What I've long believed.

[stealth_rose]

Ex-American Idol contestant says 'contest' is rigged.

Yes, the same people that bring you AI bring you So You Think You Can Dance. Do I think it's a coincidence Joshua won last year when he's pretty much perfect for the grand prize (a movie role)? Um, no. Do I think he deserved to win, and was shown in the best possible light to manipulate the

Comments

[pega]

I have never watched an episode of either, it's against my religion. (I belong to the holy order of i hate fremantlemedia with a passion. I'm probably a high priest by now)

I can this about tptb at the production company - though not about tptb for the individual shows. This is an international company that closed its American offices, laid off several thousand people in one fell swoop and gave the reason that it had no shows on-air or in pre-production to justify having a US presence.

Six months later, AI (a FreMantle production) went into production in Canada even though the show was for US consumption.* Three months after that, FreMantle re-opened its US offices with an entirely new staff, mostly made up of the very young, just out of college crowd, who had no claim to pensions etc. that the company was able to dump by getting rid of every employee who had been there for more than 15 years (which was a high percentage) through a massive layoff and decision to stop operating in the US a little less than a year prior.

So no, I don't think tptb really give a damn about public opinion unless it starts to affect ratings and advertising dollars.

*In my experience with FreMantle, shows are in pre-production for around 18 months before going to production, usually under a different name. AI was originally called Pop Idol, and Joey Fatone was offered the MC spot - he refused. But the show had been in pre-production before the US offices closed, and were told it had been completely scrapped because of Fatone's refusal. I later learned that Seacrest and the name change were already in place before the lay-offs.