Sanjaya Malakar

The mystery of Sanjaya Malakar deepens

American Idol 6 has been a controversial season because of one unusual contestant, Sanjaya Malakar, a young man who almost seems to know that he's not the best singer on the show, but is also riding a wave of unusual support, all the way to the top seven and maybe even higher. Why is Sanjaya Malakar sticking around on a show where better singers are getting the boot and how far can the singer actually ride this out to the finals of American Idol? That's what some people are starting to ask after a very unusual response to his safety this week on American Idol.

On this week's elimination show, host Ryan Seacrest played another game with the story of Sanjaya Malakar. Seacrest (and judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Paula Abdul) seems to know that Sanjaya is the worst singer on the show and has been playing with Malakar during the elimination show each week, always announcing his fate (bottom three or not) last. This week, Malakar was asked to stand three times before Seacrest actually told Sanjaya if he was in the bottom three or not, which he was not, after an actually-good performance of "Besame Mucho" on Tuesday night.

The reason it was more interesting than the typical safety of Sanjaya Malakar was because of the audience response. Every time that Sanjaya Malakar has been saved from not just elimination but even the bottom three, there has been an unusual, not-so-ecstatic response from the crowd. And, this week, when Chris Richardson was sent to the bottom three and Sanjaya Malakar was told he was safe, there was audible frustration and booing from the crowd, who clearly thought Richardson should be sitting and Malakar should have been taking the death march to the middle of the stage with Phil Stacey and Haley Scarnato, the contestant who eventually went home.

So, if the audience was upset about the choice of Sanjaya Malakar over Chris Richardson, who exactly is voting for Sanjaya Malakar? The truth is that it's probably people not even watching the show, much less actually in the audience to see it. The people in the audience are the folks most likely to be upset about websites like votefortheworst.com, which is openly campaigning for Sanjaya Malakar just to screw with American Idol. And then there's Howard Stern. The legendary shock jock has not just been pulling for Sanjaya Malakar - also to screw with the show - but has a system where his fans get the number to vote texted to them as soon as its available and the number for Malakar runs on the Sirius screen when it's available. In other words, there are potentially millions of Howard Stern fans voting for Sanjaya Malakar who haven't even seen the singer, just because Howard asked them to.

The funny thing, even with campaigns to keep him around and the judges resignation at the fact that their comments seem to have no impact on his success, Sanjaya Malakar actually seems to be getting better. Sure, far superior singers have been booted from American Idol this season and the fact that Sanjaya Malakar is top seven should surprise even him, but his performance on Tuesday night was actually his best yet and there's a chance that there are people out there voting for him because they honestly think that he's the best.

Can Sanjaya Malakar beat the remaining six contestants and ride this thing out, whether it's people who think he's the best or the worst, all the way to the top? Probably not. Simon Cowell has said that he would actually quit the show if Sanjaya Malakar wins (something that's only fueled people like Howard Stern who are having fun with the voting) and that probably means that it won't happen. Also, while booted contestants like Gina Glocksen and Haley Scarnato probably should have outlasted Sanjaya Malakar, his sticking around hasn't really kicked anyone too talented off the show yet. When it gets down to contestants like Jordin Sparks, Blake Lewis, and frontrunner Melinda Doolittle, then we can start taking Sanjaya Malakar's campaign for American Idol more seriously. Wait until you hear the audience response if Sanjaya Malakar sticks around instead of one of those three favorites. Even Howard Stern will be able to hear that one.