UPDATE BELOW
Full disclosure: I’m an Adam Lambert fan. A frustrated Adam Lambert fan at present, but a fan.
I’m also a Kris Allen fan.
I voted three times this season: Once for Anoop Desai, once for Kris Allen and once last night for Adam Lambert. (I tried to vote at least 10 more times for Adam, but couldn’t get through. I thought that was a good sign.)
I only waited until the end to vote for Adam because I was sure he could get to the end without me.
At any rate, Ryan Seacrest said just under 100 million votes had come in Tuesday night for the season eight “American Idol” finale.
He didn’t mention the difference between Kris and Adam.
Last season, there were 12 million votes between David Cook and David Archuleta.
I wrote about that in my “Poor Kris Allen! Wrong guy wins ‘American Idol’” lament, adding, “I’m curious about how many people really hated Adam Lambert that much.” (See related stories)
An Arkansas native named — appropriately enough — Dave, read my lament and offered some perspective.
“I’m originally from Arkansas, and let me tell you, they have very little coming out of the state that they can all get behind. As a result, the University of Arkansas Razorbacks athletic teams are all but a religion there–especially when they are performing well.
“During American Idol elimination episodes, my facebook feed was flooded with Kris Allen comments from friends back home. If you watched the show, you saw a crowd show up to see Kris in my (and his) hometown of Conway, AR that is pretty much the entire population of the town.
“One of my facebook friends posted a comment after Allen won saying that AT&T had disclosed that 38,000,000 votes came out of Arkansas last night.
“Seriously, it isn’t a hatred of Lambert that drove this, it’s the facts that a) everybody like an underdog, b) church-going types moved from Gokey to Allen, and c) Arkansans enthusiastically support their own. It was just a perfect storm in Allen’s favor.”
He added a nice P.S.: ” An avant-garde type like Lambert needed to lose, so he could have the creative freedom he needs.”
Very true, Dave.
I don’t blame Arkansas. They were backing their boy and I give them props for that.
The 38 million number from AT&T is interesting. He’s not the only one quoting it — it came from Fox16.com, an Arkansas news station.
I don’t have AT&T but I always hear Ryan saying AT&T users can text their votes, so I would think that makes things faster than trying to dial 100 times and getting through once.
Of course it doesn’t mean all of the Arkansas AT&T votes were for Kris, but chances are most were.
Over on KrisAllenNation.com, there was a page leading people step by step to “power text” for Kris. To quote part of the page: “Kris Allen fans can triple (at least) the number of votes by power texting. (I usually get 3000 to 5000 votes out in two hours.”
I’m sure Adam Lambert fans were doing the same thing. Just not enough of us, I guess.
According to our friends at Wikipedia, the 2008 population estimate for Arkansas is 2,855,390, making it 32nd out of 50.
Fox 16 News is also REPORTING that the 38 Million Votes came from Arkansas.
The 38 million votes story? Now Fox16 has changed its original article:http://tinyurl.com/oopb5v
denying that story. Updated 12:22PM just now.
but if you checked their twitter page: http://twitter.com/FOX16News/status/1866920541
you can see that the story was first published 15 hours ago.
This is the Google Cache of their Local News homepage: http://tinyurl.com/omx532 – you can see VERY CLEARLY theT says about 30 million American Idol votes came from Arkansas last night. Chances are, most of those came from Kris’ home town of Conway"!
Sorry, this is not exactly a tip. But i’m both pissed AND suspicious!
(If this is indeed the truth, Idol better hope that every Arkansas voter is ready to purchase about 5000 of Kris’ first CD EACH, otherwise he will be a big ol’ flop.)
UPDATE: TV host, Billy Bush just tweeted this: “Source at the top says Votes were NOT close on idol. IE kris blew out adam lambert”
“An avant-garde type like Lambert needed to lose, so he could have the creative freedom he needs”?????
That is the craziest mindset I’ve ever heard in this world. Whoever makes this statement will be considered in two types of person: LUNATIC or IDIOT.
For the people bound to want to know where the 38 million quote came from, here’s the link:
http://www.fox16.com/news/local/story/Conway-reacts-to-Kris-win/sv8BNSsGY0G8GRZWSr0fRw.cspx
Do you think Arkansas fans will be buying 38 million copies of his CD? That’s how the show is set up I guess. I’m from Iowa and I’m sure that’s what happened with Shawn Johnson on DWTS too. Midwesterners back their ‘own’. Can’t fault that. I’m still disappointed for Adam’s sake. He was far and away the best this year. JMO.
wow! i really don’t like this post!
I think everyone should know that the main reason Kris even got to the finals is because Adam fans were also voting for Kris because they wanted him to be in the finals with Adam because they are good friends.
Not only was Adam the best this season, he’s the best ever in the history of Idol.
AI is looking pretty foolish today.
chit happens, they were both good, just different styles. Plus the Homo thing didn’t help Adam.
What a complete farce. I’m done with American Idol, and btw, Bill Bush is an idiot!!!
As others have pointed out, one thing that’s not right with this is that an official AI sponsor, AT&T, was providing free use of GoPhones with demonstrations on how to power vote, along with other corporate sponsors (providing free food, football stadiums, etc) to power-voting parties of as many as 4000 people in an organized effort that resulted in a state of less than 3 million people casting 40% of the vote and deciding the “American” Idol for the other 49 states.
And you can see from the link below that the Arkansas government is proud of this.
http://www.robbiewills.com/2009/05/20/american-idol-votes-are-in/
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/National/260040
THE HOMO THING? OMG. How much more insulting is *that*? Way to be open-minded.
I don’t think America was quite ready for Adam (I’m going by what my so-called liberal sister said–he’s too “flamboyant,” ahem), but man, he will take the world by storm. I can’t wait to see him do it.
This article sure didn’t help, but Adam is already under contract (as are Kris, of course, Allison, and Gokey), and producers are getting in line to work with him.
Congratulations to Adam AND to Kris–I hope these two nice guys find tremendous success.
No one is talking about the fact that 99% of the rest of the country mysteriously voted 50% less than they did last year.
Hmmmm.
Wow–OK–let’s see: Adam has world-wide appeal, and Kris has Arkansas appeal. Way to go, America! lol!
One thing I’m confused about is that when we went from Top 3 to Top 2 Ryan said there was 88 million votes that week. How was there only 100 million votes when the voting time was doubled?? That’s only an increase of about 12 million votes.
No matter how the votes were received…the point is…both of their fans had the opportunity to engage in the voting process the same way….it just so happened that Kris’s fans voted more…or there were more of them. It’s hard to say. I personally believe that once Danny Gokey was voted off, many of his fans transferred over to Kris. Their style of music is most similar, and these fans preferred the style of music that was not enlisted with large shrills of screaming.
@Shannon: I’m pretty sure Kris’ performance of Heartless skyrocketed his votes that week by the youth/contemporary vote. This week, there wasn’t anything like that for that demographic to vote for as crazily as they did before.
This is not a singing competition anymore, this is a power voting competition. NO matter how many fans a contestant has, the one that wins is the one who’s fans voted more. If it’s true that 38 million votes came from Arkansas then American Idol will look stupid for a couple of months at least, until people forget about the winner and the novelty fades out. I feel sorry for Kris because of the backlash he will get, and it’s not even his fault.
I just wonder if it is beyond Adam fans’ comprehension that not EVERYONE likes to hear screaming throughout a WHOLE song. I like to understand the songs I am listening to. Kris’s performances were refreshing to hear after hearing Adam’s shreiking non-stop. The fact is that it really doesn’t matter who “wins” when it’s down to the last three because they will get recognition and contracts if they are good enough anyway. Both of these guys were extremely talented and they will both do well. As for people worried about the Arkansas votes. California is a much larger state… they could have done the same for Adam. It’s not like it was a secret that you could text in your votes faster than you could call them in. Someone that Kris and Adam are friends, I’m sure Adam is happy for Kris so why can’t everyone just say hey there’s a winner and Adam will do great in his future and get over it.
This is ridiculous. Who cares how many votes came from Arkansas? And how do we know that all 38 million were for Kris? I know plenty of people in Arkansas that voted for 4 hours for Adam. And to everyone bashing Kris’ win, did you vote for 4 hours? Probably not. To say that Kris is only Arkansas’ idol is an insult to him and his talent. I think that both Adam and Kris will have a great career in very different genres.
http://www.fox16.com/news/local/story/Conway-reacts-to-Kris-win/sv8BNSsGY0G8GRZWSr0fRw.cspx
No idea where this 38 million votes from Arkansas came from.
wow. Now I wish I’d saved a cached version of that page.
I can’t believe they changed it like that.
I’m guessing that article went up before anybody did the math, to realize what they were saying.
Fox couldn’t get Arkansas Speaker of the House to delete the facts. He’s crowing over it.
http://www.robbiewills.com/2009/05/20/american-idol-votes-are-in/
I agree that this has become a power-voting contest instead of a singing contest. I like Kris & don’t want to see his joy dimmed by this controversy. It’s not his fault – it’s 19′s fault. They absolutely have to change their voting criteria. This is a joke.
I voted 4 hours & got through less than 5% of the time. My votes meant absolutely nothing.
I wonder how the Adam fans feel now who were on the “Kradam” train. They helped Kris beat Adam.
Um For all yall that didnt know that there was only one number to call or text number for the finale show so you could not power vote. they did this for that reason. Go back and watch it.
Um wate i take that back they had three for you to call but only one for the tex for you could not power vote all three numbers.
Really??? I don’t even remember what the song sounds like. Simply forgettable.
The ONLY reason Kris won is because of the 38 million votes cast by the State of Arkansas. This means that ONE state represented almost 40% of the total votes for BOTH contestants. This number is so scewed it’s ridiculous when you consider the rest of the country and the 36 million population of California. Arkansas only has 2.8 million people in the entire state!
The week prior there were 88 million votes cast and Kris beat Danny when it was clear that Danny was favored in the finale. How did Kris Allen pull this off and where did the additional 21 million votes come from the following week? Here’s how it happened…
First off there were hundreds of pre-paid AT&T cell phones given out by organized Kris Allen supporters with West Coast area codes to vote long after the lines were closed in their time zone. They also were able to text hundeds of times faster than it takes you or I to dial in, and you can ONLY text if you have an AT&T cell phone. It’s actually possible to text your vote approximately 40 times within one minute using one of the new “smart phones” which equals about 2,400 votes within an hour. I tried this experiment myself with a borrowed phone today and could do it myself. Multiply that by the extra 2 hours for the cheating phones and you get over 14,000 votes by one individual provided they keep at it non stop the entire time, and believe me there are plenty of tweenagers and college students who can do this.
Once the voting officially ended in Arkansas they switched to the phones with the west coast area codes for the remaining 2 hours. AT&T is a sponsor of American Idol. Who do you think made money on all those pre paid phones? I have a AT&T land line and I was able to vote for Adam about 25 times within 4 hours because of constant busy signals. Meanwhile someone in Arkansas had voted over 500 times that amount using power texting. You only need about 1,500 people to accomplish the amount of power text votes Kris received in addition to those around the rest of the country and the state of Arkansas who voted for him by phoning in their vote. If you remove the organizers from the equation and the number is the more realistic 60% – 40% margin that was originally predicted in Adam’s favor.
How do I know all this you ask? I have a friend who attends the University of Central Arkansas where Kris goes to school and they told me about this organized group. Most of them are his fellow college students. The information is on the internet as well, you just have to look for it. This method was ALSO used the previous week, and that’s how Kris beat Danny Gokey. If you’re wondering how they managed to purchase all these “cheating” phones they held “Kris Allen MUST WIN” fund raisers weeks ago when it looked like he wasn’t going to make it and fell into the bottom 3 on April 29th. It didn’t take them long to raise thousands of dollars to purchase these phones (most likely from California) which is ironic considering it’s Adam’s home state.
Second, on the http://www.krisallenation.com/search/label/Gizmo website people were instructed and coached on how to use a computer program called Gizmo that would extend their voting time from 4 hours to 7 hours. This program is also able to cast up to 25 votes at once and can be used by people OUTSIDE the United States who are normally not allowed to vote. Some people were claiming on various Kris Allen blogs that they voted as many as 16,000 times within 7 hours using the power text and Gizmo method along with the west coast area code phones, and many people overseas are claiming they were able to vote using Gizmo as well. Go to the above website and see for yourself.
This was a very organized group of people who clearly cheated in order for Kris to win by being able to vote past the allotted 4 hour time frame, and I think it’s a shame that the most talented performer in American Idol history came in 2nd place. Simon Cowell was right in not standing up when it was announced that Kris won. I wouldn’t have stood up either.
However, I believe in Karma, and although this is clearly not Kris’ fault I think that the “cheaters” may have done Adam a favor by not locking him into the customary multi year American Idol recording contract that would limit his creative control over the production. Kris may very well go the way of Taylor Hicks and be limited to playing State Fairs and Road Houses in the future or he may do very well. Only time will tell, but I truely believe that Adam will go on to World Wide Superstardom because his fanbase is THAT Huge! Personally I think comparing Kris to Adam is like comparing Pat Boone to Elvis and most of the people I’ve talked to agree.
In response to the one who said about the 38 million vote count being false, it was actually reported by several different news sources. The latest blog rumor is that the information was leaked by an AT&T employee who supported Adam Lambert and was disgusted at the obvious “cheating” and felt the need to disclose how many votes came from Arkansas. You must remember that AT&T is American Idol’s Number ONE sponsor and they do not want to come off with egg on their face for the obvious reason that the company makes millions of dollars from all the text messaging and phone calls made after the telecast. Ryan Seacrest says at the end of each show, “Standard text messaging rates apply.” AT&T is based out of Dallas Texas, which is only 342 miles from Conway Arkansas and it would make sense that would support Kris Allen. There have been reports of AT&T supplying Conway with free cell phones and instructing users on how to “Power Text” so there may be some truth to that as well.
In any case, AT&T didn’t move to have the media retract the story about the 38 million votes until several hours after the fact, when obviously “outraged” Adam Lambert supporters responded to the theory that there was cheating involved. The company says it doesn’t reveal how many votes came from each state and for good reason. Can you imagine if they actually did disclose that information going back to AI season one? It stands to reason that they would lose millions of dollars in revenue if the AI ratings collapsed from under them if it was somehow found out that “certain” American Idol winners had a little “help”. Corporate America is typically ultra conservative and that’s exactly what Kris Allen is. He’s the boy next door and even looks a little like Joey from “Friends” Adam is outgoing, flashy, flamboyant, and certainly not you’re typical entertainer, but his pure raw talent is way beyond what Kris could ever hope to achieve. Kris even said at the end of the show that “Adam deserves this” and was even embarrassed by the fact that he won.
Adam is making waves and is literally kicking down the musical door so to speak, much like Elvis did in the 50′s. He’s also very polarizing, either you love him or you hate him with no inbetween. Kris is the guy who you’d invite over for a Sunday afternoon Barbeque after church. In any case it all boils down to AT&T’s bottom line and who “they” think is a marketable recording artist, and sometimes they drop the ball. All you have to do is look where Taylor Hicks is today. I wish Kris the greatest success in the future and I hope he can step up to the plate given the fact what his friends at the University of Central Arkansas and AT&T have done for him.
As for Adam… I will be the first in line to buy his first album.
Dan, please tell me you’re joking? AT&T giving phones to Conway just so they could power text? Give me a break. I’m pretty sure Adam’s fans could have figured out how to power text and Gizmo if they wanted to.
Quit being a sore loser saying all these little conspiracy theories you have in your book.No bashing other posters please
Any one can vote and tex or call as many times as they want just like the past 7 years so why is it a problem now?
I’m a mother and a devout Christian, too. As TV viewer, I recognize that American Idol is a singing talent contest open to all, regardless of personal orientations or religion. It is not supposed to be a popularity contest for a certain class of persons. Among all of Season 8’s contenders, Adam Lambert is the amazing artist and the best singer, gifted with a powerful voice. America’s vote for Kris, or its vote against Adam, seems to be a contemptuous hate vote against that portion of America that Adam stands for. ADAM LAMBERT DESERVED TO WIN. Even Kris Allen himself knows this in his Christian heart, so much so that as soon as he was unexpectedly handed the undeserved crown, he openly admitted in public that “Adam deserves this…” — righteously adhering to glaring truth and instinctively repudiating ridiculous vote results that are far from the truth. Adam Lambert is the true winner!
Cracked me up seeing the comment about this state of 3,000,000 people deciding the fate of AI for the rest of the country. Well, welcome to our world, this is how Arkansas often feels in National elections having states like California and New York deciding our fate where life is as different in Arkansas from those states as almost living on another planet.
Power voting likely goes on each season for the finalists as their supporters get organized.
Adam is likely a better “live” performance in many ways if you are going for the whole show effect … Kris has a depth in songwriting, and radio performance that hasn’t even begun to be tapped but I think he can also have a good performance for those looking for something completely different. Both extremely talented and have the future wide open for them.
YOU SEEM TO BE VERY WELL INFORMED,IDOLS ARE GOING TO BE LIVE ON LARRY KING MONDAY MAY 25 AT 6PM SUPPORT ADAM SEND YOUR COMMENTS…THANK YOU,GREAT,VALUABLE INFO
lol
i voted for kris but allen was a good singer.. i didnt want neither one of them in the finals i wanted alexis grace and mike girad
Okay, I HAVE to get this off my chest!! First off I think that it was absolutely ridiculous that Adam didn’t win AI. Obviously there are many others who feel the same as I do. Secondly, Kris shouldn’t even have been there next to Adam. He doesn’t even begin to compare to the amazing talent that Adam has. Why? Because Kris HAS NO TALENT!!!!!! He sucks putting it mildly! A dying cat sounds better than Kris. Hell Weird Al is a better singer than Kris is and will probably have had a better career than Kris EVER will have!!! He has no range, no feeling, he makes stupid facial expressions when he sings, he has to strain to sing an sort of note and yet he wins AI which is “supposed” to be a TALENT show!!!! OMG! I cannot even believe that “America” aka Arkansas put that talentless hack in that position, which the reasoning seems to be, by a comment made by another person on here, because Arkansas feels slighted in other elections and is crying cause their votes don’t count! BOO HOO! So you take someone’s dream away from them because of that! What the hell is this world coming to! There is so much that I want to say about this and I am sooo pissed off and outraged by this I can’t even begin to put it all into words. And as far as the cheating goes, YES IT WAS CHEATING!!!! And YES IT IS KRIS’S FAULT! It was said on a news report that Kris invited the AT&T people to be there at his parade! Hmmmm how f’n convenient!! You know why that happened cause Kris knew that he had no chance in Heaven or Hell of winning unless he cheated! I didn’t know that Arkansas was the cheating capitol of the country! Good ol’ Christian people huh?? I think NOT! We should have known what was in store cause Bill Clinton was from Arkansas too, why are people so surprised that Kris cheated!! It’s said that the producers are trying to figure out what to do about it, well I’ll tell them what they should do! He should be striped of the AI title, he should be dropped from his contract, and the title should be given to the ONLY person who REALLY DESERVED it and that would be Adam!!!!! That is the only way to make this right! And I swear as God is my witness (because yes I am a Catholic and a very religious person and I support Adam over Kris) I will NEVER watch AI again if this INJUSTICE isn’t righted! Obviously America can’t be trusted to make the proper choice when it comes to doing the right thing. They have totally distorted the true meaning and purpose of AI and it is disgusting and despicable that innocent people like Adam has to suffer the consequences! Although because of the tremendous talent of Adam he won’t be suffering too bad because thank God that there are people out there that recognize TRUE TALENT and are going to sign Adam! Anyone with a half working brain knows that Adam is a Music God compared to kris. And Adam will DEFINITELY have the longest and best career, which is no constellation because Kris won’t even have a career!! I hope to God that this is righted and it doesn’t just get swept under the rug. And if Kris is such a good person and oh so Christian as everyone loves to believe and point out, then he should do the right thing and hand over the AI title to Adam himself without being forced to. I don’t see him rushing to make a statement about how wrong the way he won was, or the fact that he even won was??!! That is the ONLY way that I will have any respect for that guy. Just because he said Adam deserved it and not him doesn’t mean crap. Actions speak louder than words, and I’m not fooled by his “boy next door” look. Shit wrapped in a pretty package is still just shit!!! And thats exactly what he is and always will be! As far as Adam goes, I can’t wait till he shows the world what true talent is and I can’t wait for all the smug little smiles to fade off all the faces of the people that voted for Kris when he doesn’t even have one tenth of the career that Adam has and he isn’t even dirt on Adam’s shoes! Simon said it best when he said the Adam will be Iconic, because he will and I too will be one of the first in line to buy Adam’s album and albums. Good Luck Adam! I wish you all the best and you will ALWAYS have my support throughout your entire career!
Comments like that don’t help ANYTHING.
Lambert losing allows him to get what ever record deal he wants…Kris is locked down the marionette strings have been tied on…”DANCE MONKEY DANCE!!”……Im from Arkansas…Little Rock to be exact….The other night Golden boy KA was on Jimmy Fallon and asked about the music scene in his great hometown……”Well there’s not one…2 bars that don’t pack out…” SHUT YOUR STUPID MOUTH!!! The music scene in Little Rock is huge….Its also well known and supported by indie rock and people in other Scenes…Kris Allen was never even heard of in this state until AI…As far as I know the only stage he ever stepped on was the one in his church. So when Kris’ album tanks…His label drops him and he has to return home to Arkansas….I doubt there will be open arms from my music community…but at least he’ll still have the stage at his church…Or will he….Kris is now in the national spot light…Does a record label see it financially acceptable for the new AI to put out a contemporary christian album.. or will Kris have to put his morals aside and put out a secular pop album that deals with young lust and premarital sex.(oh no!!)..
what will it be Kris your morals and soul frosted with a guaranteed failed album…or A fighting chance at fame with a Bubble gum pop album laced with the devils greed(which probably will also tank)…what will it be boy…Fame or your Soul!!! ah haha!