<P> In May 2009, following allegations in the media of an American Idol texting scandal dubbed "Textgate", one of American Idol's corporate sponsors, AT&T, admitted providing free mobile phones and texting services for fans of Kris Allen (who won the competition) at parties organized on the night of the program's final episode . Company representatives also provided Allen's supporters with lessons in how to send "power texts" which send ten or more votes with the touch of a single button . Bobby Kierna, one of the 2,000 guests who attended just one of the events, told reporters that she had voted for Allen 10,840 times . AT&T denied attempting to "fix" the contest and apologized, saying that employees had been "caught up in their enthusiasm" and promised that they will in future "celebrate the competition, not individual contestants". </P> <P> While speculations were rife over the reasons for Allen's win over Adam Lambert, in a statement, Fox said that an independent monitor was employed to oversee the voting process to ensure the competition results were "fair, accurate and verified ." </P> <P> Siobhan Magnus's elimination caused a stir among the judges and fans of the show . The controversy grew when it was discovered that a phone number printed on Facebook was not a number to vote for Magnus, but to vote for Aaron Kelly . Some commentators speculated that the phone number mix - up may have led to Magnus's exit . An unsuccessful campaign to bring Magnus back into the show was started by her fans . </P> <P> American Idol faced criticism for implications of gender and ethnic bias in its finalists; for five consecutive seasons--seven through eleven--the winner of American Idol was a guitar - playing, Caucasian male . The string of winners led to complaints by critics, who classified them as being a "white guy with guitar" (WGWG), and felt that the likely winner of the program had become too predictable due to the repeated victories by such performers . </P>

Who gets a record deal on american idol