Flemington, NJ, February 24, 2010 – A new national study conducted among 4,154 American Idol viewers revealed that viewers selected Crystal Bowersox as the contestant who should advance to the next round of the competition based on her performance last night. 

The study was conducted during February 23-24, by HCD Research using its mediacurves.com website, to obtain American Idol viewers’ perceptions of which female contestants should be eliminated on tomorrow’s results show. HCD Research is conducting a series of studies among a nationally representative sample of Americans, which will parallel American Idol voting to determine the weekly winners based on a democratic, “one person, one vote” methodology.

The studies are being conducted in response to the controversy over the validity of the voting process that is currently used to select the weekly winners. The study results are compared to the actual results of the show each week. To view detailed results visit: www.mediacurves.com/americanidol/idoldemocracy

Crystal Bowersox received 16.3% of the votes, indicating that viewers believed that she should advance to the next round of the competition based on her performance. The contestants with the lowest percentage of votes were Ashley Rodriguez, with 5.9%, and Haeley Vaughn, with 4.2% of the votes.

Among the findings:

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

Editors/Reporters: For more information on the study, or to speak with Glenn Kessler, president and CEO, HCD Research, please contact Vince McGourty, HCD Research, at (908) 483-9121 or (vince.mcgourty@hcdi.net).  You can also receive updates from MediaCurves.com by following us on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/mediacurves and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flemington-NJ/MediaCurves/86691908820

HCD Research is a marketing and communications research company headquartered in Flemington, NJ.  The company's services include traditional and web-based 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.  MediaCurves.com® (www.mediacurves.com) is a media measurement website that provides the media and general public with a venue to view Americans’ perceptions of popular and controversial media events and advertisements.