AT&T May Have Gamed "American Idol" Results: Report

As you may know, only AT&T customers are able to text message their votes in for the American Idol series. The report states that AT&T representatives attended two parties being held for Allen in Arkansas (his home state), and that at both parties provided demo phone as well as instructions on how to power text (deliver 10 text messages at once) to attendees.

Unfortunately, while there were also parties for Adam Lambert, AT&T did not provide demo phones or instructions on power texting there (oops).

In fact, on Tuesday AT&T released the following statement:

“In Arkansas, we were invited to attend the local watch parties organized by the community. A few local employees brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested.”

These party votes seem to violate American Idol rules, as an on-screen statement at the end of each episode warns that blocks of votes cast using “technical enhancements” can be thrown out. Power texting would seem to fit into this area.

Additionally, the show regularly states that text voting is open only to AT&T subscribers. Obviously those using demo phones may not be subscribers.

Still, while obviously a public relations problem, it's unlikely that the number of respondents at two parties could possibly have affected the voting to a large extent. It is something that AT&T should be careful not to repeat in the future.