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« My first job in TV | Main | Lessons in life »

Phone bank casts 11,000 votes for Pickler

April 20, 2006

Amy Lehtonen

WCNC.com



Even Kellie Pickler admitted she butchered her song Tuesday night on ‘American Idol’ so I wouldn’t have been surprised to see her in the bottom three. But she wasn’t and maybe the small town of Albemarle (pop. 15,600) had something to do with it.


Hundreds of Pickler fans flood downtown Albemarle every Tuesday night to cheer on their hometown favorite. Most pack the popular restaurant JD Shuckers to watch her performance on more than a dozen televisions throughout the restaurant.


After the show Pickler fans, dressed in their favorite Pick Picker t-shirts, can step out onto the street to send a text message for free from the Pick Pickler phone bank.


CT Communications has about 50 phones for fans to cast their vote. A total of 11,346 text votes were cast Tuesday night through the phone bank. That beats last week’s total of 8,538 text votes.


Pickler’s stardom has put Albemarle on the map. Every Tuesday night the street outside JD Shuckers is shut down as radio and television stations broadcast live. There are Pick Pickler signs in the windows of the downtown shops, t-shirts are for sale and even a local florist sells Pick Pickler carnations.


Tuesday’s show is being touted the best ‘American Idol’ show ever. The ‘Idols’ got some tips from Rod Stewart as they picked selections from his "Great American Songbook" series. The show was very entertaining. Even my 90-year-old grandmother liked it.


Rocker Chris Daughtry, another North Carolina native, showed a different side with "What a Wonderful World".


And while Pickler looked stunning in her pink dress and sparkling shoes, her performance of "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" was brutal. She was out of sync with the music and it seemed as if she skipped rehearsal.


But her personality came through for her as she admitted with a smile that she butchered the song and apologized to Simon.


In the end it was Ace who was sent packing. Surprisingly, Daughtry was in the bottom two.


It was either Pickler's Albemarle faithfuls wearing out the buttons on their phones casting vote after vote or www.VoteForTheWorst.com that kept Picker out of the bottom three.

Who do you think helped Pickler more...Vote For The Worst or the Pick Pickler phone bank? Let me know what you think.

Posted by WCNC.com staff at April 20, 2006 12:12 PM

Comments

i mean she is ok and everything. but she should have went last night if it was based on tuesday night. kellie killed that song. I really don't think that she will take it all though. it will be katherine, elliott or taylor........

Posted by: JENNIFER at April 20, 2006 12:53 PM

KELLIE IS GREAT! I WOULD NOT COUNT HER OUT FOR ONE BAD SONG WHEN SHE HAS CLEARLY NAILED ALL THE OTHER ONES.SHE WILL FINISH STRONG IN THIS COMPETITION,AND EVEN IF SHE DIDNT WIN IT,SHE HAS ALREADY WON THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE WHOLE NATION!

Posted by: KEITH at April 20, 2006 1:35 PM

Kellie Pickler is so cute, innocent and special. She is so likeable and honest. I am so hopeful that she can springboard this opportunity into acting, and other avenues of stardom.

Posted by: Sue Bentley at April 20, 2006 1:54 PM

I think she has done so well in the past weeks that her fan base like myself will vote for her no matter how good she does , Kellie all the way

Posted by: Roger Helms at April 20, 2006 2:44 PM

I think that she should be going home soon, I'm way tired of her "acting" dumb, she has really gotten on my nerves. I pulled for her at first but not I think she's plain rediculas. PLEASE SEND HER HOME.

Posted by: Karen at April 20, 2006 3:00 PM

I don't think that Kelly got sent home because she had one bad song. But, what in the world are people thinking when they keep Taylor in the competition. This is not a dance competition. Which he can't dance.

Chris has the voice to sing so why was he in the bottom three.

Go Kelly and Chris

Posted by: DThomas at April 20, 2006 3:16 PM

I can't say for sure, but in a close race, the vote for the worst movement can change the order. The site has received nearly 4,000,000 hits this season, and if its faithful are voting with the same vigor as the we love Kellie forces, she may have a place. Of course whoever wins the title, the final vote is always how many records will the public end up buying?

Posted by: Frank at April 20, 2006 5:34 PM

I find the whole thing utterly disgusting...and all these people should be ashamed of themselves...of course they have no pride or they wouldn't be cheating to keep someone like this in a competition where much more deserving people should be!

Posted by: Liz at April 20, 2006 6:31 PM

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize this was a Pickler fan site page...excuse me....no wonder my posts aren't on here

Posted by: Liz at April 20, 2006 6:56 PM

This is a singning competition not a "How dumb can I be" competition. Kelly needs to go

Posted by: sue harper at April 20, 2006 7:02 PM

She sucks, plain and simple. She's not cute, she's not special, she's a one-dimensional singer.

Posted by: L at April 20, 2006 9:01 PM

I think Kellie is such a cute gal and has such a beautiful and versatile voice, I would vote for her till the bitter end. If Kellie does happen to get booted I will stop watching the rest of the american Idol competition, Kellie is THE reason I tune in every week! What better a person for our young to look up to and to aspire to be than Kellie Pickler!
Kellie is the kind of all american girl that your young need.

Keith in Everett, Washington (KelliePicklerFan@comcast.net)

Posted by: Keith Santo at April 20, 2006 10:24 PM

Kellie is a fake and she is playing the dumb blonde card which I find very annoying. I would like her a whole lot better if she wasn't such a liar and a fake and ummm, let me not forget....if she could sing...

LIAR - I've only sang in the shower...ummm - LIE (what about Gimme the mic Charlotte??) 2nd place Kellie...

FAKE - Oh, I'm sorry - what's a sorry?

I really hope her votes are coming from www.votefortheworst.com - It would make me sad to know that people are voting for her because they are falling for her act or that they actually enjoy her singing. What's a singing?

Posted by: Camille at April 21, 2006 1:24 AM

Kellie Pickler is neither honest nor innocent. She is milking the "dumb blonde" thing way too much. I refused to believe that anyone can really be that stupid. And innocent...hello, did you not see the picture of her prom dress? It didn't exactly say "innocent." It screamed, "I'll be working on the corner later!"

Posted by: Kellie at April 21, 2006 3:44 PM

VoteForTheWorst is a joke. I run two of the largest Idol related sites on the net and I'll but the votes my members can generate up against what VFTW claims they can generate any day. Someone posted above that VFTW can change the outcome because their site has received 4 million hits this season. Well the site I run backing Kellie has received over 8 million hits just this month, anything VFTW thinks they can generate my members can nullify and outdistance. Kellie commands one of the two largest fanbases this season and I have stats that show her fanbase increasing at the same rate as last years winner did over the same time period.

It's so simple people just don't get it. The winner will be the contestant that makes a connection with the largest portion of the viewing audience. Simple as that and Kellie does that every week.

Posted by: James at April 21, 2006 10:57 PM

The whole phone bank scandal is pretty bad, considering CT communications is a susidiary of Cingular, a major A.I. sponsor. Talk about monopoly.

Posted by: pickleguy at April 22, 2006 8:08 AM

Common sense tells you that VFTW is costing Kellie at least as many votes as it's giving her -- and probably many more.

The whole idea runs counter to human nature -- they're asking you to vote FOR someone you don't like.

If the site were really trying to help her win, they wouldn't post all the hateful lies and other garbage. And they wouldn't send all their trolls out to spread the lies everytime someone posts a blog or story on Kellie.

The reason Kellie is doing so well is because she has thousands of REAL fans willing to spend two hours dialing for her every Tuesday night. No one is going to do that if they don't respect her.

Posted by: Mike at April 22, 2006 5:45 PM

SEE YA. Now we have a competition, y'all!!!!

Posted by: David at April 26, 2006 9:38 PM

Thank God she is gone. I know prayer works

Posted by: bob e at April 27, 2006 12:38 AM

She's a fraud, a phony, and a liar. Not to mention a mediocre singer, at best. Anyone with an IQ higher than 20 has figured all of this out.

"I ain't never sang infronna people afore. I jus' sang in the shower." Gee, Kellie. How about those Beauty Pageants--the Miss America program, no less? Anyone out there familiar with the private interview portion of the Miss America program?? Well, I am. It's TOUGH, at all levels (prelim--which Kellie won--state, and nat'l). Questions regarding current events and national and world affairs. She's no dummie. She's crazy like a fox. And how about that local 'American Idol-esque' contest held by your local television station in which you competed?? I'm guessing you 'sang infronna people' then.

Her hometown should be ashamed for promoting and participating in this fraud that has been committed against the viewing public. I can assure you I'll always drive 'the long way around' to avoid this hick town if ever confronted with it...unless someone steps up to the plate and says, 'We're sorry'.

How sad that little girls all over this country now think the way to 'win' in life is to 'act' stupid.

Posted by: Lee at April 27, 2006 9:47 AM

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