VOTING FOR IDOLS

I’ve said more than once that more people vote for the “American Idol” than vote in political elections.

While I really did not know whether or not that was true, it certainly does make a point as to where America’s priorities lie.

But for the heck of it, I wanted to see what the numbers said.

First, let’s look at vewership for Presidential debates. This is pretty important, right?

According to Hollywood Insider:

McCain-Obama debate-25 million viewers
Palin-Biden debate-35 million voters
Survivor-13 million voters (same week as Palin-Biden debate)

I’m a little surprised-I thought the Survivor viewership was stronger.

The number of viewers who watched the American Idol finale in 2006? 36 million.

And Super Bowl XLIV? 107 million

We don’t know what would have happened had these programs actually been competing for air time, but it certainly seems that vice preseidential debates trump preseidential debates but still cannot compete with the crowning of an Idol!

Contrasting the number of voters for presidential primaries and Amercian Idol is also interesting.

According to USA Today, over 133 million people, or 62.5 percent of eligible voters, voted in the 2008 Presidential election, more than in any other election.

Even more impressive is the fact that the number of votes for president exceeded the 97.5 million votes texted into last season's American Idol.

Sadly, that means that for every four people who voted in the presidential election, three voted for the American Idol. That means it was almost as important to people what questionable talent got a record deal as what questionable intellect ran their country.

As far as I am concerned, there is only one television event more important than deciding the political fate of this great nation.

Women’s beach volleyball!