Vote for the Worst Will be Shutting Down After American Idol Season 12

I have some bittersweet news to share:

American Idol season 12 will be the final season of Vote for the Worst. I will be shutting down the website as of June 2013. It’s been a fun ride for the last 9 seasons of American Idol and various other terrible reality shows, and I want to thank everyone for their support throughout the years. Why did I make this decision? Well, American Idol is really no longer relevant, so VFTW has accomplished our one true goal: making sure that America stops taking American Idol and other singing reality shows seriously. American Idol has become a shell of its former self. It used to produce stars and it used to be must-see TV. Now, you can count on a bunch of bland finalists singing the same 10 songs over and over with maybe one contestant becoming a one hit wonder. We helped kill American Idol, but even more so, American Idol helped kill itself by refusing to stay relevant. The show will be lucky to last a few more unmemorable seasons.

Vote for the Worst started in 2004 to try to get America to laugh at a show that took itself way too seriously. At the time, American Idol was producing legitimate stars like Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson, but it was also placing bad singers in the finals for ratings and laughs. Viewers didn't realize contestants with connections were planted on the show and that poor talent was selected to increase ratings. 9 years later, American Idol doesn’t even have a quarter of the audience it once had, no one takes it seriously anymore except for bored redneck housewives, and televised singing competitions have so oversaturated the market, they can no longer produce legitimate stars. With that kind of a climate change, Vote for the Worst has done its job.

They say when your critics stop talking about you, you’re finished. We’ve been American Idol’s biggest critic, but we're leaving before we get completely bored with a show that really should've bowed out gracefully a few years ago. But of course, I wouldn’t leave you hanging without one last hurrah. American Idol season 12 will be Vote for the Worst's last season, so let’s enjoy it for all it’s worth and make sure to get the contestants America hates one step closer to winning a meaningless prize. And then when our fun contestants go home, let’s make sure we crown White Guy With Guitar #6.
Just because the site is shutting down, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still vote for the worst. Anytime there’s a terrible talent on TV, that person deserves and should receive your votes. This movement transcends a website; you should embrace the terrible, the tacky, the cheesy, and the guilty pleasures in life. Life is more fun when you can laugh with its oddities.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped with this site throughout the years. Thanks to the loyal followers who helped vote for every one of the Vote for the Worst picks. Thanks to Howard Stern, David Letterman, and everyone else in the entertainment industry that supported the site. Thanks to Scott Savol for making this site famous and Sanjaya Malakar for making the site a household name. Thanks to all of the Idol contestants I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and mocking American Idol with throughout the years. And a special thanks to everyone who sent hate mail, hate tweets, hate Facebook posts, and hate forum posts. You have made me laugh the most of all the past 9 years and made me realize that taking yourself too seriously makes you look pretty foolish.

As I move to a new phase in life, I just want to say it's been a great 9 years and this experience has been great fun because of everyone involved. Some wonderful person has paid off Nicki Minaj to help take down the show in the most dramatic and flamboyant way possible, so let's take advantage.

Dave, Creator of VFTW