Due to some on-screen graphics errors that resulted in the incorrect voting numbers being displayed for several of its eleven remaining American Idol finalists, Fox has announced that it has thrown out the votes from Tuesday evening's Week 2 finals performance show and will instead rebroadcast a new live and updated version of the one-hour performance show in the place of tonight's originally scheduled American Idol results show.
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Airing from 9-10PM ET/PT, tonight's rebroadcast will feature "new live elements" that will be interwoven with the same pre-taped contestant performances shown on Tuesday's show. After the rebroadcast, American Idol's voting lines will once again open for two hours, with only the votes from this evening's show used to determine who becomes the second Idol finalist to be eliminated from the competition.
Due to the special Wednesday performance show rebroadcast, American Idol's results show will now air on Thursday at 9PM ET/PT.
Anwar Robinson, Jessica Sierra, and Mikalah Gordon were the three finalists who had incorrect phone numbers displayed for their votes, with Anwar's graphic displaying the number for Carrie Underwood, Jessica's displaying Scott Savol number, and Mikalah's displaying that of Anthony Fedorov.
While embarrassing for Fox, the voting gaffe is likely to prove more costly for its broadcast competitors -- particularly NBC. In addition to forcing an original episode of its already sagging The West Wing drama to air against a full hour of the top-rated Fox juggernaut, the move will also impact NBC's plan to take advantage of Survivor's absence from the Thursday 8PM slot and run The Apprentice from 8:30-9:30PM so that it can sandwich the premiere of its new heavily-promoted The Office series in between The Apprentice and ER.