Error forces 'American Idol' re-vote
Conspiracy theories that ''American Idol" is rigged were stirred up again yesterday when the Fox network announced that it had displayed onscreen the wrong phone numbers to vote for three contestants during Tuesday night's show.
The error, which was blamed on a technician, put the network in the unprecedented position of having to broadcast a new version of that show last night.
The votes collected last night will determine which contestant is sent home in a special episode to air tonight at 9. The votes collected Tuesday night during the original broadcast will be discarded. The network declined to reveal how many votes were involved.
Fox said the mistake occurred when the phone numbers listed for Mikalah Gordon, Anwar Robinson, and Jessica Sierra were actually the numbers of other contestants.
''It was pure human error," said Ken Warwick, an executive producer of the show, during a media conference call yesterday.
Last night's show featured the taped footage of the 11 contestants' Tuesday-night performances. The input from the judges and from host Ryan Seacrest was live.
But is ''American Idol," one of the top programs on television, now compromised because legions of loyal fans didn't know to tune in last night to vote?
Fox's ''American Idol" message board on the Internet was burning up about it yesterday. ''This is extremely irritating," one fan wrote. ''Whoever goes home tomorrow . . . all their fans will scream foul play. Fox really screwed up this time."
Another fan wrote, ''They need to just leave the people on the show for one more week. This is so shady."
Warwick said he couldn't predict what effect the re-vote will have on the show and its credibility. ''We can only do what we consider is fair and honest and straight. This is the only way we can adjust the situation," he said.
Warwick rejected allegations that the mistake was actually a deliberate ploy to manipulate the results. ''Why would we contaminate the honesty of one of the top-rated shows in America by fiddling with it? You wouldn't do it. You wouldn't put this show at risk for any reason."
Fox, which had planned to debut a sitcom, ''Life on a Stick," last night at 9, postponed that premiere until tonight at 9:30.
This isn't the first voting controversy ''American Idol" has faced. Last April, a number of fans were outraged when the thin-voiced John Stevens received more votes than Jennifer Hudson, a powerhouse who was bounced from the competition despite the rave reviews of the celebrity judges.
At the time, the producers said it was the will of the American public. But some fans claimed the show had become a popularity contest based on race and gender, not talent. Others maintained a conspiracy was brewing because the phone lines of certain contestants were always busy and impossible to get through.
Voting for the show is free and open to anyone calling from within the United States or Puerto Rico. With as many as 30 million votes registered each week, phone lines do get clogged.
Each contestant is assigned a toll-free number and voting is open every Tuesday for two hours after the conclusion of the performance episode. Viewers can also cast votes via text messaging -- a system in which a short message is sent via wireless phone. Each contestant is assigned a four-digit number and viewers must input the word ''vote."
Yesterday, Fox said that Cingular Wireless had agreed to credit any customer's account who had voted via text message on Tuesday night.
Suzanne Ryan can be reached at sryan@globe.com
