he could get. His style was obviously unique, and, as you could read all over the internets, people either loved it or didn’t. As the field narrowed and one competitor after another fell away, those other votes were going elsewhere, not to Adam. So I’m not surprised at all to hear this talk about a blowout victory.
And very nice job with the liveblog last nite. Those are always fun to be a part of.
If the show lasts another couple of years, I do think they’ll figure out a way to combat all the multiple voting that the viewers are doing. Every season could have been completely different if they used the 900 numbers.
@RobMurphy: As I’ve said before - I think - Adam also seemed to benefit from support from people (moms & grandmas who were reminded of Elvis - I swear, every woman over 45 I know seemed to be in the tank for him - and casual viewers who came to the show because of the hype) who were probably less likely to do the texting/power voting necessary to give him enough support once it came down to two contestants.
I guess the audience felt betrayed after voting for Clay, and decided to vote for the “straight” guy this time. At least this is what the people I know who watch this show are telling me.
@Vulture.Protein: But Clay lost, too.
@Thierry: I guess that shows how much I know about imaginary people . . .
The ONLY reason Kris won is because of the 38 million votes cast by the State of Arkansas. This means that ONE state represented almost 38% of the total votes for BOTH contestants. This number is so scewed it’s ridiculous when you consider the rest of the country and the 36 million population of California. Arkansas only has 2.8 million people in the entire state!
The week prior there were 88 million votes cast and Kris beat Danny when it was clear that Danny was favored in the finale. How did Kris Allen pull this off and where did the additional 21 million votes come from the following week? Here’s how it happened…
First off there were hundreds of pre-paid AT&T cell phones given out by organized Kris Allen supporters with West Coast area codes to vote long after the lines were closed in their time zone. They also were able to text hundeds of times faster than it takes you or I to dial in, and you can ONLY text if you have an AT&T cell phone. It’s actually possible to text your vote approximately 40 times within one minute using one of the new “smart phones” which equals about 2,400 votes within an hour. I tried this experiment myself with a borrowed phone today and could do it myself. Multiply that by the extra 2 hours for the cheating phones and you get over 14,000 votes by one individual provided they keep at it non stop the entire time, and believe me there are plenty of tweenagers and college students who can do this.
Visit http://www.krisalle nation.com/search/label/power%20text to learn how Kris Allen supporters were instructed on how to cheat using power texting and voting past the allotted time frame.
Once the voting officially ended in Arkansas they switched to the phones with the west coast area codes for the remaining 2 hours. AT&T is a sponsor of American Idol. Who do you think made money on all those pre paid phones? I have a AT&T land line and I was able to vote for Adam about 25 times within 4 hours because of constant busy signals. Meanwhile someone in Arkansas had voted over 500 times that amount using power texting. You only need about 1,500 people to accomplish the amount of power text votes Kris received in addition to those around the rest of the country and the state of Arkansas who voted for him by phoning in their vote. If you remove the organizers from the equation and the number is the more realistic 60% - 40% margin that was originally predicted in Adam’s favor.
How do I know all this you ask? I have a friend who attends the University of Central Arkansas where Kris goes to school and they told me about this organized group. Most of them are his fellow college students. The information is on the internet as well, you just have to look for it. This method was ALSO used the previous week, and that’s how Kris beat Danny Gokey. If you’re wondering how they managed to purchase all these “cheating” phones they held “Kris Allen MUST WIN” fund raisers weeks ago when it looked like he wasn’t going to make it and fell into the bottom 3 on April 29th. It didn’t take them long to raise thousands of dollars to purchase these phones (most likely from California) which is ironic considering it’s Adam’s home state.
Second, on the http://www.krisallenation.com/search/label/Gizmo website people were instructed and coached on how to use a computer program called Gizmo that would extend their voting time from 4 hours to 7 hours. This program is also able to cast up to 25 votes at once and can be used by people OUTSIDE the United States who are normally not allowed to vote. Some people were claiming on various Kris Allen blogs that they voted as many as 16,000 times within 7 hours using the power text and Gizmo method along with the west coast area code phones, and many people overseas are claiming they were able to vote using Gizmo as well. Go to the above website and see for yourself.
This was a very organized group of people who clearly cheated in order for Kris to win by being able to vote past the allotted 4 hour time frame, and I think it’s a shame that the most talented performer in American Idol history came in 2nd place. Simon Cowell was right in not standing up when it was announced that Kris won. I wouldn’t have stood up either.
However, I believe in Karma, and although this is clearly not Kris’ fault I think that the “cheaters” may have done Adam a favor by not locking him into the customary multi year American Idol recording contract that would limit his creative control over the production. Kris may very well go the way of Taylor Hicks and be limited to playing State Fairs and Road Houses in the future or he may do very well. Only time will tell, but I truely believe that Adam will go on to World Wide Superstardom because his fanbase is THAT Huge! Personally I think comparing Kris to Adam is like comparing Pat Boone to Elvis and most of the people I’ve talked to agree.
In response to reports about the 38 million vote count being false, it was actually reported by several different news sources.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090521-ENTERTAIN-90521001
http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/report-kris-allen-home-state-cast-38-million-american-idol-votes-9015.php
http://www.joesplaceblog.com/2009/05/how-did-kris-allen-win-idol-38-million-votes-from-arkansas-helped/
The latest blog rumor is that the information was leaked by an AT&T employee who supported Adam Lambert and was disgusted at the obvious “cheating” and felt the need to disclose how many votes came from Arkansas. You must remember that AT&T is American Idol’s Number ONE sponsor and they do not want to come off with egg on their face for the obvious reason that the company makes millions of dollars from all the text messaging and phone calls made after the telecast. Ryan Seacrest says at the end of each show, “Standard text messaging rates apply.” AT&T is based out of Dallas Texas, which is only 342 miles from Conway Arkansas and it would make sense that would support Kris Allen. There have been reports of AT&T supplying Conway with free cell phones and instructing users on how to “Power Text” so there may be some truth to that as well.
In any case, AT&T didn’t move to have the media retract the story about the 38 million votes until several hours after the fact, when obviously “outraged” Adam Lambert supporters responded to the theory that there was cheating involved. The company says it doesn’t reveal how many votes came from each state and for good reason. Can you imagine if they actually did disclose that information going back to AI season one? It stands to reason that they would lose millions of dollars in revenue if the AI ratings collapsed from under them if it was somehow found out that “certain” American Idol winners had a little “help”. Corporate America is typically ultra conservative and that’s exactly what Kris Allen is. He’s the boy next door and even looks a little like Joey from “Friends” Adam is outgoing, flashy, flamboyant, and certainly not you’re typical entertainer, but his pure raw talent is way beyond what Kris could ever hope to achieve. Kris even said at the end of the show that “Adam deserves this” and was even embarrassed by the fact that he won.
Adam is making waves and is literally kicking down the musical door so to speak, much like Elvis did in the 50’s. He’s also very polarizing, either you love him or you hate him with no inbetween. Kris is the guy who you’d invite over for a Sunday afternoon Barbeque after church. In any case it all boils down to AT&T’s bottom line and who “they” think is a marketable recording artist, and sometimes they drop the ball. All you have to do is look where Taylor Hicks is today. I wish Kris the greatest success in the future and I hope he can step up to the plate given the fact what his friends at the University of Central Arkansas and AT&T have done for him.
As for Adam… I will be the first in line to buy his first album.