"American Idol" -- Rigged ballotting?

Fox Television ^ | May 13, 2003 | TommyDale

[TommyDale]

Ordinarily, it is difficult to get through for a while, since everyone calls starting at 9:00 pm. Tonight, there was no dial tone in parts of the Raleigh, NC area. Well after 60 minutes, there is a "quick busy", meaning the telephone system is not working correctly. I continually received busy signals even after only dialing the '1'. How can the voting be tabulated fairly if people in the home city of Clay Aiken can't even cast their votes??

[JustPiper]

She was voted off a couple of weeks ago.

Thank God that girl was so homely, the doctor birthing her should be slapped!

[WSGilcrest]

Got you beat. THERE'S NO FREAKING SOUND! I'm watching their lips move.

[Swordmaker]

I suspect your trunk lines were overloaded by everyone in town voting for Clay...

[MississippiMan]

OH, okay. Forgot about Frenchie. She's landed a job doing something in show biz. Can't remember what. Yeah, were you here the other day when we were talking about Randy Jackson doing talk show appearances that were all-out Ruben promos?

They'll all be able to do things with the exposure, but I loathe unfairness.

I thought this was Ruben's worst night of the competition. It was also the first night--and I don't think this was because I'm more of a Clay fan--that Ruben's voice started sounding a bit old to me. He has a great voice, especially on certain songs, but it's getting a bit tiring to me, if that makes sense. Remember Hootie and the Blowfish? I LOVED them when they first hit the scene. By the third song, they were grating on my nerves.

Speaking of grating, Carmen's voice had that effect on me on several songs too. Something about the way she "modulated" her voice just grated on my spine.

MM

[Hildy]

Kim will not win and here's why...when they have the "AMERICAN IDOL WINNERS" tour, they DO NOT want two females. The winner will be a male. Yesterday I would have sworn it would be Ruben, but today I don't know. Ruben is really a one trick pony. Clay can take it to another level. Plus he can probably stand on stage for an hour without having to sit down and catch his breath like Ruben would have to. Sorry, but it's true.

[MississippiMan]

LOL! Trenyce has a weird look that apparently affects different people in very different ways. I could barely stand to look at her early on. I'd comment on it and my wife couldn't see what I was talking about. Kimberley Locke has a gorgeous face. Kimberly Caldwell is gorgeous all the way IMO. Ruben needs to lose weight not only for image, but for health, too. To me, he looked winded tonight after three songs and the tiny bit of walking and such involved.

MM

[Swordmaker]

A woman named Frenchy (fantastic voice, good stage presence, interesting personality) was kicked off because she did not reveal her steamy past as a model on what was called a "kiddie porn" website. She appeared topless, billed as 15 years old, although she claimed she was in college when she posed.

[lsee]

I hated whoever sang "Mack the Knife".

That was Clay Aiken and the judges chose that song FOR him. His first song choice (not my favorite) was chosen from a bowlful of song titles at random. The only song he chose was "Unchained Melody".

[MississippiMan]

Yeah, someone just reminded me of Frenchie. She has a show biz job somewhere now. Can't remember what. Read about it in the People magazine that was AI cover to cover.

MM

[lsee]

I never could get through on my telephone, but voted many times with AT&T text messaging. Hope that won't cost a bundle as I have no idea what my service agreement charges for text messaging!

Did you see Oprah's hour-long commercial for Ruben today? I could not believe Fox would allow such an obviously biased program by someone as influential as Oprah to air the day of the competition.

That program should have shown on Wednesday, when Oprah's shameless promotion of one contestant over the other two would not have made a difference. Simon has also been doing his best to influence the outcome of this contest, which in my opinion, smacks of impropriety.

[breakem]

I believe Simon Cowles the judge is not a producer of the show. He is not listed on the credits as a producer.

Simon Fuller and another guy brought the deal to FOX from England, where the other Simon was also a judge. Open to other info.............

[nycgal]

Trenyce has a weird look that apparently affects different people in very different ways. I could barely stand to look at her early on.

That's how I feel about Clay. He has a great voice but is difficult to watch. He does this thing with his eyes that gives me the creeps.

[Fawnn]

For what it's worth, I live in a small town on the "west coast" of Ohio and I didn't have a dial tone from 9pm 'til about 9:05pm. I guess both of us in this town can't use the phone at the same time. Good thing I'm no longer on dial-up. ;)

[justshe]

If it is any consolation....I logged an even 100 votes for Clay .....from Oregon.

[Blueflag]

Yeah, I know. Just trying to keep it simple for those who don't speak DTMF.

Enjoy FR

[Howlin]

I got through TWICE, but was at somebody else's house, so I didn't want to tie up the phone!

[mel]

Would someone tell me the results of last night's show 5/13. the entertainment sites are blocked here. thanks so much i am for Clay, I tried to call about 20 times last night and the phone was constantly busy. thanks

[pbear8]

I got through twice for Clay late last night. I vote for myself and for my niece who has long school days and doesn't make it past 9:30.

I do think that the powers to be are pushing Ruben, he's good but I'm beginning to feel some unfairness.

[XJarhead]

Clay's got the best voice, but he oversings almost every song. He seems to think that songs exist to showcase his voice, when it is his voice that exists to showcase the songs. He's like a 19 year old pitcher who can throw 98 mph, and so refuses to throw anything but fastballs. A pitcher's job is to get people out, not show off his arm strength.

"Unchained Melody" was a great song selection for him, and I agree with Simon that it may be the best song ever written, though I normally hate that kind of music. But whether it was the arrangement, as Jackson said, or "over the top" as Simon said, he was only very good rather than great. He had the talent to blast that song out of the park, but oversang it. Too bad, because I was really looking forward to his performance when they announced that song.

Ruben is just consistent, and I think he's gotten very good on the up tempo stuff. I give him a lot of credit for changing his style a bit. A few rough spots, but he had the most entertaining performances of the night, IMHO.