American Idol - Season 6 (3 Viewers)

[ChrisCAB]

Completely agree with Abby

 

[TonyD]

i agree with the note that there was an impersonator on stage for the long and bach shots.
video from the "comeback" 1968 concert for the rest of the shots.

now kelly clarkson.
she is just huge.
some of that may have been the mu mu
she was wearing but a few months ago she opened nascar with a live performance.
i wasnt even sure it was her until they said it was her. she looked awful that day.

i dont want to be mean but she looked like a pig that day due to her wait and the terrible costume she had on.

 

[Abby_B]

I'm totally cynical, I'll admit to that

And, perhaps I'd have felt better about the non-boot factor if they'd announced it at the beginning of the show, just told the bunch of them that they were safe, and to enjoy the awesomeness of the night, or whatever, instead of implying through the whole show that someone was going home.

I did like Carrie Underwood's segment as well, I'm not totally heartless. I did, however, find Simon's segments to be the worst offenders in the self-indulgent awards, like he'd just "discovered" that people suffer in the world. But, to his credit, I did read on another board that the judges donated their salary for the night to charity, and if that's true it's a hefty amount of Simon putting his money where his mouth is, for once.

 

[Martino]

"But, to his credit, I did read on another board that the judges donated their salary for the night to charity, and if that's true it's a hefty amount of Simon putting his money where his mouth is, for once."

If the silent donation by the judges is true - I have even more respect for them - since they didn't try to milk it during the show.

Most of the time, they would have been jumping up and down - announcing this donation every chance they could - just to make them look good.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Dude, any contestant who sings one of those goes immediately to the speed dial of my land line, mobile phone, AND Skype account without passing GO or collecting $200!

 

[Aaron Silverman]

What's with the Clarkson hate? She's not that big. At least not by normal person standards. That "dress" was a freaking nightmare, though.

 

[Scott-S]

Yea, I hope it was just the dress. I have always liked Kelly but I admit I thought she looked terrible. I really hope it was just a wardobe malfunction.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Interesting material to report here regarding the dismissal
of Sanjaya.....

Not that I want to give a lot of credit to Howard Stern for keeping
Sanjaya in the show for so long, but some of the information
that is now surfacing through his radio show is quite startling....

First of all, I think a few of us were rather mystified how Sanjaya
went from being out of the bottom three for a short period to
suddenly being ousted two weeks ago.

One point that Howard Stern brought out is that there is a disclaimer
in the end-of-show credits that give Producers the right to make final
decisions on voting tallies when it is felt that there is some sort of
"voting agenda" going on, as was the case of the thousands who were
purposely voting to keep Sanjaya active.

On Thursday's Howard Stern radio show, a young man called in
who works on American Idol. Essentially, this is the guy that warms
up the crowd standing in line for the show. This young man said
he was risking his job revealing this information, but that it didn't
matter to him in the end....

Supposedly, because of all the media attention, the Producers
of Idol and the Walt Disney Company did not want Sanjaya at the
Disney Theater for last week's benefit show. They did not want the show
turned into a "Sanjaya media circus." This was a huge event for IDOL
that they did not want to see ruined.

Immediately following the dismissal of Sanjaya, everyone
involved with the show all the way down to the custodial staff, was told
not even to mention his name to the media. According to this Idol staff
member, everyone involved with the show absolutely knew that Sanjaya
was forced off the show by the Producers and that the votes were FIXED!

Take this information as you will, but hearing it first-hand, I am
under the belief that Sanjaya was forced out of the show
by the Producers.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Wow, very interesting! My friend and I suspected that perhaps some higher up in the show had the power to overrule the votes if they feel that an undesirable is destroying the shows reputation and this pretty much tells me that it's probably true.

It seems to be a failsafe put in place by the producers that protects the integrity of the show and I have no problem with it, i'm glad it's there.

Let's face it, if the results were left TOTALLY in the hands of the voters this show would have become a joke a long time ago because people can't resist goofing off and voting for individuals who obviously shouldn't be there and are taking up space.

 

[Greg_S_H]

It doesn't sound that plausible to me. It wasn't much of a shock that Sanjaya went when he did, because he gave his worst performance the time before. Also, assuming you reported what you heard verbatim, none of the contestants was at the Disney Theater. Sanjaya was shown to be in the audience at the normal venue, and the remaining contestants really didn't get a lot of the focus during this elimination round. Had Sanjaya remained, he wouldn't have been made to stand out any more than the other five. I'm not sure that the media coverage would have intensified because of a charity event, but I don't watch entertainment media, so I don't know.

 

[Claus Nielsen]

I don't know. If the producers can't deal with the results, they should change the voting system.

I think the fact that the viewers get to decide the winner without the judges involment, is part of what have made Idol so popular.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Yeah but think about it, it's smart of the producers to implement some sort of protection against any would be individual, in this case Howard Stern, who attempts to keep someone in who shouldn't be there and Sanjaya shouldn't have been there, he shouldn't have been there for weeks and I think the producers said enough is enough and implemented they're veto right that they, apparently, made no attempts to hide if it's stated right there in the end credits.

But who reads the end credits? I know I never do on tv shows.

My beliefe is that the voters are in control most of the time and that it is an honest system, but I don't blame the producers for creating a right that allows them to protect their show from jokesters who don't really care about the real talent and just enjoy screwing around with the voting system by voting for someone they know is aweful.

I know that if I created a show that I took seriously I certaintly would have come up with a way to protect it against nafarious plots to ruin it.

 

[Phil Taylor]

Sounds like the "promoter's option" should have been used a few weeks previous... but then they would have lost all the "Sanjaya buzz"... guess they figured enough was enough...

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Yep, they timed it just right IMO, they kept him around just long enough to milk some ratings and have some fun but knew when it was enough and booted him.

What i'm wondering is, taking into account this new information, was Sanjaya going to stay once again before the producers pulled rank on him? Hmmm, guess we'll never know but i'm starting to think that if the producers hadn't of canned him we'd still be dealing with him right now.

I actually take some comfort that the producers have this option because it gives the show a "safety net" of sorts, ensuring that any voting campains like the one Stern tried to pull with Sanjaya won't get far.

 

[Yee-Ming]

I'd agree. If anything, during the charity show they kept taking the piss at Sanjaya's expense, which they didn't have to do -- indeed would not have done so -- if the point was to avoid it being a Sanjaya media circus, and they kept showing the poor kid's reactions to to jibes thrown his way, which I must say he took in good spirit. E.g. some celeb said something along the lines of "if as many of you called to donate as voted for Sanjaya..." and Simon's wisecrack when "judging" Jack Black "better than Sanjaya"

 

[Ronald Epstein]

As I stated before, hearing the call first-hand and the integrity
in what was said, I have no doubt that everyone involved with
the show knew the votes were fixed that week to oust Sanjaya
and basically kept their mouths shut per the producer's instructions.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

My question is where do you guys suppose the line of wrong doing is? If they have a disclaimer at the end of the show that states that they can do this if they see fit, is it wrong?

I don't feel that it is if they see just cause in doing something like that, now if they do that all the time, fix people's votes every week then I would be concerned but if they use that power sparingly to oust people who shouldn't be there than I don't have a problem with it. Sadly that's just something we'll have to take on faith because we'll never really know for sure how often that occurs.

 

[chuck_b]

I believe the disclaimer states that they can throw out votes that they deem were unaccepatble due to computer dialers or other methods which unfairly add votes. The fine print probably does not say they can change votes because they prefer someone. They certainly can steer things in other ways, starting with the amount of air time singers get in the auditions, singing order and judges comments.

I also would also be a tad skeptical of anything that folowed the phrase "on Howard Stern's radio show, a young man called in.....". Any back room scheme to effect the votes on a show which may be the most important money maker ever will not be derailed by a low level employee who uses a shock jocks radio show as a platform. They would be better than that.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Chuck,

I was waiting for the first person to debunk this entire dialogue
based on the fact that it concerned the Howard Stern Show....

...it just happened to be you.

Look, I'm not a huge Stern fan. I listen to him on and off, and
I certainly don't like giving credit to a man that credits himself
for everything.

However....

I heard the phone call. The young man identified who he was
and what his job was. He said he has been working for about $10
an hour doing waiting line "warm-up" for IDOL. He was sworn to
keep his mouth shut, but since he was moving on to better paying
gigs, he didn't care if he lost his job over the revelation.

Naturally he's calling the Howard Stern Show because perhaps it
is one of the best platforms to get this news out if ONE, you are
a fan of the HS show and two, if you are aware that Howard is
running a VOTE FOR SANJAYA campaign.

I think the show was fixed for just that one week. It has become
obvious that people have been purposely voting for Sanjaya just
to ruin IDOL. On Howard's show over the past few weeks, I heard
phone call after phone call about how people used speed dialers
or coaxed people at their parent's old folks home to all get the
vote out.

I think it's great that IDOL Producers have put a disclaimer into
the process that allows them to make a final decision when a
movement like this is underway that could destroy the show.
It's just rather odd that SANJAYA was out of the top 3 for (I
think) 2-3 weeks and suddenly he was ousted before the big
Telethon show. I mean, Sanjaya has been bad from day one
and it has become painfully obvious that voters were keeping
him in place no matter what.

I could be wrong here. Actually, I was hoping someone else
here heard last Wednesday's Stern show and could offer their
opinion on the validity of the call.

 

[Ricardo C]

If I've been reading your posts correctly, a guy called in to Howard Stern's show and claimed to work for American Idol, then launched into a conspiracy theory. No further proof than the guy's own word.

I suppose it could be true, but there's no evidence of any kind. Hell, I could call Stern and tell him I also work for American Idol and that the first guy was lying.