AT&T provides phones for power-voting Kris Allen fans
Kris Allen was crowned American Idol last week, and this week he is the center of the continued controversy with Adam Lambert fans yelling, “This isn’t fair!”
Now reports are surfacing that power voters at parties in the winner’s home state of Arkansas may have had a little assistance from one of Idol’s major sponsors, AT&T. According to The New York Times and other media outlets, AT&T provided phones for free text messaging at two parties in Arkansas during the final night of voting. The stories say AT&T had representatives on hand to show fans how to cast 10 votes with the touch of a single button, a power-voting tactic that violates show rules.
Fans of Adam are pointing to this unfair treatment, especially since no similar chance was given to fans at California support parties of the runner-up. FOX and Idol representatives have not yet commented on the allegations.
“In Arkansas, we were invited to attend the local watch parties organized by the community,” a representative for AT&T released for the NY Times story. “A few local employees brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested.”
As everyone already knows, it doesn’t require winning the competition to have a solid musical career. It’s all about exposure. Clay Aiken, Jennifer Hudson, Chris Daughtry and Constantine Maroulis are just a handful of examples.
Meanwhile, Kris and Adam are making the rounds to shows like Regis & Kelly, where both performed this week, as well as Ellen and several late-night shows.
May 28th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I know Adam is bigger than American Idol and I am looking forward to his new music, but I have to state that I am saddened that my ability to vote for Adam was stymied…I redialed like a crazy person for 4 hours and received 3 hours of busy signals and the last hour I connected 10 times. I have since found 46 people who had the exact same outcome trying to vote for Adam, hence, invalid input = invalid output
June 1st, 2009 at 6:57 am
Kris is the winner, the unfair winner..! How Kris felt about this ? Did he still feel comfortable with the “crown” ?