Flemington, NJ, April 11, 2007 – HCD Research announced that it will release the results later today of a study conducted among a nationally representative sample of 1210 Americans to determine the rankings of last night’s American Idol contest.

The communications research study was conducted by HCD Research, using its mediacurves.com web site, during the American Idol contest to obtain Americans’ views on the contestants’ performances. The results of the study will be posted on www.mediacurves.com at 3:00 p.m. today. The results will also be posted on www.slate.com, which partnered with HCD Research on this project.

The study was conducted in response to the growing controversy over the validity of the voting process that is currently used to select the winners. HCD Research provided participants with an identification number and directed them to a password protected website where they were able to vote one time, unlike the current process in which viewers can vote multiple times.

While viewing the performances of contestants, participants were asked to indicate their perceptions of contestants by moving their mouse from left to right on a continuum. The responses were recorded in quarter-second intervals and reported in the form of curves. Participants were also asked to rate the contestants performances on a scale of 0 to 10.

To view the curves and detailed results of the study go to: www.mediacurves.com. The Media Curves web site provides the media and general public with a venue to view Americans’ perceptions of popular and controversial media events and advertisements.

HCD Research specializes in conducting communications research for the pharmaceutical, food and beverage, financial and entertainment industries, among others. Headquartered in Flemington, NJ, the company's services include traditional and web-based communications research. For additional information on HCD Research, access the company’s web site at www.hcdi.net or call HCD Research at 908-788-9393.

Editors/Reporters: For more information on the study, or to speak with Glenn Kessler, managing partner, HCD Research, please contact Vince McGourty, HCD Research, at (908) 483-9121 or (vince.mcgourty@hcdi.net).