Tweet #1 – With sadness in my heart, I’ve decided not to return to #IDOL. I’ll miss nurturing all the new talent, but most of all..Cont’d…

Tweet #2 – I’ll miss nurturing all the new talent,but most of all being a part of a show that I helped from day1become an international phenomenon.

Tweet #3 – What I want to say most, is how much I appreciate the undying support and enormous love that you have showered upon me

Tweet #4 – It truly has been breathtaking, especially over the past month

Tweet #5 – I do without any doubt have the BEST fans in the entire world and I love you all.

This could, of course, all be part of a ploy to scare the producers into giving her a better deal.  If it is true, I’m going to be really sad.  They’ve renewed Kara DioGuardi’s contract so maybe they had planned to push Paula out?  Whatever the case, I don’t think that Paula should leave.  Sure, there’s been lots of speculation over her possible departure but I thought execs said she could stay on the show “however long it lasts.”

This is the second judge in as many days to leave an Idol show (Kyle Sandilands was fired from Australian Idol).  What do you think?

image © 2007 FOX BROADCASTING CR: FOX

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A 14-year-old girl was strapped to a lie detector and asked on air about her sexual history at the urging of the teen’s mother.  As if that’s not bad enough (you can’t ask a minor about sex, especially on the radio!), the poor girl ended up revealing that she was raped when she was just 12 years old.

Network Ten programming boss David Mott has decided that Sandilands can no longer continue to work on the singing competition.  "Australian Idol is very much a family program and its appeal is very much right across the board, and we’d like to think that all families can enjoy the program in front of the TV” he said. "We thank Kyle for his contribution to Australian Idol over the last four years, but it has become increasingly clear that as Idol has remained a family-focused show, even more so this year with the 6.30pm Sunday time slot, his radio persona has taken on a more controversial position over this period which is not in the interest of the show… the recent controversy surrounding Kyle’s radio program has highlighted more than ever the conflicting attitude of the two careers.”

Sandilands had the following response: "I’m disappointed at Channel 10′s decision to remove me from Australian Idol. I have truly loved being a part of the show and wish everyone involved all of the success for this coming season.”

The worst part is that Sandilands may not even get to keep his radio show.  The station owner, Austereo, has put the show on hold indefinitely but I think that they are just as much to blame.  Australia normally has a delay on radio programs so that the station has enough time to censor content that might be deemed inappropriate.  Certainly, this would be one of those times.

Australian Idol returns on August 9, 2009.  Sandilands will be featured in the first three episodes (auditions that were filmed earlier) but replacements will be brought in when the show goes to live performances on August 24, 2009.

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In an interview prior to the start of the fifth season of American Idol, Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed for the first time that Clay Aiken had led the fan voting every week from the Wild Card week onward until the finale, when the possibly-random voting result gave Ruben Studdard the win. Of course, the truth will probably never be known and Clay went on to have a great career but that is besides the point.

During season four, several major voting errors were reported and confirmed. The first resulted in the first-ever re-vote in American Idol history. Mikalah Gordon was eliminated during “Billboard #1 Hits” week when the show mixed up the voting numbers for three of the Top 11 contestants, Anwar Robinson, Jessica Sierra and Gordon herself (FYI – I think Mikalah needed to go anyway). As if that wasn’t bad enough THE MISTAKE HAPPENED AGAIN!!!! After Anthony Fedorov’s second performance, the phone numbers displayed in the closed captioning were incorrect. As visible in the image above, the first two numbers that appeared were 1-866-IDOLS-01 and 1-866-436-5701, and the last number was Text Vote 5704. The “01″ number is actually for Carrie Underwood! Two more contestants were victims that night…

As was the case with Anthony’s number, Bo Bice and Vonzell Solomon‘s phone numbers were incorrectly listed as 1-866-IDOLS-01 and 1-866-436-5701, which, again, was the number for Carrie Underwood!!! Carrie is a great artist and this is nothing against her – I’m just relaying facts.

One contestant, Frenchie Davis, was disqualified and removed from the competition after topless photos of her surfaced on the Internet. She later appeared in the Broadway musical Rent. Antonella Barba did not suffer the same fate.

According to the Howard 100 News, LaKisha Jones’ departure was not because of America’s vote, but rather a predetermined outcome. Their source claims that travel arrangements for LaKisha to return home were made prior to the start of the May 8, 2007 performance show, well before the phone lines were opened. The source also claims that a significant sized crew was sent to Flint, Michigan for reaction shots, however crews were not sent to the remaining contestants’ home towns.

Since the 2004 season, American Idol producers have battled online community services such as the weblogs DialIdol.com, Worldsentiment.com, and VotefortheWorst.com. DialIdol predicts the winner of each week’s contest based on how often an automatic dialer encounters a busy signal for each contestant; Worldsentiment uses very large samplings and algorithms to predict the outcome of the vote-off; and VotefortheWorst exhorts viewers to vote for what the site deems to be the worst contestant, rather than the best. Some in the media have implied that Las Vegas odds makers exert behind-the-scenes influence in protecting the services.

image source

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