‘Idol’ worship gets turned upside down

For at least three weeks now, fans of “American Idol” have been pondering a deep philosophical mystery: How in the world has charisma-challenged R&B; balladeer Scott Savol managed to survive this competition, jumping ahead of the magnetic Nadia Turner, the soulful Anwar Robinson and total-package Constantine Maroulis?

A group of wireless rogues thinks the answer lies with a little social experiment they began last year, one that, were it not for judge Paula Abdul’s personal woes, would have qualified as this season’s wildest controversy: a call for viewers to vote for the least talented contestants, in the hopes that “American Idol” producers will get stuck with marketing a lemon at the end of the season.

After noticing that his favorites kept getting voted off last year, Dave Della Terza, 22, and a group of college buddies, took matters into their own hands. They created their online campaign, votefortheworst.com, to throw the competition off course. (“American Idol” votes are supposed to be cast in favor of contestants whom fans want to keep each Tuesday. Fans can call or text message as many times as they want in a two-hour period.)

“The show is less of a contest for who America picks and more of who the show’s producers will influence to win,” said Della Terza of Santa Clarita. “The producers and the judges tend to say, ‘We like this person’ ... ‘This person is going to win’ -- and then America just tends to vote along with them. This season it’s been Carrie and Bo. So we know it’s going to be between Carrie and Bo. Whatever. So, we were like, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if ... we pick somebody else and vote for the one [who has been told by the judges], ‘You’re going home, you’re terrible.”

To date, that person has been Savol, 28, who has drawn the ire of Simon Cowell week after week, and who last Tuesday inspired the cranky judge to tell him to pack his suitcase because of his rendition of “Dance With My Father.” But on Wednesday, Savol had earned so many votes that he landed in the top three, sending the show’s most popular contestant, Constantine, home to pack his bags.

“I couldn’t believe it, I was floored when a friend in Oklahoma called to tell me Scott was in the top three and Constantine went home,” Della Terza said. A statement issued by Fox and the producers of the show, 19 Television and Freemantle Media North America, dismissed the group’s impact: “While it is unfortunate that a small group of people are so caustic that they believe it would be humorous to negatively sway the voting on ‘American Idol,’ the number of purported visits to the website would have no impact on voting.”

But that doesn’t address the increasing support for a contestant who has obviously turned off many fans with his back-talking and what comes across to many as a cold personality, not to mention the revelation of a previous domestic violence arrest. On Internet message boards and blogs, “American Idol” fans have not been shy about posting their dislike of Savol.

Della Terza, who estimates he called in between 100 to 150 votes himself this week, added a visitor counter to his site on Monday. By Sunday afternoon, 323,000-plus hits had been registered at

votefortheworst.com, the majority from people who pledged to keep the Savol cause alive.

Della Terza said that while Fox has not asked him to shut down the website, on Friday, Freemantle Media demanded in writing that he remove all copyrighted materials from the site.

“I’ve never had any idea how many people were a part of this,” Della Terza said. “We started off really small, with about 10 last year. We’re all shocked at how many people there are. We just thought it was a funny joke and now it’s gone to something way bigger than we ever expected.”

It’s not just big, it’s sadistic, say some who have left messages at the site, using terms such as “idiot” and “Charles Manson” to describe the site’s creator. Parents have blamed Della Terza for their children crying themselves to sleep when their favorites have lost. Others accuse the website of “shattering dreams.”

Fox and the “Idol” producers agree.

“Each week millions of votes are received for each contestant, and based on the tiny number of visitors this site has allegedly received, their hateful campaign will have no effect on the selection of the next American Idol,” they said in the statement. “Millions of fans of ‘American Idol’ have voted for their favorites so far this season, and that success speaks far louder than any vicious and mean-spirited website.”

The network and the producers also blame media attention for the site’s sudden popularity.

And yet it all may be working to the network’s advantage.

“Fox is really working the audience participation, and these kinds of controversies give the show a high news profile,” said Stuart Fischoff, a media psychologist at Cal State Los Angeles. “If Fox wanted less attention to come to it, they wouldn’t respond at all.”

The phenomenon of votefortheworst.com, Fischoff added, is a testament to an entertainment culture that is increasingly taking on an outsized role in people’s emotional lives. “People are spending so much time now on show business and celebrity issues rather than what is really affecting them, like the price of gas and the environment,” he said. “They don’t understand why the marketplace is the way it is or why we’re in Iraq, but we do understand Simon and we do understand ‘American Idol,’ so let me put all my mental energy there.”

A recent graduate of Northern Illinois University, Della Terza said he wants to work in the television industry. In the meantime, he is “temping,” he said, and managing his growing website, a job he does not intend to quit anytime soon.

In fact, on Saturday, Della Terza got in touch with his entrepreneurial side and added a store to his site, where he is selling items such as a teddy bear wearing a T-shirt declaring, “I may look cute and innocent, but I’m the ringleader behind votefortheworst.com,” a mouse pad that says “votefortheworst.com, make Paula cry” and magnets for both lovers and haters of the website.

“Out of principle,” Della Terza said, “I have to see how far we can ride this now.”