Friday, March 25, 2005
NEW YORK (
AP) -- A wrong number and an extra day simply delayed the inevitable for "American Idol" contestant Mikalah Gordon.
The 17-year-old Las Vegas resident was the latest "American Idol" singer knocked out of the game on Thursday, bringing the game down to 10 finalists.
The nation's favorite talent contest held a second vote Wednesday after the week's telephone tally on who gets booted from the show was thrown out because incorrect call-in numbers were listed for three of the contestants.
A special 30-minute edition of the show was held Thursday to announce the latest castoff.
During the first voting Tuesday night, Fox displayed wrong call-in numbers for viewers who wished to support Gordon, Anwar Robinson and Jessica Sierra. Viewers decided who goes by either phone or text-message votes; the contestant with the fewest votes goes home.
The network quickly decided to simply hold another vote with the correct phone numbers, and gave viewers a chance to hear the contestants sing again on Wednesday.
Fans of the show took advantage of the second chance; more than 31 million people voted for their favorites, host Ryan Seacrest said.
Apparently many agreed with judge Simon Cowell's assessment that Gordon's performance this week was "a complete and utter mess."
While the error was embarrassing, it also gave Fox a chance to air an extra hour of network television's most popular series -- hardly a hardship in a competitive ratings environment.
The show's executive producer, Ken Warwick, dismissed the suggestion that there was anything intentional about the miscue.
"It's rubbish," Warwick said. "We wouldn't contaminate the success of the show in fiddling with it, and that's the truth."
