"Idol" Polls to Stay Open Later

Wed., May. 19, 2004 3:15 PM PDT by Joal Ryan

It's an idea that Paula Abdul could give one good thumb-up to.

American Idol will keep its virtual polls open for four hours--twice as long as usual--following next week's decisive battle between the show's two remaining singers, Fox has announced.

The network, under fire for controversial voting results and a magazine article that declared the show's balloting system "flawed," all but denied damage control as a motive, calling the move long planned.

Allotting viewers two extra hours with which to place phone calls and send text messages will help "alleviate congestion," Fox said in a statement.

Or will it just help fans get two more hours' worth of busy signals?

"It's unclear whether or not [the extended voting period] would help," Verizon spokesman Kevin Laverty said Wednesday. "One would hope [it] would spread the voting over a longer period of time and allow more votes to be recorded."

On Tuesday night, Associated Press reporters in Los Angeles, North Carolina (home to Idol finalist Fantasia Barrino), Georgia (Diana DeGarmo's base) and Jasmine Trias Country (also known as Hawaii) placed more than 100 calls to Idol's toll-free lines. A grand total of four votes were registered, the wire service said.

The fruits of the AP's labors, and those of voting viewers across the nation, will be revealed on Wednesday's Idol, airing at 9 p.m.

By the end of the hour, one of the competition's three teenagers--Barrino, DeGarmo or Trias--will have been eliminated, setting up the May 25-26 showdown.

The May 25 installment will pit the final two in an hour-long, steel-cage match at Hollywood's Kodak Theater. Idol used its previous penultimate episodes to launch its winners' debut singles. (Last year's runner-up, Clay Aiken, got his first single from the show, as well.)

The May 26 extravaganza, also to be hosted from the Kodak, will stretch out its voting results for two hours.

American Idol: The E! True Hollywood Story
How a low-budget reality show became a pop-culture phenomenon.
Airs: May 20, 8 p.m.; May 22, 7 p.m.; May 23, 8 p.m.
E! News Special:
American Idol Finale--Live from the Red Carpet
E! does the meet-and-greet with all your Idol faves...
Airs: May 26, 6-8 p.m.

Last year, 30.4 million watched the Ruben Studdard-Clay Aiken sing off; 38.1 million tuned in one night later for Studdard's coronation.

Momentum is already building for this season. Tuesday's episode, featuring the debut of DeGarmo's Hilary Duff 'do and Trias' scat-singing skills, was watched by an estimated 25.7 million--a larger audience than recorded for the final episode of Frasier.

Judge Paula Abdul, meanwhile, is looking at a busy Idol summer hiatus, with the popster said to be within a fingernail's width of filing a lawsuit over a messy manicure.

The singer turned Idol den mother told Tuesday's Celebrity Justice she is preparing to pursue a personal-injury claim against Chinoiserie, an upscale salon with two locations in the Los Angeles area.

Abdul claims her right thumb was punctured in April by a manicurist at its Studio City location. She told Celebrity Justice she didn't realize the extent of her injury until she "sucked on her thumb and tasted blood" (the show's words, not hers).

Abdul required surgery to remove the thumbnail. Since then, she has sported a series of bandages on Idol.

A manager of Chinoiserie told Celebrity Justice Abdul's claims were "inconsistent with the dates and times she was here." Abdul's camp says they're not.

Simon Cowell's staying out of this one.