I will try my best to not overrun my blog with American Idol updates that most of you do not care about. However, I will use this blog to shameless promote one former American Idol contestant (*cough* Ricky Braddy *cough*) and bring light to the COMPLETELY unfair way that he has been treated by American Idol and Fox.
Let's start with a recap- Ricky's performance from Tuesday night [sorry for the awful video quality]:
The judges were incredibly complimentary of him (with the exception of Simon, but what else is new? His only real complaint was that Ricky lacked star quality, and frankly, that can be fixed and we all know it [Clay Aiken anyone? Anyone? Bueller?]).
This performance somehow didn't guarantee him a spot in the Top 12. But, um, this one was good enough to make it through?
aaaaand the judges hated him.
Then, to add insult to injury, Freemantle Media and Fox shut down Ricky Braddy's fansite (thebraddybunch.com) because they said it gives him an unfair advantage- ridiculous!!!
What gives contestants unfair advantages is the amount of coverage that Fox gives them prior to performances and voting. I like Danny Gokey, I do, but I wonder if he would've made it through over Ricky (or Anooop D-O-Double G) if they hadn't really focused on his life story and, frankly, played the sympathy card on his behalf. Michael Saver got a LOT of screen time, and Ricky got basically zero. I don't think there is even a question of whether or not this effects the votes- it does.
Other fan sites have not been shut down- why has Rickys? A legal answer that was given on a message board on Anoop Desai's website (from Anonymous- could it be the same Anonymous that is trying to take down the Church of Scientology? Hmmmmm) claimed that the site was shut down because it was promoted on the show and that gave Ricky an unfair advantage.
Let's evaluate:
1) Ricky's parents had on t-shirts that said "I'm in the Braddy Bunch". No website was listed. However, if that was a problem, the producers had AMPLE amounts of time prior to air to ask them to change.
2) Ryan himself brought attention to their t-shirts and mentioned that Ricky already had a fan club going
3) Ricky's mom accidentally gave out the wrong website!!!!
What is CLEARLY going on here is that American Idol & Simon Fuller are afriad that a "Grassroots Campaign" might actually be successful enough to have a winner of American Idol instead of their agenda being blindly followed by viewers who don't catch on to the fact that they are being manipulated and tricked into choosing the exact contestant that the producers want them to choose.
What can you do about it?
The answer is, I'm not sure. But let's try a few things.
1) Continue to support Ricky (head on over to missingsquare.com)
2) Let's send some emails. These will likely be checked by interns who will simply delete them, but perhaps if enough of us bitch that Ricky's (and others) lack of screentime was an "unfair DISadvantage" something will get through.
To email Americal Idol: idol.web@fox.com
To email 19 Entertainment: reception@19.co.uk
or contact them at
19 Entertainment New York
595 Madison Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10022
Tel: +1 212 201 0019 | Fax: +1 (646) 506 9505
19 Entertainment Los Angeles
8560 West Sunset Blvd, CA 90069
Tel: +1 310 7771940 | Fax: +1 310 7771949
To contact Fremantle Media:
FremantleMedia Ltd
1 Stephen Street
London
W1T 1AL
T +44 (0)20 7691 6000
To Email Ryan Seacrest: ryan@ryanseacrest.com
If anyone else has any contact info, please include it in the comments section below.
American Idol, watch out- we are onto you..........
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