Meh
All of those SMS voting things are scams.
The only winners are the telcos and the TV station who end up with the $$$
Telecom giant AT&T stands accused of attacking the very foundations of American suffrage after allegedly tainting the results of the country's largest democratic election - voting for American Idol. The New York Times has reported that AT&T - one of the show's largest corporate sponsors to the US edition of Pop Idol - helped …
"America's Sexiest Baby, Who Wants to Date an Accountant?, USA's Got Puppies and regional competitions for World's Greatest Grandma."
Arnt you forgetting "Who Wants to Fuck a Millionaire?, The next American Drug Dealer?, The Next Michael Vick? and who can forget The Next 'HONEST' President?"
Yet again I repeat. I hate this country.
TBH that really didn't have anything to do with it. The winner of American Idol, is prolly picked the same way X-Factor is picked over here, if the favourite would be able to hold there own anyway without being crowned the winner then the second favourite would get the deal as they wouldn't go anywhere without the contract.
The best example is Rhydian, he should have won X-Factor a few years ago but he wouldn't have had any trouble getting a contract once he got the airtime whether he won or not. Leon needed the contract as his allround performance wasn't strong enough for him to go it alone. Therefore Leon was always likely to win as Cowell would be able to make money from Rhydian without Rhydian actually winning, so he got two money makers for the price of one.
Not exactly fair but makes good business sense.
There's similar shows on Brit TV...
@steve-c - I was curious too - and I live over here! But a quick google seems to indicate they don't. I'm surprised - we have some *incredibly* niche shows that really make you sit up and go "the hell???" We quite literally have spin-offs of spin-offs of spin-offs. I suspect their weekly audiences are composed of the same people that slow down to rubberneck at traffic accidents.
ps - I'm compelled to add that I know of these shows not because I'm a closet viewer, but because we have a lovely show called "The Soup" that makes fun of them.
AI's runner up this year was actually something else and I enjoyed watching the show this season.
Compared to this, I watched bits of Britain's Got Talent the other night and it was truly painful. I could feel my brain cells dying every second of it. Never again.
AC obviously as I don't only comment on entertainment articles and need to maintain some sort of credibility!
...but it always ends up being the same as everything else around at the moment. Even if - somehow - someone different does get through, the judges normally weed them out before the audience get to start voting.
Having said that, anyone with enough independance and self-awareness to listen to something more than just the 'pop' charts probably has too high an IQ to waste money voting for these sham "contests" anyway.
Mine's the one with the Deep Purple tickets in the pocket...