‘Idol’ votes no on tallies

IT’S a bigger mystery than who cuts Simon Cowell’s hair: Why aren’t “American Idol’s” complete voting results ever released?

Viewers discover each week which unlucky singer is getting the boot, of course. But one of the main complaints about “Idol’s” phone-in balloting is that the show has never published precise voting totals, not even at season’s end, when such information would be in no danger of swaying perceptions that could alter the competition. Thus viewers can only speculate by how much, say, Jordin Sparks won the contest last season.

The lack of transparency sometimes leads conspiracy theorists to grumble about “Idol” being “fixed,” especially when a popular contestant, such as this year’s Michael Johns, is shown the door.

What’s surprising is that at least one of the show’s producers says he’s all in favor of releasing the vote tallies.

“If there’s any overt rule that says why [totals] shouldn’t be released, I’m not aware of it,” executive producer Ken Warwick said in an interview last week. “I was under the impression they were open to scrutiny.

“No one is saying you can’t look at them,” he added.

Well, actually, someone is. After the interview with Warwick, I asked a Fox spokesman if the network would be willing to release the tallies from last season. The spokesman said that lawyers for the show conferred over the matter.

A short time later, a written statement arrived, credited to Fox and show producers Fremantle Media and 19 Entertainment: “The network and producers will not disclose voting tallies for the competition, as the release of such information would only serve to create additional rumor and speculation.” The statement added that the show would “be willing” to release “the total number of votes” received this season, as it has done in the past.

But, of course, the total number of votes reveals very little. In fact, it doesn’t even tell us how many Americans participated in “Idol’s” process, because viewers are encouraged to phone in for their favorites as many times as they like. It can be assumed that if “Idol” followed a one-person, one-vote system, the results would be much different. But without a full accounting of each season’s totals, it’s hard to say anything definitive about “Idol” voting.

Maybe when “Idol” finally ends its run -- many decades hence, no doubt -- the producers can donate those long-ago voting tallies to some grateful museum curators.

--

scott.collins@latimes.com