'American Idol' yields more than 178M text interactions

Although American Idol's year-over-year Nielsen ratings dropped by about 3 million viewers this past season, the reality series' mobile operator partner AT&T reports fans accounted for more than 178 million text messages this time around, the highest total for any AI season to date and more than double the 78 million messages the carrier reported last year. Messaging traffic counted in the tally includes not only text votes but also related fan interaction like weekly trivia questions, opt-in voting reminders and AT&T-hosted contestant chats. According to AT&T, more than twice as many subscribers played weekly Idol Trivia this season compared to last--in addition, the number of customers who opted in for weekly voting reminders was 70 percent higher than last year, with fans who signed up for the reminders sending close to twice as many text votes as the overall voting population.

American Idol wrapped up its eighth season last week. In the finale, some guy beat another guy.

For more on the American Idol text record:
- read this release

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