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''We moved the Idols final show from a Sunday to a Tuesday. That allowed us a full day to audit the votes and make sure that the valid votes come in on time, and check up that there's no delayed, yet valid votes somewhere in the system,'' Pierre Cloete, M-Net's channel head, tells me.
I asked Pierre Cloete how M-Net's voting logistics and voting system worked differently this year in the buffer time that was now built in for the sixth season of Idols between the final two Idols contestants' performances and when M-Net announced the winner two days later. Last year during the fifth season finale of Idols all the valid votes didn't come through in time which altered the eventual Idols results and created embarrasement for the pay broadcaster.
''For Idols voting we had our systems checked and rechecked - especially from the network side - and upgraded and from the Grapevine side to allow more votes to come through,'' says Pierre Cloete. ''The systems were improved plus we had the safety measure of the extra day of auditing the votes. The auditors also felt - they also felt that it's very difficult for them to audit the Idols votes live. It's almost impossible. Changing the date had a great effect and we didn't have any issues whatsoever.''
And on what day did the final auditing take place? The Monday? Or earlier the Tuesday before the Idols winner was announced the Tuesday night I wanted to know. ''On Tuesday,'' says Pierre Cloete. ''Voting closed on Monday night. We gave it eight hours to filter through for any late delivered, valid votes in the system and then we started auditing on Tuesday morning at 6 o'clock. That auditing process was finished by 13:00 on Tuesday, verified and checked.''
