Houster wrote:
Oldguy, I think the executives who really run Idol are taking that risk.  Several exposes of the show have been written, and at least one of them discusses Fremantle Media's "Executive In Charge of Production", a British woman named Wyleen May, who I've read is one of the most arrogant, imperious, boorish people to have ever worked in television.

You think Simon Fuller or the private equity firm that bought Idol's parent company, CKX, a few years back, care if they get caught rigging?  TV is not dominated by prime time game shows like it was back in the late 1950's.  The show has made billions of dollars.  I doubt anyone would go to jail, just pay several million dollars in fines.

So it wouldn't surprise me at all if Jessica was put in the B3 and they used the save on her to pump her up.  Don't forget, unless Ryan Seacrest actually says something like, "I'm looking for the people with the lowest number of votes," the "bottom three" means nothing.
Imperious and boorish doesn't equal criminal, though.   If the producers and owners think the show doesn't have enough drama to sustain itself without artificially trying to produce more  drama despite the billions it has yielded, and that they don't care about losing a million here or there in fines, they also need to be sure the rigging is rigged right down to the judges, who might care more about reputation than the producers do. I'd guess it  is the rare billionaire (I really don't know any personally so I don't know what I'm saying) or even multimillionaire who isn't interested in making more billions or millions more and if nothing else, the show would be done if they were caught rigging.  As far as the wording Ryan uses (he's got a tremendously valuable career at stake)  to announce the bottom three,  it as at least heavily implied that the person going home got the least number of votes that week and that the other two of the three got more votes.   A scandal on Idol would almost certainly cast doubt on the other reality talent shows.   The one thing I'm sure is rigged are the auditions in order to provide enough awful talent to make the early season audition shows "entertaining".