Conspiracy Theorist Alert! American Idol Results Annouced to Brit Press Before Vote?

Cafe Society
1

Take this one with a grain of salt. But this is one of those great cultural questions that has to be asked.

I know its an illness but I was one of those sucked into watching the American Idol Season Four Finale on Fox last night. Not so much because I cared whether Carrie or Bo won but because I actually got sucked in early and have enjoyed most of the season for what it was, entertaining non-violent entertainment.

Also, as a singer, there was a certain amount of vicarious pleasure in watching the week to week progress of the hopefuls and seeing the surprising improvement that some of them would show.

If your care you know who won, if you don’t I won’t bore you. The interesting thing to me is that through a fluke I had posted a file on my blog about the votefortheworst.com website that had hoped to skew the results for Fox and stick them with the worst singer by “Picking” the worst singer in advance and telling those interested in who they should vote for to make sure that person stayed on, hopefully to the end.

Fox got that website killed for using its graphics, not for why it was really annoyed, as one of the lesser singers beat out one of the better singers in a show “Shocker” one week. Since that was gone, the day of the finale, those contemplating voting badly looked for the site which was missing, those who used AOL to do so found my blog as the second on AOL’s listing and clicked on it, since the main site didn’t work.

This made my hit rate skyrocket. Not hard to do. The Straight Dope I’m Not. If you listen to my wife - Dope - maybe. But suddenly I was for me, in hit heaven.

So I wrote a few more posts hoping to cache in on the trend. Watched the show. Had a good time. George Benson was hot. Then went, something I have never done, to the American Idol Forum to see the reaction.

NOT for the weak of heart. Wailing, moaning, flaming, accusations left and right, the Fox board monitors were kept up all night just to delete the really nasty ones ASAP. It was more dramatic than some of reality television this fall.

But one of the post series that was deleted several times and then stopped being deleted was intriguing. It suggested, and offered evidence, that American Idol Producer Simon Fuller (Not Simon Cowel the panel member that the audience loves to have - though I have wondered if they were the same person) gave an interview to a British News Outlet that Appeared on Sunday naming Carrie Underwood the Winner of American Idol in print, TWO DAYS before she actually won.

The message board then showed the links to the Goggle Cache Page showing the Story before it was pulled, a link to the the newspaper showing the stories on Sunday 5/22 still unpulled, which when you clicked it shows that this page has dissappeared. [Note: Fox has since deleted that entire discussion from its message boards. Wonder why they feel threatened enough to bother to do this?]

So consipracy fans. Is this fact or fixation? I am not a techie. Can the Google cache be hacked? Does Simon Fuller have some 'splainin to do?

Go to my blog for the links to the stories: http://thepeterfiles.blogspot.com/2005/05/american-idol-results-fixed-say-it_26.html
that is presuming that the whole idea has not bored you to tears paragraphs ago.

The idea that Fox’s Golden Chicken, American Idol is actually a modified form of professional wrestling is a fascinating one. Could they really be so stupid though as to release the results to the press before the day of the vote? :smack:

This is clearly a mission in keeping with the Straight Dope’s quest to Fight Ignorance. I just hope that I am not the guilty party here!!! :eek:

Peter, The Peter Files
The International School of Blog Repair Technician and Groupie Training

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure I do still want Idol to stop the Ageist practice of haveing an age limit for auditioning, but that has nothing to do with my posting this message. I just find the idea that the fix might be in on something THIS big to fascinating to put down and put it out there for those more well versed in chasing down this kind of information to examine.

2

I guess everyone took this with more than a grain of salt.

Perhaps I used to many words.

Maybe Straight Dope readers are too smart to get hooked up into the whole Idol scene like I did, or too cool to admit it.

So since there was not a sincle comment - let me put it this way.

One word answers please, Scam, Hoax, Hoo-hah, boring, Nonsense, or DC (Don’t Care).

Just curious if anyone does care whether this HUGE moneymaker is a scam. There was a time when Americans did care whether they were defrauded by TV game shows.

Perhaps we just no longer trust anyone?

Peter

3

Make that too many words.
<b>
<a Href=“Thepeterfiles.blogspot.com”>Go ahead - make my day!</a></b>

4

Make that “too” many words.

Go Ahead - Make My Day!

5

OK, The Peter files, when you get no replies, you’re allowed one bump (that is, posting to your own post to get it on the front page.) If there’s still no response, it means no one wants to respond. You can take that how you wish, but I wouldn’t read too much into it; after all, it is a holiday weekend in the U.S.

So, you may NOT post to this again. And if there are no further posts, then it dies. OK?

6

Well, I’ll stick my uninformed 2 cents in here.

Fox’s response to allegations of fixing has always been: Why would we tamper with this gold mine? It’s hard to refute that logic.

Also, if it was fixed, why would anybody tell Simon Cowell about it? To the producers etc, he’s just talent. Why would he have anything to say about how the show is actually run and produced? Any more than Jeapardy! questions are vetted past Alex Trebeck. Simon told Carrie that he thought she could win it all at her audition. Was he truely prescint? Or did he say that to 100 or so others, and we only saw one. Is he now trying as hard as he can to burnish his genius image by leaking stuff that makes it look like he “knew” that Carrie would take it all.

On the “yes it’s a conspiracy” side - What this is really, really all about is getting 19 the most money. I would totally believe that they let the audience selection process get them down to the 2-4 singers that the American public loves the most. The process is drawn out enough that the public become very invested in the person - this translates into fans who buy product. The producers then take over a bit and have the one they believe they can market the best actually win.

7

It was Simon Fuller, American Idol Producer, not Simon Cowell, American Idol Judge, that allegedly spilled the beans. (See the OP for more info.)

8

I don’t believe it at all. But if it were fixed, I still would’ve enjoyed it. Though that would explain why someone who sang, looked, and performed better than Scott got booted off before him.

9

My theory is that Constantine did not have the most fans. Just the most vocal ones.

Not everyone who votes for American Idol is an internet junkie. Some of Scott’s remarks on camera—that there are a lot of Ohioans like him, that he’s proof that an unhandsome guy can be an entertainer—seemed ridiculous to the kind of people who analyze the show down to a nub. But I believe that a lot of viewers did have empathy with him. Constantine was hard for people from the south, or the rust belt, to relate to. Scott really was one of their own. Constantine, OTOH, was hard to categorize: He’s a rocker! No, he’s a glam-rocker! No, he’s Broadway! No, right the first time, he’s a rocker! Only he’s not very good at it! His fanbase was mostly comprised of women who thought he was hot; he didn’t appeal to all demographics, the way Bo does.

Also, I know this sounds way out, but bear with me: Scott looks an awful lot like Charlie Brown. I’m serious: pudding face, blank eyes, little hair, pudgy body. People may have picked up on that subconsciously, and wanted to see the round-headed kid win.

Anyway, I don’t believe that it’s the fault of any one contestant when another one gets voted off. I was very upset when Nikko left at a point I thought was way too early, but I managed not to blame Scott. Nikko’s ship had already sailed; he just never found a fanbase at all.

10

:stuck_out_tongue:

11

I agree. I have also decided that People just don’t care about this issue because it would be hypocritical in this day and age to do so.

The contest is not really that important to most people except the most rabid of fans and the contestents and why should America hold Paula to a different standard than say, Tom Cruise or Demi Moore.

This became particularly true after the hilarious spoof in the Idol Finale in which they crushed, crushed the NBC story with outrageously funny comedy that made the whole inquiry look laughable.

Also, after talking around, I have come to the conclusion that the fact that he was pulled for other reasons was a big factor in this being a non-story. If he had been in the top 2 or won the story might have had legs, but who cares whether someone disqualified for lying says something that might be a lie now?

Well, it was an idle thought while it lasted.

Thanks for the comments.

Peter