Controversy
It was revealed during the season that around 100 phone-phreak hackers with power-dialing hardware and software were able to place as many as 10,000 votes a night from a single phone line with the touch of a button. However, FremantleMedia, which produces the show, contended that the hackers have had 'statistically insignificant' effect on the vote. Simon Cowell also insisted that Tamyra Gray unexpected ouster from the show only strengthened the producers' contention that the voting was fair. Nevertheless concerns were raised about possible unfairness in the situation of a tight vote. Ken Warwick later said in Season 5 that equipment was put in place afterwards to address this issue but it has never detected such problem since.
Idol contestants were reported to having to sign a 'phone book-thick' contract that gives producers 'sole discretion' to pick the winners and change the rules. Producer Nigel Lythgoe however said that the contracts had to anticipate every possible situation, and was not intended to rig the show in favor of any contestant.
Controversy erupted when the winner of Season 1, Kelly Clarkson, was invited to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in a deal arranged by her then management company, 19 Entertainment, at a special commemoration for the first anniversary of 9/11 attacks at Washington's Lincoln Memorial. Some critics suggested that Clarkson's appearance would turn a somber occasion of national mourning into a "giant promotional opportunity". Kelly Clarkson herself considered withdrawing from the commemoration, saying "I think it is a bad idea ... If anybody thinks I'm trying to market anything, well, that's awful." and added "I am not going to do it." She was however unable to withdraw from the event.
Read more about this topic: Alexis Stone Lopez
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
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“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)