Press Conference with American Idol Executive Producer Ken Warwick Ken Warwick is one of four people who know the actual voting results in American Idol, but he didn't spill any secrets this morning. In a press conference earlier today, Ken made it clear that America only needs to know who is in the bottom three. He also addressed other controversial voting issues, the Sanjaya situation and Simon being "full of it." Ken was happy to comment about Sanjaya, believing that it is his teenage girl fan base that keeps him in the game. That is just his opinion, however, because actual demographic surveying has not been done. It's not just about vocals, says Ken, it's about his hairstyle and his performance. Ken believes that Sanjaya is keeping people interested and that he’s good looking. It’s all about communication with the public. It’s human nature to pick based on things besides vocals, it's also about the ability to communicate to your audience. Ken did say that Simon was full of it when he said that he’d quit if Sanjaya won, though Ken is confident that Sanjaya won't be the next American Idol. In regards to each week's theme, the obvious genres have been done so there is more variety if you can open the genres but still give the kids something to think about. Ken clued us in as to the upcoming genres: Tony Bennett and the classics this week, JLo and Latino music next week, and Jon Bon Jovi with rock music sometime thereafter. Ken likes contestant Haley Scarnato and believes that she deserves to be there. He thinks that she's just shy, that’s her problem. He also thinks that she looks great on stage and doesn't care what Simon says; she’s got a great voice. The judges do influence the viewers but when Simon says stuff that is out of line, like what he said to Haley, the public was smart enough to go against Simon and kept Haley around. With all the voting controversy, Ken explained that there has been equipment in place to block mass voting and never once has it been used. He also made it clear that there has never been congestion on a national level during the voting process. Though there may be local congestion (which is out of his hands), the voting is as fair and as straight as it can possibly be. The voting very much depends on the performance of that night. Ken thinks that the winner tends to rise up during the competition and is not the person that is standing out from day one, thought Fantasia was an exception as she was the only one who was consistently the front runner. Ken hopes that Idol will continue to garner its big numbers and educate the public about music. Even some of the contestants don't know some of the greats and it is Ken's hope that through the show both the contestants and the audience will become more familiar with some of the classic artists that they perhaps wouldn't know about otherwise. American Idol Live News: |
Another 'American Idol' Contestant Axed
