If only we had stayed in television a couple more months, we would know exactly who’s getting fired after last night’s American Idol. An error in the graphics displayed at the end of the show recapping the performances gay the wrong voting phone numbers, which sent tens of millions of eager dialers to the wrong extensions.
Tonight’s Idol, at 9pm EST, will combine “new live elements” with the regular dosage of performance recappage; last night’s votes will be dumped with the phone lines reopened tonight for an official count.
Though for any true Idol fan, the erroneous numbers wouldn’t have been a problem – there’s a reason your mobile has mutiple speed dials. What, were they 800 instead of 866, Mr. Seacrest?
UPDATE: CBS head Les Moonves, speaking at the Association of National Advertisers conference today, reacts to Fox’s flub: “I wish I’d thought of it first for Survivor.” (And we corrected an error as to when the wrong numbers were given out. They were displayed at the end of the show, not after each contestant performed.)