03-28-2007, 12:07 AM
<!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> Please vote for Sanjaya!
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->American Idol show: A Shilpa-type row in offing!
S Rajagopalan | Washington
Critics suspect Indian call centres are helping Sanjaya stay afloat
Is it an American edition of Britain's infamous Shilpa episode?
<b>Teen singer Sanjaya Malakar's continuing progress in the American Idol contest - he has now reached the Top 10 - is unpalatable to many, including the show's judges, one of whom has threatened to quit the show if the Indian American boy goes on to win the title. </b>Â
His critics are clearly mystified that the "kid with the flowy hair and thin voice" is still around "despite being the worst of the lot". <b>They believe that Sanjaya is getting the votes because there are many people out there who want to mock and finish the popular reality show.</b> <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
There are others who see something more sinister. <b>One famous conspiracy theory doing the rounds now is that Indian call centres have got into the act, flooding the phone lines to boost the 17-year-old Sanjaya's fortunes.</b>
"Malakar is the first contestant of Asian-Indian heritage, and he is getting huge coverage in the Indian media. The theory goes that Indians are calling en masse from overseas," writes the New York Daily News.
An Indian blogger laughed it off, remarking in jest that workers at Indian BPOs "are far too busy ripping off your bank accounts to waste their time voting for American Idol".
The hostile comments notwithstanding, some observers believe it may be wrong to conclude that the show has degenerated to such an extent as Britain's controversial "Big Brother" reality show that featured Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty.
Here in the Idol contest, many apparently expected Sanjaya to be eliminated in the early rounds. Instead, he has kept bouncing back week after week, much to the dismay of the three judges. <b>One of them, Simon Cowell, has gone to the extent of declaring that he will quit the show if Sanjaya wins the contest.</b>
Sanjaya's detractors, it would seem, are burning their fingers with the sort of strategy that they have adopted. <b>A group calling itself Fanjayas (Fans of Sanjaya) has sprung up and it wants him to win "because he is just so bad".</b> <!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>Then there is the website, www.votefortheworst.com, and it asks all followers to phone in and vote for Sanjaya as he is "the worst" in the contest.</b> It is being said that after radio shock jock Howard Stern interviewed this website's founder recently, the Sanjaya movement has skyrocketed, with blogs, other radio shows and newspapers picking up on the trend.
<b>This website, logging more than one million hits a day, is believed to have ended up in helping keep Sanjaya in the running.</b>
<b>Some other critics are trying other tricks to see that Sanjaya is halted in his tracks. A 23-year-old New York woman, calling herself "J", has announced on a YouTube video that she will not eat food until Sanjaya is voted out or he "graciously" steps down on his own.</b>
"<b>I am midway through my sixth day of fasting (she is drinking fluids, though) and I am determined not to give up until Sanjaya is off American Idol," she claims on her MySpace page, "Starvation for Sanjaya". A couple of others, equally on the plump side, have announced they are following suit.</b>
Executives of the American Idol show have not reacted as yet to the hostile comments about the contest or Sanjaya, save for labelling the votefortheworst.com website "mean-spirited".
As the contest moves towards its finale in May, one contestant bows out every week. It remains to be seen if Sanjaya stays or exits this week. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> Please vote for Sanjaya! <!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->American Idol show: A Shilpa-type row in offing!
S Rajagopalan | Washington
Critics suspect Indian call centres are helping Sanjaya stay afloat
Is it an American edition of Britain's infamous Shilpa episode?
<b>Teen singer Sanjaya Malakar's continuing progress in the American Idol contest - he has now reached the Top 10 - is unpalatable to many, including the show's judges, one of whom has threatened to quit the show if the Indian American boy goes on to win the title. </b>Â
His critics are clearly mystified that the "kid with the flowy hair and thin voice" is still around "despite being the worst of the lot". <b>They believe that Sanjaya is getting the votes because there are many people out there who want to mock and finish the popular reality show.</b> <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> There are others who see something more sinister. <b>One famous conspiracy theory doing the rounds now is that Indian call centres have got into the act, flooding the phone lines to boost the 17-year-old Sanjaya's fortunes.</b>
"Malakar is the first contestant of Asian-Indian heritage, and he is getting huge coverage in the Indian media. The theory goes that Indians are calling en masse from overseas," writes the New York Daily News.
An Indian blogger laughed it off, remarking in jest that workers at Indian BPOs "are far too busy ripping off your bank accounts to waste their time voting for American Idol".
The hostile comments notwithstanding, some observers believe it may be wrong to conclude that the show has degenerated to such an extent as Britain's controversial "Big Brother" reality show that featured Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty.
Here in the Idol contest, many apparently expected Sanjaya to be eliminated in the early rounds. Instead, he has kept bouncing back week after week, much to the dismay of the three judges. <b>One of them, Simon Cowell, has gone to the extent of declaring that he will quit the show if Sanjaya wins the contest.</b>
Sanjaya's detractors, it would seem, are burning their fingers with the sort of strategy that they have adopted. <b>A group calling itself Fanjayas (Fans of Sanjaya) has sprung up and it wants him to win "because he is just so bad".</b> <!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>Then there is the website, www.votefortheworst.com, and it asks all followers to phone in and vote for Sanjaya as he is "the worst" in the contest.</b> It is being said that after radio shock jock Howard Stern interviewed this website's founder recently, the Sanjaya movement has skyrocketed, with blogs, other radio shows and newspapers picking up on the trend.
<b>This website, logging more than one million hits a day, is believed to have ended up in helping keep Sanjaya in the running.</b>
<b>Some other critics are trying other tricks to see that Sanjaya is halted in his tracks. A 23-year-old New York woman, calling herself "J", has announced on a YouTube video that she will not eat food until Sanjaya is voted out or he "graciously" steps down on his own.</b>
"<b>I am midway through my sixth day of fasting (she is drinking fluids, though) and I am determined not to give up until Sanjaya is off American Idol," she claims on her MySpace page, "Starvation for Sanjaya". A couple of others, equally on the plump side, have announced they are following suit.</b>
Executives of the American Idol show have not reacted as yet to the hostile comments about the contest or Sanjaya, save for labelling the votefortheworst.com website "mean-spirited".
As the contest moves towards its finale in May, one contestant bows out every week. It remains to be seen if Sanjaya stays or exits this week. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->