[The lengths a person will go to…] I traded Comcast for DSL and can’t get FOX anymore. Now I go through all kinds of streaming video contortions. I still watch what I can and faithfully read the threads.
I voted a couple times for Anwar (sniff), but not since. I’ve never bought a CD and can’t imagine going to a concert.
I’ve been watching faithfully - almost every episode - since season 4.
I have voted for Bo (season 4), Chris Daughtry (season 5), and this year I have voted for Gina and Jordin. I’m pulling for Jordin now, of course.
I bought the Daughtry CD a few weeks ago, and I have some Kelly Clarkson someone gave me.
edited to add:
No, I wouldn’t go to one of their “tour” shows.
How faithfully do you watch?
Not very. As usual, I am literally years behind on anything cool. I had never seen a single episode of AI until this year when finally, after what? seven years? I thought, this isn’t going away, it’s as popular as ever, maybe I should see what all the commotion is about. I’ve probably seen most episodes this year but if I have something else to do, it’s not like I stay home to watch it. I think it’s pretty entertaining, but I’m hardly a rabid fan.
Do you vote?
No.
Do you buy any of the contestants’ music or see them on tour?
I have Kelly Clarkson’s second CD, Breakaway. It’s one of my “guilty pleasures” CDs. I bought it because I liked the song “Because of You”; I didn’t know/remember she had been on AI. I’ve heard a couple of other songs by AI’ers on the radio, but nothing I’ve liked enough to buy. I would go see any singer I really liked perform on tour, regardless of whether they had been on AI or not. I wouldn’t go see an AI tour.
Watch it all the time with my wife, or in groups, because it’s fun to play-by-play and discuss the show. It’s purely social (“demented and sad, but social”). I never watch it alone though, since in general I dislike most of the music.
I text-voted once, but got unsolicited Idol text-spam as a result, and now will not do so again.
Never have bought a CD, and have never been slightly interested in the contestants as artists. I will go by Blake’s CD though, or more probably something like a concert ticket that will put money directly in his pocket instead of a record label, since he’s a friend-of-a-friend of mine.
As for the “other idol show”, I love Rockstar, and have bought a couple of contestants’ music projects and the new INXS CD, and am eagerly waiting for a few others to publish so I can check them out.
I watch devotedly.
I vote repeatedly.
I would like to buy Clarkson’s, Daughtry’s and Hicks’ records.
I TiVo, and usually watch a few days later. Obviously, I never vote.
I have never bought an album. I woulda bought McPhee’s if she had worked to her strength (jazzy standards) and not her weakness (Aguileraey garbage).
I will buy Melinda’s according to the same standard.
I only started watching because my mother (and co-workers for a brief period) did. I don’t like the fact that it’s rarely anything but bland done-to-death triple-vanilla pop, and to this day I can’t describe a single memorable performance. Did that watch-to-comment thing last season, but just couldn’t get myself to care enough for this. I’m at “extremely casual viewer” status right now (will watch if it’s on, try to get some of the names straight, don’t record it). Don’t particularly care who wins.
Never voted. With no restrictions whatsoever, any puny effort I could come up with wouldn’t matter a whit, assuming I could even figure out how to split up my votes. (My mother did vote for Jasmine Trias, but that was more civic duty than anything.)
Didn’t buy any of their CD’s or see any of the tours. Far too casual to go that far.
You-didn’t-ask-but-this-is-my-post-and-I-wanna-say-this-dept.: I’ve seen a few of Sanjaya Malakar’s performances, and it looked for all the world to me like he’s just not ready for this. A lot of his troubles stemmed directly from dealing with the relentless AI hype machine and having to get on a stage in front of a crowd week after week. (And of course, having his fate decided in part by a joke website and Howard freakin’ Stern couldn’t have been good for his psyche, either.) He needs to go home, unwind, cool off, find a good friend to hug and share the past few months with, and get all the crap out of his system. Then he can work on his voice, work on his public image, get small-time professional gigs to make a little money and build some confidence, and gradually turn this into a career. He has the potential, definitely. Right now he needs to see that it’s not crushed forever. The development part can wait.
How faithfully do you watch?
First season I watched perhaps the first 5-6 shows. By the time they got down to the last 12 I didn’t like any of them so I lost interest.
In fact, that’s how the show is for me. I watch the audition bits for the freak show value (yes, I loved the Gong Show) but could give a shit who wins.
Do you vote?
No. Never. (see above)
Do you buy any of the contestants’ music or see them on tour?
I would never, ever, buy their CD on principle.
I watched a little last season, and I have gotten into the show this season and watching it every week/every show (DVR helps). I rarely vote though.
Last year the running joke with my wife was that Taylor Hicks was her other boyfriend, and I bought her the album (this year, Jordin is my other girlfriend–no comments on her age, please). I think she also has some Kelly Clarkson albums.
I’ve watched since the first season. I’ve skipped some of the early audition shows the past couple seasons because I actually do not watch to see crappy singers humiliated even though I honestly don’t believe any of those people seriously think they can sing. They’re just trying to get on TV and do so by being as outrageous as they can and the show often rewards them for it by giving them more airtime than the give the good singers.
I stopped voting when Chris Daughtry was voted off fourth last season. I may get sucked in again and change my mind on that stance and start voting again to ensure that Jordin makes it at least to the final three. But voting always seems futile to me.
I will probably buy Daughtry’s CD eventually. I keep meaning to buy some of Kelly’s but I just don’t go CD shopping enough and I just never pick it up. I liked Clay but I never bought his CD, turns out my mother did and I inherited it from her when she went into the nursing home.
Hey if you don’t vote you can’t complain about the results.
I’m just sayin’.
Can too. 
I fell for that in season 1. I voted for Tamyra a lot and Kelly a little. One night I was distracted by something else and forgot to vote. Tamyra got voted out. Oh, my god! What had I done? My ten phone calls might have saved her! I continued to vote for Kelly after that and yay, she won! But how could she not? There was no real competition left after that.
I continued to vote for my favorites after that, I consistently voted for Clay in season two but he only came in a close second because the large black guy who sang the same way all the time was the safer choice over the possibly gay guy who learned and grew throughout the competition. Well, at least it was a close vote.
In season 3 I think I only voted for LaToya with maybe a few votes for Jennifer Hudson before she got booted but Latoya got the Tamyra treatment anyway. After that I threw a few votes to Diana just because I hated Fantasia but I didn’t really want any of those remaining to win.
Season 4, voted for Bo Bice constantly, he got the Clay Aiken treatment because everyone favored the country chick.
Season 5 voted for Chris Daughtry solely and constantly. He got Tamyra’d too anyway. That’s when they lost me and I didn’t bother voting after that. Well, I may have voted twice for Taylor in the finals because I blamed Kat for Chris’s leaving.
I’m pretty disillisioned with the voting. I may vote for Jordin in an attempt to keep Chris R. for pulling a Nikki McKibbon on her but I don’t have a lot of faith in the rest of the voting public and don’t think my puny votes will have much effect anyway if the other voters all decide to go that way.