Howard Stern Won't Derail American Idol, And Here's Why...
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Former radio DJ turned satellite star, Howard Stern, proclaimed on his Sirius show that he wants to take down Fox's hit show American Idol. On his show on Thursday, Stern said this about his efforts to subvert the voting process on the show.
"We’re corrupting the entire thing. All of us are routing ‘American Idol.’ It’s so great. The No. 1 show in television and it’s getting ruined.â€
For those not following the controversy or the show, now in its sixth season, the website VoteForTheWorst.com has picked contestant Sanjaya Malakar, a 17-year-old from Washington State, as their object lesson for derailing the show. The site was started by supposed AI fan Dave Della Terza, and began their campaign of voter "fraud" during season three, with Jennifer Hudson as their first candidate for her 'over-the-top' singing and 'crazy outfits.' And we all know what became of her. The New York Times has a nice article about the controversy.
During season four, Scott Savol was effectively stinking up the show, and it's most likely that he hung in as long as he did because of VFTW influence and backing him as their choice to torture American Idol fans. That was really annoying, as was Savol.
Della Terza, a community college teacher from the Chicago area, says he doesn't want to destroy the show - he's a big fan, really.
"We’re not out to take the show down. We like the show. We want to keep around the guy we think is funny and corny. Everyone tries to say we’re crushing dreams with what we’re doing, but we’re trying to help Sanjaya’s dreams. He wants to be the American Idol too.â€
Yes, and so do I, but that doesn't mean I deserve to be on the show. The big push this season came when Mr. Della Terza appeared on Howard Stern's show. VoteForTheWorst.com states that they receive about "1 million visitors" during each show, but that number jumped to about "3 million after his first appearance on the Stern show. Obviously, Howard Sterns audience holds some voting power. Sirius doesn't quote how many viewers each show gets, it does however state there are six million subscribers to the satellite service.
In previous years, VFTW has backed names that have gone on to have huge careers, like we mentioned, Jennifer Hudson. And last year it was Taylor Hicks, who went on to win the show's fifth season. And as Mr. Della Terza says:
"If we had not recommended him, maybe he wouldn’t have won."
All of this is pretty amusing in the early weeks of the show, unless of course you have staked out a real favorite and they get voted off because of the antics of a site like VFTW backing a kid whose singing talents are seriously out of whack compared to his fellow contestants. America's tweens may dig Sanjaya, but the judges don't: Continued on the next page
