AT&T may have helped Kris Allen win 'Idol'

[Sarah.S]

"American Idol" winner Kris Allen may have had some corporate help in securing his title.

The New York Times reports that AT&T, one of the show's biggest sponsors, provided phones for free text messaging and information on how to cast large swaths of votes at two parties organized by Allen's fans (including one organized by a group called the Kris Allen Kick Awesome Task Force).

The company is the sole telecom from which "Idol" viewers were able to text in their votes this season.

According to the Times, no parties hosted by fans of the show's runner-up, Adam Lambert, were visited by AT&T reps.

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

The tutorials involved teaching users to send 10 text messages or more with a single "send." Power texting could potentially enable the show's viewers to vote in large blocks for their singer of choice. Dozens of online message boards frequented by apparent Lambert fans have overflowed with vehement comments about the potential for unfair voting since the story was first reported by The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette last week.

However, the show does run a warning after each episode to the effect that such blocks of voting created by "technical enhancements" are subject to being discounted.


The Democrat-Gazette's original story quotes of Allen's fans at the texting parties as saying she would be "voting non-stop."

"I start five minutes before the show ends," another fan, who was using four phones to cast her votes, told the paper. And I don't stop. Never. Not [even] to go to the bathroom."