There is no limit to the amount of phone votes. Not sure about texts. I think that might be unlimited, too.
I don’t think it is fixed. Cowell certainly didn’t like Hicks, but enough voters did.
Last year’s winner hasn’t done well at all.
There’s on line voting but it looked like you had to register, etc. I hate registering, passwords, etc. All their facebook pages are linked to the american idol web site.
Maybe that is why Cowell, Paula and Kara left their mutli-multi million dollar gigs? Don’t you remember when Paula read her critique for someone’s, can’t remember who, second song that he hadn’t sang yet? It’s scripted all for the judges, they didn’t even say anything when Thia Megia forgot the words to a song a couple weeks ago. It’s all scripted and that’s not illegal, they , Nigel Lythgoe, can be as biased as he wants to and that’s not illegal, hell it’s his show. They just can’t cheat on counting the votes and I’m sure they do that accurately because it’s the law.