Vote For The Worst

American Idol is touted as the "search for a superstar," with the public getting to create a popstar through a rigourous process of elimination. Since its inception, the shows producers has been accused of rigging the competition in favour of one contestant, usually to achieve the most politically correct outcome. This comes in the form of supposed voting tampering, and favoritism from the shows judging panel. Like any system accused of dishonesty, American Idol has garnered itself an audience intent on destroying the credibility of the show, and their favoritism of particular types of contestants, by creating a voting block to propel the worst contestant into the finals. For American Idol, this comes in the form of www.VoteForTheWorst.com. According to the website, VoteForTheWorst exists because "American Idol is not about singing at all, it's about making good reality TV and enjoying the cheesy, guilty pleasure of watching bad singing." The theory behind it is that because the producers will let untalented singers make the final cut over more talented, but less entertaining singers, in order to "keep America entertained." Fanatics will deride this movement as ungrateful people trying to destroy the one chance America has to create the ultimate popstar, but it can be argued that any popstar can only achieve fame from the support of the American public. It can also be argued that the amount of interference from the producers with the image and personality of the contestants (the transformation of Clay Aiken, for example) is on par with the actions of the producers of the Christina Aguilera's and Britney Spear's of the world. American Idol does not give Americans the opportunity to create a star. Through VoteForTheWorst, it gives them the opportunity to end the career of a manufactured popstar before they even achieve fame, by supporting the least likely, least politically correct contestant.