4 ms·

First the "successful underdog" phenomenon is common in these shows. Look at any one of these reality shows and there's always someone who gets "picked on" by

First the "successful underdog" phenomenon is common in these shows. Look at any one of these reality shows and there's always someone who gets "picked on" by the judges (because they're in way over their head) and gets pity votes because of it. Nikki McKibbin, Diana Degarmo, and so on... Second all the anecdotal evidence of cheaters seems to indicate the cheaters are idiots. ABC has already said they track IP addresses and block proxy sites so the guy who thinks he's a genius for voting 300 times with fake e-mail addresses didn't really impact the results. Finally in my experience with people who actually have the skill to game this system I've found way, WAY more of them hate Sarah Palin than like her. I can't off the top of my head think of a "hacker" who counts him/her self as a Palin fan. So this story is kind of stupid.

electromagnetic 16y ago
Agreed, I think it's much more likely that the Palinites are simply maxing out the votes they're allowed to make IE 10 calls (per phone number - note that a psycho fan in your average household could easily pull off 50 votes by using their cell, their spouses their kids and their home phone), texts, emails, etc. I remember back in the UK the reality shows used to limit it to 1 vote per type, but they still suffered huge problems like this. It sometimes seemed like the best person often failed on the Idol shows, but were picked up by a huge agent on a better contract than the actual winner (IE better sign on bonus, not forced into tours, etc.). IIRC Simon Cowell actually wanted a non-compete clause put into the contracts to prevent this, however I don't think anything came of it and he's now leaving American Idol - likely in part because of this.