'American Idol' Fans Deliver World Record-Breaking Vote and Overwhelming Public Donations

'American Idol' Fans Deliver World Record-Breaking Vote and Overwhelming Public Donations for 'Idol Gives Back' Charity Telecasts on April 24 and April 25?? Telescope and FOX Announce New World Record for Television Telephone Vote; More Than 70 Million Toll-Free and Text Votes Cast, and More Than $60 Million Raised to Date

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LOS ANGELES, BUSINESS WIRE -- Telescope, the leader in participation media solutions, today announced a world record-setting event for television telephone voting for AMERICAN IDOL's 'Idol Gives Back' two-night special charity telecast on FOX April 24th and 25th. The April 24th performance telecast included more than 70 million toll-free and AT&T SMS votes cast for the six remaining 'Idol' performers. The previous world record was for the season 3 finale, which garnered 65.4 million votes cast for the 'Idol' finalists, meaning that AMERICAN IDOL smashed its own previous record by almost 5 million votes. The show also accumulated more than $60 million in donations from both corporate sponsors and viewers.
On Wednesday night, for the two-hour results show spectacular, more than 13,000 live call-center agents, across 31 separate call centers, were involved in 'Idol Gives Back' and a mass scale online donation system was set in place for the event. Telescope managed the sourcing and implementation of the technology systems required to process the donations from members of the public for the show, commencing the build-out in late-February with FOX and 'Idol' producing partners FremantleMedia North America, 19 Entertainment, as well as Charity Projects Entertainment Fund.
More than 30 million viewers tune in to AMERICAN IDOL each week to vote for their favorite contestants by dialing into the toll-free telephone numbers or texting in on their AT&T phones. Working with the show since its programming debut in 2002, Telescope has successfully managed 'Idol' voting for six straight seasons. Last season, Telescope announced nearly 580 million combined toll-free telephone and mobile text votes

"With the new world record-breaking vote volume and incredible generosity of the donating American public for 'Idol Gives Back,' participation media has come of age. 'Idol Gives Back' engaged the television audience beyond our most optimistic expectations," said Sandy Bennett, general manager of Telescope. "We, at Telescope, have worked for six seasons to ensure that the AMERICAN IDOL voting systems are capable of achieving mass scale while maintaining accuracy and integrity, and 'Idol Gives Back' demonstrates clearly the improvements and developments that we and our technology partners have put in place to extend the interactive capabilities for the FOX television audience."
Ellen DeGeneres hosted the show's live companion event via satellite from downtown Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall. The star-studded evening saw appearances and performances from stars ranging from Earth Wind & Fire and Il Divo to Kellie Clarkson, Celine Dion, Rascall Flats, Annie Lennox, Seal and Bono.
The more than 70 million calls and text messages that came in for 'Idol Gives Back' will be added to next Tuesday's tallies, said host Ryan Seacrest. Melinda Doolittle, LaKisha Jones, Blake Lewis, Chris Richardson, Jordin Sparks and Phil Stacey all return for the May 2nd telecast.
Telescope will keep donation lines open until the end of May.