imlach

Folks,

Tell me this : If Pop Idol phone lines were jammed all night,
then how did the two "stars" get different results???

ie, if each had the same number of lines allocated, and voting was solid for the 2 hours (or whatever) of voting, then how come they got different results? Eh Eh Eh? Tell me that BT!!!!

SWRTWannabe

I thought they'd both got recording contracts anyway, so in effect they both won?

Disco

Neither were allocated any specific lines, both numbers fed any of the 28000 lines.

druddle

And anyway, who gives a ****. They were both winners, let them enjoy it. Surely theres better things to talk about.

Dave

blubs

As Disco has said, the two finalists did not have any lines allocated. It worked just like every other phone vote, with calls travelling normally across the network, but terminating and recorded differently dependant on the last few digits dialled (i.e. Will or Gareth).

It can only be rigged if the TV company running the event decide to count the votes 'incorrectly'.

Anyway. why on earth would BT be interested in rigging the results of this televote?

I wondered how long it would be before BT got another knock. I not biased, I work for them and I know they deserve much of the criticism they get, but I think some of the criticism they endure is unfair.

blubs

dsmith

Imlach - The vote is statistical proportion of those who get through. If 55% of the millions of muppets phoning want to vote for one of them, then 55% of those that get through on the 28000 lines will register their vote and he'll get 55% !

Not too tricky.

imlach

So, what you're saying means that there was not a fair way of running the voting process - ie, they knew they didn't have enough lines, they couldn't allocate any more as it would compromise the whole network, so they were relying on statistics to assume that the votes they did get were representative....???

Given the vote almost could be seen as North v South (broadly speaking, northerners preferred Gareth, Southerners preferred Will according to press), then would geographic location affect call routing etc???

We could go on & on........!!

I should add, I'm not blaming anyone now - just intrigued!!

Damaja

Who cares?

imlach

I know it doesn't really matter, but what I do know is that if it'd been a Sccoby STi v Evo VII phone vote, and it had ended up being a result for the Evo VII, this thread would be 100 posts by now :-))))

Just intrigued on the technical detail behind the vote........

Disco

A few more facts/stats........(blubs will confirm!)


Although 'state of the art', BT/Telescopes technology was at full capacity with 28000 lines. 8.7million votes were placed, the previous highest was 7.25million for Big Brother which was spread over 3days!!! Before Pop Idol, the highest one night vote was 1.75m for Stars in their Eyes. IMHO 8.7m votes in three hours is pretty good going.

PS: I couldn't get thru to register my vote for Will

CELL

pop idol is the biggest load of **** ever to be aired along with big bummer.

Just my opinion of course

Ian Cook

CELL agreed ! I never watched it and dont give a flying **** about the result !

carl

If 8.7 million votes were placed, how many people didn't get through? How does this compare against the number of votes cast in the general election? Which is more important to the general populace.

A related question -- should the sort of people who vote in Pop Idols be allowed to decide who forms the government?

Disco

More people voted for Will Young than voted for Will Hague at the last election

Phil

Disco

to be fair to the tories it was Will AND Gareth vote that was bigger than the Tories

and my wife voted 17 times for Will and only once for the tories

phil

Fully Paid UP Member of the Tory Party ( NOT )

astraboy

Ita all manufactured commercial pop sh1te anyway.
Keep it underground people.
astraboy.

Bin Laden

The only vaguely interesting bit was the row between the 2 old judges, the rest was mindless pap for the dumbed down moron classes. I may be a snob but quite frankly I despair at the sheer ubiquity of these programmes, it wouldn't be so bad if it was a one off.

blubs

There were over 92 million call attempts...............fact.

Bin Laden

So the real winner was BT!

blubs

Agree. Don't be fooled into thinking that all revenue from every single call on a televote is profit for BT. They will charge a standard rate to set the lines up and the TV Company/Owner will rake it in.

How else do you think that Celador can offer such huge prizes every other day on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Because 50 times that outlay is being made on people ringing in to answer the set questions and try and appear on the show.

astraboy

Disco, I know he can sing, but how much do you want to bet that his first tune to be released will be:
"Oh Girly Girl, you are such a whirly girl, I will call you shirly girl...." or some **** like that?
Sure hes going to make a lot of money, but I would just like to see something different to the commercial pre-fab toss that infects the airwaves these days. and the whole of the So Solid Crew lined up against the wall and shot.
astraboy.

CELL

lol@ astraboy. Nail and on the head spring to mind

Agree about so solid poo too, got be one of the worst bands polluting the air at the mo.

Disco

AB-Classic stuff mate!!!

Agreed, we all know his first track is load of soppy sap, but hopefully they'll see sense and have him singing stuff in the style of 'Aint no sunshine' and 'Light my fire'. The were first class renditions and at the end of the day, were the performances/songs that one the comp!!!

Thus leaving the "Shirley , ma girly, your hairs so curly" stuff for Gareth

Tiggs

i thought his voice was a bit girly for light my fire- other bloke doing unchained melody had much better voice for the song he picked

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

I loved the whole thing, especially the early auditions, I was on the floor laughing throughout most of them I'm no fan of pop music but really enjoy a good bit of trash tv, Saturday night in front of the telly with a few mates/beers/takeaway - superb! Some of you may think I'm a moron/****/boring old git/saddo/thick/stupid/etc etc but do you know what? Who cares???

I voted 19 times for Will this Saturday 'cos he's really entertained me and he seems like a nice bloke, he's got loads of charisma and style and a very unique voice, his version of 'The sweetest feeling' nearly had me in tears the other week (ok I'm a saddo )

My Saturday nights just won't be the same from now on Still, at least we still have 'Footballers Wives' on a Tuesday night...

Sal

tiggers

Who gives a **** whether the voting was rigged or not.

The program was basically lowest common denominator TV for the brainless 'IQ less than a retarded gibbon' couch potato generation and ranks along with all the soap operas in being mindless drivel (I'm with Vinny Jones - 'If you watch soap operas you shouldn't be allowed to vote').

The 'music' these two buffoons will release over the next few months will be more commerical covers and 'written for them by someone else' pap (they probably can't even write their name let alone a song) and in two years they'll have faded into the obscurity to which they belong.

TO55ERS!!!!

Well I feel better now.

Regards,

tiggers.

Tiggs

surley if they have been working on a career since they where kids to hope that they fail is a bit harsh???

im sure they'd not suggets that you should get sacked just cause u might do a job that bores them???

tiggers

Since they were kids??????

They are kids!!!

And no I don't think it is harsh to hope that they fail as the difference is that I will have to listen to their excuse for 'music' on every radio/TV station for the next god know how many months while our beloved media elevate them up to 'superstar' status whereas my job will not be inflicted on them.

tiggers.

Tiggs

easy boy!

i bet they've put more time, effort, years into their chossen career than a lot of people on here!

me for one!

Tiggs

boomer

Well yesterday's Daily Mail said that an engineeer said something along the lines of "5000 lines were allocated for number X, and 23000 lines were allocated for number Y", thus one is bound to get congested!!!!

I couldn't give a stuff about the results, but the technology does interest me. Supposedly if more than a certain number of calls in a given area occur, they are blocked to the local exchange to prevent a network failure. What rules govern this blocking i don't know.

Did anyone remember the "Concorde Flights" fiasco from BA a few years back. "Call and get a flight for GBP200 to the USA"??

At the time, a BT engineer gave me a direct number to bypass the 0800 one that was published, and would, er, avoid the queues (and no i didn't call!).

mb