Adam Lambert might have won the eighth season of American Idol had it not been for main sponsor AT&T favoring Kris Allen, a piece that ran in the
New York Times the other day seemed to imply. However, the number of votes that have been cast with the help of the carrier were not enough to sway the results in Allen’s favor, Fox is now saying in a
press statement.
“Fox and the producers of ‘American Idol’ are absolutely certain that the results of this competition are fair, accurate and verified. Kris Allen is, without a doubt, the American Idol. We have an independent third-party monitoring procedure in place to ensure the integrity of the voting process. In no way did any individuals unfairly influence the outcome of the competition.” the network says in the statement released a couple of hours ago.
Since the New York Times published the piece in question, AT&T has also come clean about the incident saying that, while some of its employees did distribute free phones and text messages at two parties supporting Allen, those who did vote were in too small numbers to count for anything. It is believed that the employees involved in the scandal have also been reprimanded accordingly since then so as to avoid further incidents of this kind – viewers can only cast a vote for their favorite Idol through AT&T, which makes the incident all the more serious.
“Last week, countless parties were held in homes, bars, and other public places across America to watch the ‘American Idol’ finale. In Arkansas, a few local AT&T employees were invited to attend two local watch parties organized by the community. Caught up in the enthusiasm of rooting for their hometown contestant, they brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested. Going forward, we will make sure our employees understand our sponsorship celebrates the competition, not individual contestants. That said, it’s quite a leap to suggest that a few individuals could have impacted the final results.” AT&T stated.
The theory that Adam Lambert was somehow robbed of
the American Idol title, which should have rightfully been his, many believe, seemed to receive an impressive and unexpected argument with the NY Times piece, since it allowed for the possibility that the votes had not been a true reflection of reality. Nevertheless, it has been proven that the so-called theory was nothing short of wishful thinking.
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