'American Idol' host Ryan Seacrest (with last year's winner Taylor Hicks) encourages viewers to text their votes. File/Vince Bucci/Getty Images Visit the Photo Place

Some say 'American Idol' is just Cingular sensation

Do Cingular Wireless subscribers have too much clout in 'American Idol' voting due to exclusive text-messaging arrangement with Fox?

Date published: 3/20/2007

By MICHAEL ZITZ

MSNBC news talk show host Joe Scarborough has all but accused Fox TV and Cingular Wireless of fixing "American Idol" for a buck.

A recent segment of "Scarborough County" asked the questions:

"'Idol' voting rigged?"

"Block the vote?"

"Cingular stranglehold?"

The report said many callers can't get through when they attempt to phone in "Idol" votes, making text messaging votes decisive.

And Cingular's/AT&T's sponsorship deal with cultural phenomenon "Idol" permits only that cell phone carrier's customers to text in votes.

This is nothing new. "Idol" winner Taylor Hicks garnered 63.4 million votes--more than George W. Bush got in the 2004 presidential election. That kind of volume is understandably difficult for telephone infrastructure to handle.

For years, there have been complaints about "Idol" phone votes not getting through because of "power dialers" supposedly clogging the process and cries that texting has too much sway on outcomes.

But as text messaging becomes more ubiquitous, the inequity would seem to be growing.

During crises like the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when phone lines are jammed, text messages have a better chance of getting through because they're short and quick compared with voice messages.

And in the three years Cingular has sponsored "Idol," text message votes for the show have climbed from 7.5 million in 2004 to 13. 5 million in 2005 to 41.5 million last year.

Whatever impact texting has on the outcome of "Idol" votes is likely to increase even further now that each Cingular text message vote for "Idol" gives customers a chance to win a $1 million prize.

Nancy Ford, a spokeswoman for Cingular/AT&T, told The Free Lance-Star that "Idol" is such a driver for text messaging that the company has increased its capacity from 5,000 text messages per second to 15,000 messages a second for the show.

"We want to make sure those messages get through," she said. But she also said she doesn't believe Cingular customers have an undue amount of power in the voting or that there's anything unfair about the setup.

Ford said she has no idea how often phone votes for "Idol" fail to get through. And Fox didn't respond to our questions about the issue. Last year, "American Idol" Executive Producer Ken Warwick downplayed voting difficulties, telling Reality TV Magazine it's a non-issue.

"There is never any congestion at national grid system level," he was quoted as saying. "The only time there is any congestion is at local switchboard level, and that's going to happen--there's nothing I can do."

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Date published: 3/20/2007