Скандалы и противоречия шоу "Американский Идол"

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The American singing competition show American Idol (2002–2016; 2018–present) has generated controversy over the years in numerous areas. Many of the controversies have centered on the show's voting process and results, and in later seasons, gender bias against female contestants, as well as contestant comments. Another major source of controversy that has spanned multiple seasons has been the activities of contestants prior to competing on the show such as past recording contracts in contravention of the rules, and undisclosed criminal charges.

Voting has been the biggest source of controversy with American Idol becoming embroiled in numerous controversies in various seasons over the voting process and its results.

Around 100 people using auto dialing software and their home dial up modems reportedly placed as many as 10,000 votes a night. However, FremantleMedia, which produces the show, contended that this represented a 'statistically insignificant' proportion of the overall voting, and Fox insisted that the system was fair. Nevertheless, concerns were raised about possible unfairness in the situation of a tight vote. One of the show's executive producers, Ken Warwick, later indicated that equipment was put in place afterwards to address this issue but it has not detected any such problem since its installation.

Out of 24 million votes recorded following the second season finale, Ruben Studdard finished just 130,000 votes ahead of Clay Aiken. There was confusion over the winning margin as host Ryan Seacrest initially announced it as 13,000, later again 1,335, and then finally corrected by Fox as 130,000. There was much discussion in the communication industry about the phone system being overloaded, and that potentially more than 230 million calls were dropped just by AT&T and SBC (over 30% of the market), making the results statistically invalid. The phone lines may have been running at capacity that made a near tie inevitable, with the winner potentially decided by text messaging which was unaffected by capacity problem. In an interview prior to the start of the fifth season, executive producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed for the first time that Aiken had led the fan voting from the wild card week onward until the finale.

During the second season, a phone scam operation based in Salt Lake City, Utah was discovered, in which people were tricked into believing that viewers could vote for their favorites through an 800 number, rather than the 866 number used on the show.

During the Wild Card round, twelve contestants were invited back to participate. However, after being evaluated during the week in rehearsals, only eight were chosen by the judges to perform that night. One performer was chosen by public vote, and one performer was chosen by each of the three judges. Four contestants in the wildcard round were eliminated by the judges before they had the chance to sing: Lisa Leuschner, Eric Yoder, Tiara Purifoy, and Marque Lynche.

At top seven, the three African American singers Fantasia Barrino, LaToya London, and Jennifer Hudson, dubbed the Three Divas, all unexpectedly landed at the bottom three. Jennifer Hudson was eliminated, prompting much discussion and criticism. Elton John, who was one of the mentors that season, called the results of the votes "incredibly racist" (though Barrino went on to win the competition). Criticisms were also voiced about the voting system that resulted in survival of contestants such as John Stevens and Jasmine Trias over Jennifer Hudson and LaToya London, despite constant negative reviews from the judges on the former two. It was claimed that Jasmine Trias' fans were able to vote early and often outside of the 2 hour voting window, and a disproportionate number of votes came from Jasmine Trias' home state of Hawaii.

During the Top 11 performance show, three of the contestants had their numbers mixed up with the wrong numbers appearing on the screen, resulting in millions of votes being voided. Recordings of the performances were therefore reshown on the Wednesday show with new, live commentary from the three judges, and the audience revoted. The elimination night was moved to Thursday.

In the week finalist Chris Daughtry was voted off, some voters claimed that phone calls dialed for Daughtry during the first few minutes of voting were misrouted to Katharine McPhee's lines, and they heard her recorded message thanking them for voting. Other voters claimed similar problems voting for other contestants, in some cases resulting in votes going to Daughtry that were intended for another contestant, Elliott Yamin.

This season saw a concerted attempt to influence the outcome of the vote in American Idol, led most notably by Howard Stern and Vote for the Worst. Howard Stern encouraged his listeners to vote for Sanjaya Malakar who had become a phenomenon in the sixth season, and to take delight in possibly "ruining" Idol.

Melinda Doolittle's departure stunned fans and critics alike. Simon Cowell admitted that the sixth season's crown should have rightfully gone to Melinda. Executive producer Nigel Lythgoe responded, noting that "[Idol producers] were so engrossed with the mentors and didn't really focus on the Melinda Doolittles of the show." Lythgoe also produces So You Think You Can Dance, and has noted that the dance program gives background information about its contestants, while American Idol focused more on its big name celebrity mentors, such as Tony Bennett, Gwen Stefani, and Jennifer Lopez.

In the top thirteen in the eighth season, the expected phone number for finalist Alexis Grace, IDOLS 13, was not owned by American Idol, but by a company called Intimate Encounters, who used it as a sex line. Although host Ryan Seacrest made ample mention of the replacement phone number, IDOLS 36, some commentators feared that the phone number confusion could have led to Grace being inadvertently voted off the show. However, she was not voted off that week.

Michael Slezak of EW stated, "So you’d think by season 9 — during the inconsequential semifinals, no less — it would be easy to brush off the bad judgment of speed texting tweens, to process the way too early exits of Lilly Scott, Katelyn Epperly, and Alex Lambert (plus the sort of maybe too early ouster of Todrick Hall), and move on. So why do the ritual killings of the dreams of four indisputably flawed semifinalists feel like they’re part of something bigger, a shifting of the tectonic plates at the core of the Idol universe?"

Siobhan Magnus's elimination caused a stir among the judges and fans of the show. The controversy grew when it was discovered that a phone number printed on Facebook was not a number to vote for Magnus, but to vote for Aaron Kelly. Some commentators speculated that the phone number mix up may have led to Magnus's exit. An unsuccessful campaign to bring Magnus back into the show was started by her fans.