In the News

Report: Phone bottlenecks thwart 'Idol' voters

LOS ANGELES - Many would-be American Idol voters are disenfranchised by overburdened phone lines and by "power dialers" who hog the system, the magazine Broadcasting & Cable reported.

According to the magazine's issue released Monday, "the only people choosing the next American Idol are the ones lucky enough to get through - or skilled enough to get around - tremendously overtaxed phone lines."

Fox, which airs the talent contest, has failed to address the difficulties viewers must overcome to log votes, the magazine said.

The show is a ratings winner and valuable property for its producers and Fox, but Broadcasting & Cable said the network is alienating viewers who repeatedly get a busy signal when they try to call in their votes.

The voting system has been called into question in recent weeks as contestants who appeared to be frontrunners were dumped in favor of others who many viewers have complained were lesser performers. Last week, favorite La Toya London was voted off while Jasmine Trias survived a shaky performance.

Fox said both it and the show's producers have "gone to great lengths" to ensure the integrity of the voting process.

The contest winner, who gets a record contract, will be decided in the series finale May 25-26. Trias, Fantasia Barrino and Diana DeGarmo are still in the running.

The DJ Danger Mouse performance scheduled for Wednesday at the Masquerade in Ybor City has been canceled. There are no plans to reschedule. Call (813) 247-3319 for ticket refund information.

NEW YORK - Say goodbye to Jimmy Fallon on Saturday Night Live.

Fallon announced that he was leaving the comedy show at the end of his "Weekend Update" segment with Tina Fey on Saturday, the show's last original episode of the season.

It was no surprise to NBC executives.

"He had made it clear that he wanted to move on and we wish him all the best," Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group, said Monday.

SNL gave Fallon a fond sendoff, with a long skit featuring one of his signature characters, a nasally voiced and obnoxious radio disc jockey.

Fallon, 29, joined Saturday Night Live in 1998.

The final episode of Frasier attracted the NBC comedy's largest audience in more than three years but less than half the viewers who had tuned in to see the Friends finale a week earlier, figures from Nielsen Media Research showed Friday.

Kelsey Grammer's swan song as psychiatrist Frasier Crane - a character he originated on Cheers in 1984 - was seen by 25.2-million people, compared with nearly 52.5-million who watched Friends bow out. That was still good enough to win the ratings battle from 9 to 10 p.m., with CBS's CSI finishing second with 22.5-million.

Entertainment headlines