Dear Dave: This, of course, it not surprising. Television is a business, and ratings are the fuel that run the business. Producers generally will do almost anything to keep the ratings up; thus, rigging the "voting" is WELL within the range of behaviors that could and would be expected by AI's producers. Let's see if Stern's crew can come up with any tangible evidence. M-Dawg __________________________

M-Dawg

Excellent! I hope that they do uncover evidence to support what we already know, although I'd be willing to bet you there are millions of Americans who still wouldn't believe it. __________________________

Dear carmmm4: Dig it. There are millions of Americans who believe that Sadaam directly behind 9/11; there are millions of Americans who can't name their own state capitals; there are millions of Americans who post to this site who can't spell, read or write. Pathetic. M-Dawg __________________________

M-Dawg

Come on, let's face it: this show is scripted. For a long time I've been thinking that the only utility for the votes if to help TPTB in the scripting. Helping them in who should go, and who should stay and how to help build fan bases for the ones they want to milk after the season and the tour are over. They use the votes as an indication. They can then say: "Ok this one has that many million fans, we can get rid of him/her now in order for this other one (who has less but some potential) to develop a bigger fan base ($$$). It will create drama and when the show is over we will rake a few more millions from the CDs sales." As a show that needs to sustain interest but in the direction where it will be more profitable for them, they can't rely on the public votes because it is too risky. Sanjaya is a good example of that. He had a huge fan base, but him winning, they could not accept that because they felt they would have lost credibility. AI is no more real than pro wrestling. When I was a kid, there were people who believed pro wrestling was real. When I would tell them it was fake, they would get in a fit, like the trolls we have in the Mailbag. But pro wrestling is very scripted. Sometimes, the please the crowd and let the good ones or the best ones win, some other time they let the bad ones, the evil ones win. And people keep coming back in drove, and they keep raking in the dough. I dream that American Idol could be exposed and showed as the scam that it is. Canned music, fabricated artists... The music industry is feeding us crap and then they wonder why their sales are going down. They blame "peer-to-peer", pirates... well, they should look closer to them. The music industry is having problems because they create crap. In the 60's and the 70's, DJs had more control on what to play on radio. They would hear a band, or a singer, they would like it and then take a chance to play their stuff on the radio. People would like it, then they would buy it. None of that exists anymore. Instead of people deciding what they like to hear, TPTB decides for us. So I do really hope that they find more about AI's supercherie.

Well, this is just one those things where anyone (with half a brain, at least) knows it is true without there being specific evidence brought into the light...like Dr. Phil being a Sado-Maso Pedophile. __________________________

Sanjaya made me fail community college.

What...Andre the Giant & my Hulk Hogan weren't real??? wow, I feel so defeated...

Okay, seriously.....you aren't telling me hacksaw Jim Duggin was faking it? What about Macho Man Randy Savage? Rowdy Rowdy Piper? There was just to many for it to be fake. No one could keep such a conspiracy secret. Oh well....at least we have American Idol. :) ;)

AI is no more real than pro wrestling - Jaypee - - - - - - - - So true. We need some midgets and triple breasted shemales in the ring sometimes to keep america spending their cents to dial up a number they know will not win. At least UFC lets the contenders fight it out. Winner takes all. If this was the case with AI - Sanjaya would have won hands down. __________________________

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VFTW - the new frontier in Reality TV

AI probably is fixed when the votes are close. Like in the case of last year, the 3 finalists were within a percent or 2 from each other and they wanted the weird on to win. What was his name? Anyway, this year there are a couple very talented girls with No Neck and Amazon Girl. Latoya, or whatever her name is, was a good vocalist but it was her song choice that did here in. The little Emo dude is entertaining, but he is not in the same league vocally of the two girls that are left. If he wins, then this show really IS fixed.

hey, first time poster, long time reader. i don't know what to think of this, howard is usually just a shit-mixer. something i see contradicting with his "news" is that, didn't they book plane tickets home for all of the idols? since ya know... they go home this week? I actually think lakisha wouldn't even have her ticket booked since she has to stick around a bit longer than the others to due all that interview stuff.