National Study Reveals American Idol "Voted Off" Wrong Contestants
American Idol eliminations contradict viewers' choices due to flawed methodology

Flemington, NJ, March 12, 2010 – A series of national studies conducted among 6,727 American Idol viewers revealed that the contestants who were “voted off” during the show’s elimination last night did not accurately reflect the viewers’ choices.

During last night’s show, Katelyn Epperly, Todrick Hall, Lilly Scott and Alex Lambert were eliminated from the competition.  In contrast, viewers participating in the national Idol Democracy study, which employs a “one person, one vote” system, reported that Aaron Kelly, Lacey Brown,  Todrick Hall, and Katelyn Epperly were the contestants who should actually have been eliminated from the competition last night. 

The Idol Democracy study was conducted during March 9-11, by HCD Research using its mediacurves.com website, to obtain American Idol viewers’ perceptions of which contestants should be eliminated on the March 11 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.

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

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.

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