A new judge, a new "judges' save" - and new milestones in fan engagement with AMERICAN IDOL. AT&T* reported today that more than 178 million text messages crossed its network as fans interacted with the country's No. 1 TV show this season - the highest total for any season and more than double the 78 million messages AT&T reported last year.
Text message traffic counted in the tally includes not only text votes but also other ways fans interact with the show via text, such as answering weekly trivia questions, opting in to receive voting number reminders, submitting questions to AT&T-hosted chat sessions with outgoing contestants, and participating in AT&T's sweepstakes.
AT&T also reports:
* More than twice as many AT&T customers played weekly Idol Trivia via text this season versus last.
* The number of AT&T customers who opted in to receive voting number reminders-a weekly text message listing all of the IDOLs and their voting numbers-was 70 percent higher than last season; fans who opted in for vote number reminders this season sent nearly twice as many text votes than did the overall voting population.
Additionally, IDOL contestants lit up AT&T's ringtone leaderboard this year. At one point during the week of May 10, AMERICAN IDOL tones comprised 15 of the top 100 ringtones.
"AMERICAN IDOL is a smash hit with our customers, so just as FOX raises the bar every year for the show, every season we work to bring our customers new ways to get their IDOL fix through our products and services," said Andy Wilson, vice president of national marketing for AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "We feel this season was our best yet, evidenced not only by heavy texting traffic but in the great response to the other terrific IDOL-related content we made available."
The AT&T $1,000,000 Idol Sweepstakes was also a hit with IDOL fans. Kori Hoesel from Friendswood, Texas, received the grand prize-a trip to attend AMERICAN IDOL Finale festivities with her daughter and the opportunity to take home a cash prize up to $1 million. At the Finale festivities, Hoesel was presented with a choice of Samsung Propel phones from former IDOL contestants Carly Smithson, Kimberley Locke, Chikezie Eze, Chris Richardson, Melinda Doolittle, Diana DeGarmo, LaKisha Jones, Paris Bennett, Bo Bice, Hayley Scarnato, Vonzell Solomon, Blake Lewis and Mikalah Gordon. The Samsung Propel is one of the full-keyboard phones in AT&T's top-selling line of quick messaging phones designed with texters in mind. Each phone had been assigned a cash value, and Hoesel took home $50,000 as a result of her pick. More than 191,000 AT&T customers entered the sweepstakes.
For the first time this season, AT&T also gave fans a sneak peek of new videos from two past IDOL winners, Kelly Clarkson and David Cook. Clarkson previewed the video for her new hit single, "My Life Would Suck Without You," while Cook fans caught a glimpse of the video from his newest single, "Come Back To Me." Following previews during AMERICAN IDOL commercial breaks, full-length videos were available for fans to view directly from AT&T mobile phones, through the video-on-demand library on AT&T U-verse TV, and online at att.net.
*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.