AT&T Denies Helping Kris Allen Win "American Idol"

May 28, 2009 9:44 a.m. EST

Los Angeles, CA (CNS) - Long-distance telephone company AT&T is denying malicious involvement in the crowning of Kris Allen as the newest "American Idol."

AT&T, one of the show's biggest sponsors, rebuffs reports that they have influenced the outcome of this year's show, which left the more popular Adam Lambert settling for second place.

According to NY Times, representatives of the company provided free text-messaging services at two parties in Arkansas after the Fox reality show's final performance episode last week. However, there appears to be no similar effort for the supporters of Lambert.

AT&T said in a statement, "In Arkansas a few local AT&T employees were invited to attend two local watch parties organized by the community... they brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested. That said, it's quite a leap to suggest that a few individuals could have impacted the final results."

Fox also stands by the result, saying that they are "absolutely certain that the results of this competition are fair, accurate and verified. Kris Allen is, without a doubt, the American Idol."

The network adds that they have independent third-party monitoring procedure to make sure the voting system is secured.

The said demo allowed fans to send 10 votes or more at once, which is known as power texts. It appears to be in violation of the show's voting results, as "AI" reminds viewers that using "technical enhancements" that can influence the voting outcome could be thrown out.