GarageSpin

This is too funny.  VoteForTheWorst.com is a site dedicated to a single mission: propel the worst American Idol contestant to the top.  They're currently campaigning for Sanjaya Malakar, who as a result, has made it quite far, despite his painful performances.  You can see why when you compare VFTW's traffic stats to AmericanIdol.com's (as the Compete blog points out):

Fun stuff.  Also interesting is VFTW's "Truth About Auditions" section, which reminds us that AI is casting for a reality show, and isn't purely a talent contest.  (It reminded me of the season when Carrie Underwood won.  I only watched the first couple episodes of the season, and remember seeing footage of Carrie milking cows on a farm back home, etc etc, and thinking, "Wait a sec, how did they get footage of her at her house during the first round of auditions, and why is she the ONLY contestant they did that for?"  She won weeks later.  Kinda fishy, though she was indeed quite good.)

So now the question is, can the cynical masses backing Sanjaya overcome the AI forces that be?  Sanjaya had better watch his back, Simon may be wielding a club Tonya Harding style.

On a related note, here's one set of contestant departure predictions.