Indian-American Sanjaya Malakar has survived yet another week in the popular 'American Idol' contest with the teenager's continued success in the show remaining the talk of the town.
Malakar, whose staying power has come under varying degrees of derisive comments and expressions of surprise including from himself, will be back next week hoping to stay on perhaps till the current season ends in May.
The impact of the Internet and radio hype about keeping Malakar alive on the show is overblown, according to the show's executive producer, Ken Warwick, who doesn't expect Malakar to be around when the show ends next month.
"There is very little hype anybody can do to affect the vast numbers of votes we get," Warwick was quoted in The New York Daily News.
Malakar is able to march along because Howard Stern and the website votefortheworst.com have pushed keeping him because they think he's not good enough and want to make a mockery of the competition has been one speculation.
{{/usCountry}}Malakar is able to march along because Howard Stern and the website votefortheworst.com have pushed keeping him because they think he's not good enough and want to make a mockery of the competition has been one speculation.
{{/usCountry}}But Warwick looks at it differently - that even if all of Stern's listeners voted - or any other radio campaign started - it wouldn't make up the difference that Malakar has over the people below him, or above him, in the weekly call rankings.
According to media reports, Warwick has said there are mechanisms in place to stop or identify electronic voting - and that technology has yet to spot a problem.
Likewise, the show has the ability to trace each of the 40 million calls logged each week.
"Say what you want about Malakar, he hasn't a bad voice... Personally, I don't expect him to be there in the end. But it's not up to me, it's up to the public," he said.