Controversy
The show has gone through a lot of controversies since its first broadcast. In Season 1, Matthew Stewardson was replaced halfway through the show by Sami Sabiti. Soon after that Stewardson checked himself into a drug rehab center.
The outcome of Idols I was followed by a row of complaints about Heinz Wincklers victory as many viewers saw the result as injustice and racially biased.
Season 3 winner Karin Kortje was not so lucky in her personal life after the contest ended as her boyfriend was charged of robbery and murder just months after the show. In difference to the other finalists of her season, Kortje was not invited to take part of the final of the next season.
In the final showdown of Season 5 there have been problems with the voteline, and some of the votes that were sent before the cut-off time were not counted. The investigation hit the front page of the Times on 8 May 2009 and later in the day it was announced on the official Idols website that the recount had showed that Jason Hartman had received 200 000 more votes than Sasha Lee Davids, who was originally declared as the winner on the grand finale, with 52.77% of the votes. Four days later, Idols announced that After discussion between M-Net and FremantleMedia (the format owners), Jason Hartman and Sasha Lee Davids were declared winners. They both received identical full prizes. This was the first time a win was shared on an Idol show.
Read more about this topic: Idols (South Africa)
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)