Flemington, NJ, April 9, 2010 – A series of national studies conducted among 7,690 American Idol viewers revealed that the judges from the American Idol contest were correct in saving Michael Lynche from elimination on the April 7 show.

The Idol Democracy study was conducted during April 6-7 to obtain American Idol viewers’ perceptions of which contestant should be eliminated on the April 7 results show. HCD Research is conducting a series of studies among a nationally representative sample of Americans, which parallel American Idol voting to determine the weekly winners based on a democratic, “one person, one vote” methodology.

During last night’s show, Michael Lynche was selected to be eliminated from the competition, but was saved by the judges. In contrast, viewers participating in the national Idol Democracy study, which employs a “one person, one vote” system, reported that Aaron Kelly should have been eliminated from the competition last night.

The American Idol voting methodology allows viewers to vote multiple times for multiple contestants. However, the Idol Democracy study only allows viewers to vote one time for one contestant. To view detailed results visit: www.mediacurves.com/americanidol/idoldemocracy   
To register for weekly Idol Democracy studies go to: https://www.hcdsurveys.com/panel/join.cfm?source=idol2010

Among the findings:

Respondents were asked to pick the one contestant that they thought should advance to the next round of the competition: