Voting - Manipulation/Questions/Comments

[AnnaRHR]

Originally posted by SillyMamma
The whole point of AI is to sell advertising on the show itself and sell records and concerts afterwards. This means selling to fans who vote "for", not "against". If a performer has a fan base willing to spend time, that perform has a fan base whose probably willing to spend money. Changing "voting for" to "voting against" would make AI a better show, but a poorer generator of $$$s.

Exactly. A person who half the viewers love and half the viewers hate will likely garner more publicity and sales than somebody most of the viewers are neutral about, which is why Vanessa is gone. Besides, it seems like as soon as people start disliking somebody, people start liking them to compensate, so a person who is the most disliked is not necessarily least liked. I think people are more interested in a person people are opinionated about as opposed to one that is likeable, but not exceptional. And if people aren't interested in the person, they won't sell records/movie tickets.

[AnnaRHR]

Originally posted by Threshold
Yet another flaw with the current system is that each week is almost meaningless. According to a poll at American Idol's official page, somewhere around 85% (depending on when you checked, it was 83% and 87% the two times I checked) of viewers said they had already DECIDED who their "American Idol" was.

This means that the performances each week have very little relevance. The top people are always going to have their fans voting for them, and the person to get the least votes is somewhat random. It is not a reflection of how people thought the contestants performed that week.

Actually, I don't think that is necessarily accurate. I think the type of people that go online and go on sites like this and take polls and all that are people who are already big fans of their favorite(s). However, I think the majority of viewers watch the show and vote for the best performance (I know that's what my husband does). Thus, if somebody is watching for the first time, and sees somebody giving their best performance, they will likely get votes, even if their average is typically less (although I think most of the contestants are either consistently good or consistently bad). For example, Trenyce likely got the most non-regular viewer votes two weeks ago, because she gave teh best performance (Whitney Houston), while Kim L.'s performance this Tuesday was the best of this week, so she probably got a lot of those votes. Of course, there are some contestants who are never near the top of the heap, so the majority of their voters are likely obsessed fans. Thus, while each singer has a fanbase, only singers who perform well get the votes of non-obsessed viewers.

[AnnaRHR]

Originally posted by ilean4clay
For some others, like Josh this week, there are no busy signals. 400 calls can only help someone like that stay around another week. Hmm, maybe *that's* how Corey and Carmen are lasting.

That's funny, because I tried calling for Rickey and for the first hour, the line was busy non-stop. However, he was in the bottom three, which is strange if the line was so busy. I'm thinking that producers are trying to manipulate the votes by opening some lines earlier than others. This is just my opinion, but if it was easy to get through on Joshua's line, but Rickey's was busy for the entire first hour (I couldn't get through once until 9:15, although the show ended at 8 and I was calling non-stop). It just seems highly questionable to me...

I was just wondering, what number were busy/not busy when you phoned in votes? It doesn't seem fair that some numbers are busy and don't allow votes through and those people end up in the bottom three while other numbers are easy to get through, but those people don't end up at the bottom...

[Palindrome14]

That does seem fishy..... I really wouldn't be surprised if they were manipulating the votes, though. I mean Josh, for example, is much better for ratings since he is a marine then someone like Rickey would be.

[AnnaRHR]

Originally posted by hazyshadeof
Have you ever wondered if they force busy signals for certain contestants? A number of people I know said they couldn't get through on Julia's number for over an hour. Makes you wonder a little, and I'm not a big fan of conspiracy theories.

Here was another post on another site. It just seems like they let more people get through for certain performers, while others don't have the opportunity to get through. While I'm not a Julia fan, I do like Rickey and I don't think it's fair that I and many others were unable to get through to vote for Rickey, yet he was still in the bottom three, while Joshua was easy to vote for, so more people could get votes in. Also, when this happens, I think lots of people think they're safe because their lines are busy for so long. Just a though.

[AnnaRHR]

From personal voting:

Trenyce - hard to get through
Kim L. - hard to get through
Rickey - hard to get through

From what I've heard:

Julia - hard to get through

Joshua - easy to get through

Who tried voting for anyone else?

[Threshold]

This past week, I voted for Josh, Clay, and Ruben.

For all three, I did not get a single busy signal.

Reading this is very disturbing. If they are giving certain performers phone bank priority so more calls can get through, that is just disgusting.

[spegs]

I couldn't get through for Clay for the first hour, after that I got through easily.

I got threw for Carmen, never a busy signal

[cali]

Ithink this question is brought up for every show that has any type of viewer participation.

I would wager that no one manipulates the phone lines. It's just too risky.

[bayika]

Originally posted by spegs
I couldn't get through for Clay for the first hour, after that I got through easily.

I got threw for Carmen, never a busy signal

Same here about Clay. The thought of the producers manipulating the vote is an ugly reality...I hate to think it goes on, but wouldn't be surprised if that's happening. I've never (repeat: NEVER) called in for Carmen since that would only give her another vote, but if there's never a busy signal on her line and yet she remains unscathed and never in the bottom three, you gotta question that. I have nothing against her but feel she's out of her league among who's left. If she somehow wins the competition, I swear I won't watch the next AI.