DialIdol & Fan Poll Discussion for DWTS **POSSIBLE SPOILERS**

[n4692u]

DI wouldn't be in cahoots with ABC because it's not an ABC website. Heck, it's not even made for DWTS... It was made for Idol.

With the online and text voting, especially and particularly in the finale, I don't trust their numbers. They have had people "in the red" before who were not (ex. Erin in the semi-finals last season).

Another example: Brooke and Lance were both in the red in Season 7's finale. Brooke was losing by a whopping 9.5 points in the DWTS score. We all know how that turned out, haha.

Season 9 finale, they had all contestants in yellow, but Kelly would have won and Donny would've been in dead last if their numbers were right.

I'm always leery of DI #s for this show, but especially on finale night. I wish that website from last fall still existed, where it was really one vote per computer. That correctly predicted Donny would win, Mya was 2nd, and Kelly was 3rd. I think it was right every week, if memory serves.

Do you remember what it said about S8 when Shawn won, because Tom said the vote was less than 1% between Shawn and Gilles?

[winniechloe]

vote the best was far more accurate, than DI. With all that said nobody until alittle while ago could get on abc to vote , it was overloaded, you can vote now. What I have seen listening to the news especially NY is that jenn and derek are leading kyle in every poll that the caual viewer of the show is voting on by a good margin. Just look at twitter out of all the contestants she was the only on trending tonight and people were voting for her. I dont get the attitude some people have about her. especially sometimes you are judged by the people you hang around with and in showbiz circles her best friends are considered some of the niciest people in the business. This show harps, and harps on stuff to make contestants look bad brandy got it, and so did jen, it is a reality show and sometimes it ain't all that real

[VAgirl79]

Do you remember what it said about S8 when Shawn won, because Tom said the vote was less than 1% between Shawn and Gilles?

Season 8 it had all 3 in yellow. Gilles was first with 70.015, Melissa 2nd with 66.856, and Shawn last with 63.129.

I tried checking S5 to see what it said for Mel B. vs. Helio, but the site didn't seem to keep the data for that finale.

[anders332]

Jennifer is far and away leading this horse race - in percentages and raw scores.

[veg_out]

That doesn't make sense to me. ABC would want the money from the calls and clicks, so why would they care who won the cheap $20 trophy, as long as the viewers keep breaking records for voting? If they block votes for any one couple (especially Bristol/Mark), they are taking money out of their own pockets, which is the real reason the show exists in the first place.

Right, but could a potential challenge from whomever motivate them to prevent the power-voters from doing their thing? Yes, it makes the show tons of money, but if they ever are challenged for the true voting numbers throughout the season, let alone the finale, they could lose much more than the money made last night.

Of course, I'm a skeptic of the process, but I have read on different boards and Twitter that many, many people had great difficulty last night logging into ABC.com and getting through on the phone lines. Yes, it could be due to a massive influx of calls/online votes such that servers and call centers were overloaded, but it also could be a protective measure by the company. As for the indicator being rigged by ABC, VA girl is probably correct, but I could see the show consulting that indicator, if they at all care that die-hards reference it, as a way to eliminate someone without too many questions since DialIdol results support their elimination.

The thing about DialIdol, as many have said, is that the indicator is SET usually by the middle of the show, and it never moves. How can it accurately predict placements when it neglects 2/3rds of the country's vote? The only actual ranking that it might accurately predict is first place, but that's more according to the sample of voters it tracks, which is very small.

[MFWalkoff]

Right, but could a potential challenge from whomever motivate them to prevent the power-voters from doing their thing? Yes, it makes the show tons of money, but if they ever are challenged for the true voting numbers throughout the season, let alone the finale, they could lose much more than the money made last night.

Of course, I'm a skeptic of the process, but I have read on different boards and Twitter that many, many people had great difficulty last night logging into ABC.com and getting through on the phone lines. Yes, it could be due to a massive influx of calls/online votes such that servers and call centers were overloaded, but it also could be a protective measure by the company. As for the indicator being rigged by ABC, VA girl is probably correct, but I could see the show consulting that indicator, if they at all care that die-hards reference it, as a way to eliminate someone without too many questions since DialIdol results support their elimination.

The thing about DialIdol, as many have said, is that the indicator is SET usually by the middle of the show, and it never moves. How can it accurately predict placements when it neglects 2/3rds of the country's vote? The only actual ranking that it might accurately predict is first place, but that's more according to the sample of voters it tracks, which is very small.

Who is going to "challenge" them? They've never revealed the true numbers and they never will. It's not like the show is going to end up answering questions in front of Congress someday. If somebody got so wrapped up in the show that they sued for the vote totals, I'd say they should check into the same place where they are holding the guy who shot his TV.

Also, I'm guessing that part of the reason the numbers don't change much when the other time zones kick in: about half the country's population is concentrated in the Eastern time zone. Most of the votes probably come in during those first couple of hours during/after the show airs in the East.

[anders332]

That's another issue - if polls close 1/2 hr after the show ends, does that mean when it airs - or does it account for the later airing on the west coast? IDK - I'm Atlantic Canada - so I get to use my online votes until the next day at noon.

[veg_out]

Who is going to "challenge" them? They've never revealed the true numbers and they never will. It's not like the show is going to end up answering questions in front of Congress someday. If somebody got so wrapped up in the show that they sued for the vote totals, I'd say they should check into the same place where they are holding the guy who shot his TV.

Also, I'm guessing that part of the reason the numbers don't change much when the other time zones kick in: about half the country's population is concentrated in the Eastern time zone. Most of the votes probably come in during those first couple of hours during/after the show airs in the East.

Remember what we're dealing with this season? Thanks for the challenge to my own skepticism. It is what it is, however, it is that it is.

[bevorules]

No way of knowing who ABC wants to win. Probably Jennifer, but they may go for surprise and crown Kyle especially since he is on the Disney Channel. With the judges scores, they are trying to put Bristol down far enough that if they are counting viewer votes that she can't overcome the leader. She will probably be third, but don't be shocked if they leave her in to be second for drama. I don't think that she will win because of the backlash from last week. They want the ratings, but they don't want to think that they could lose viewers and nation is split between loving Bristol and hating her at this point. Jennifer and Kyle both are not controversial and are thought of by the pros and "experts" the media is touting and would make people enjoy the win and the hoopla will die down. By the way they all get paid for their appearances and Bristol and Kyle will get huge boosts to their earning power and Jen may be able to reinvent her career so they are all "winners" at this point regardless of who takes home the mirror ball. As to the dial idol site, I find that sometimes it is accurate and sometimes it is wrong. By the way I voted at beginning of the show and had to retry a few times to get into vote for Bristol/Mark and friends of mine voting for Kyle early had the same problem. For whatever that is worth. As to online voting, I didn't have any problems, but I voted as soon as the show started (7 PM and I am in Central Time)

[ironcat]

No way of knowing who ABC wants to win. Probably Jennifer, but they may go for surprise and crown Kyle especially since he is on the Disney Channel. With the judges scores, they are trying to put Bristol down far enough that if they are counting viewer votes that she can't overcome the leader. She will probably be third, but don't be shocked if they leave her in to be second for drama. I don't think that she will win because of the backlash from last week. They want the ratings, but they don't want to think that they could lose viewers and nation is split between loving Bristol and hating her at this point. Jennifer and Kyle both are not controversial and are thought of by the pros and "experts" the media is touting and would make people enjoy the win and the hoopla will die down. By the way they all get paid for their appearances and Bristol and Kyle will get huge boosts to their earning power and Jen may be able to reinvent her career so they are all "winners" at this point regardless of who takes home the mirror ball. As to the dial idol site, I find that sometimes it is accurate and sometimes it is wrong. By the way I voted at beginning of the show and had to retry a few times to get into vote for Bristol/Mark and friends of mine voting for Kyle early had the same problem. For whatever that is worth. As to online voting, I didn't have any problems, but I voted as soon as the show started (7 PM and I am in Central Time)

Funny, because I saw last night's overscoring of Bristol as the judges way of propping her up and justifying why she deserves her place in the finals. Had she received the 7's for her content-free, energy-free jive that it merited, and Len hadn't given her that ridiculous 9 for "fancy walking", her total would have been in the mid 40's, and it would be embarrassing tonight when she still beats out Kyle for second place. I do think that tonight, she may be scored more accurately to assure that the differential between her and Jennifer is too large for her fans to overcome.