'IDOL' CONTRARIAN -- SITE PROMOTES 'WORST' CONTESTANT

March 26, 2006
By Eugene Tong
Staff Writer

VALENCIA - He's ``American Idol's'' class clown - firing spitballs at the talent competition from the back of the room as if recess never ended.

From his third-floor Valencia apartment, David Della Terza runs one of the more notorious Web sites - votefortheworst.com - that grew out of Fox's top-rated TV singing contest, now in its fifth year. From his virtual pulpit, the 23-year-old rallies viewers to vote for who he believes is the ``worst'' singer on the show.

``I totally lucked into this whole thing,'' Della Terza said in an interview last week. ``We did it as a joke because we like all the bad singers.

``It's such a cheesy show - that's the most interesting part. It's like when people enjoy bad karaoke performances that's fun to watch.''

The 2-year-old site gets about 100,000 visits on show days, and came to public consciousness last year when it took some credit for propping Scott Savol - a goatee-sporting ``regular Joe'' thought to be the weakest link - into the contest's final five.

This year, Della Terza has rallied behind Kevin Covais, a top 12 contender whose glasses and boyish 16-year-old looks have garnered him the nickname ``Chicken Little'' after the Disney animated character. He survived the first week, only to be axed last week.

The Web site now has its sights on Kellie Pickler of North Carolina.

``The worst possible thing that can happen ... is for them to have to sign ANOTHER blonde, country singer,'' Della Terza wrote on the site. ``It would hurt (Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood's) sales or hurt Kellie's sales.''

Asked about the Web site recently, a Fox spokesman said the network had no comment, but it did issue this statement last year:

``While it is unfortunate that a small group of people are so caustic that they believe it would be humorous to attempt to negatively sway the voting on 'American Idol,' the number of purported visits to the Web site would have no impact on voting. Their hateful campaign will have no effect on the selection of the next 'American Idol.'''

Yet the show's producers aren't above having a little fun - witness the string of off-key rejects that open each series, or William Hung, who parlayed a fractured rendition of Ricky Martin's ``She Bangs'' into an entertainment career with ``Idol's'' blessings.

It's just that Della Terza refuses to follow the script when the contest gets serious. He said on the site that the show's more about producing riveting reality TV than being a serious singing competition, and what's good reality without an ``entertaining antagonist?''

``It's not like we hate 'American Idol,''' he said. ``We love 'American Idol.' We're like the counterculture of 'American Idol,' and (the show's producers) don't know where to peg us.''

Jonathan Wilcox, who teaches celebrity and public relations at University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, said these contrarians aren't new.

``There is always an impulse among the public to gain social power by knowing and understanding the faults of entertainers,'' he said. ``The title (of the site) alone is a dead giveaway of its snarky sense (of humor), which by all accounts is very popular today.''

However, the Internet has empowered people like Della Terza to organize the like-minded and amplify their potential influence over entertainment culture, and the industry actually is paying attention, Wilcox said.

``A generation ago, that was unthinkable,'' he said. ``The established entertainment industry would love to exert continued influence over these mediums that influence the public. But the fact that they can't - it's something the (Web) celebrates and will continue to exploit.''

Della Terza moved to California about a year ago from Chicago to work on reality TV - he logs tapes as a day job. He caught the reality bug in 2000, when the castaway contest ``Survivor'' hit the airwaves.

He studied communications at Northern Illinois University. For his senior thesis, Della Terza said, he created a campus version of ``The Amazing Race,'' from casting to shooting and editing the footage into six 22-minute episodes.

``They would run around campus and go to different buildings,'' he said. ``It was so much fun. I got an A.''

Della Terza said he's pursuing a career in video editing, but detoured to the Internet when Juanita Barber, a contestant on the second season of ``American Idol,'' inspired him and several members of a reality TV Web message board to start their own site.

Barber gained renown for snapping back at her critics - even trading barbs with snippy ``Idol'' judge Simon Cowell. It made great television, Della Terza said.

``She's like the patron saint of the forum,'' he said. ``Why can't we have a Juanita every season?''

The Web site was built gradually, and hit prime time last year when major news outlets pegged it as a culprit in explaining underdog Savol's seemingly improbable good fortune in the audience polls.

That pushed traffic to some 1 million visits, and got the Fox network to denounce the site, Della Terza said.

``I guess it's power,'' he said. ``Fox doesn't like me. Everyone takes it so seriously. It's a funny Web site. Kudos to 'American Idol' for making a show that people live and die by.''

Della Terza now runs the site with about six other volunteers - writing commentary, moderating forums and answering the 20 to 25 e-mails he gets per day (though a news media mention last week generated 400).

And he'll continue to wage this guerrilla campaign from his bedroom.

``Apparently it's uncool to like reality now,'' Della Terza said. ``But 'American Idol' is the No. 1 show on TV. I guess it's not that uncool.''