Fox Bares Its Teeth in Defense of 'Idol'

"Why would you want to endanger the success of the show by manipulating it? You only have to get caught once and the whole show becomes worthless," he said.

"Idol" host Ryan Seacrest, who also appeared in that package, painted a rosy picture. "If you step away and think about it, you have a one-hour promo on a different network about our television show. I guess that's the way I'm looking at it right now."

Last night, local Fox-owned station WTTG ran teases for a report in its late news about the "Idol" controversy, promising "now 'Idol' sets the record straight." Near the end of its newscast, the station reran the package that had run on FNC.

Earlier this week, fellow judge Simon Cowell went on "Extra" to acknowledge that Abdul "will spend more time backstage with the contestants, giving them encouragement, but that's not a bad thing." He called Clark's claims "rubbish" and described him as "a guy who's out there to publish a book."

Randy Jackson, the third judge, stumped for Abdul on "Access Hollywood."

Abdul's lawyer, Marty Singer, sent ABC a letter about his client, the contents of which we were not privy to. But you can safely assume he's not writing to wish the network best of luck on its May ratings sweeps newsmag special, "Fallen Idol," in which ABC promises to "explore explosive claims about behind-the-scenes activities at 'American Idol.' "

At press time, Singer's office had not returned a phone call for comment on the letter, word of which was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

ABC News, by the way, will still not confirm that the "Primetime Live" report will focus on Abdul. One source told The TV Column that of about a dozen questions sent by ABC News to Abdul and the "Idol" producers, almost all were about Abdul and a few dealt with how the show goes about signing finalists to contracts.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the country, about 25 million people watched "American Idol" on Tuesday night.

Although that's a walloping big number, it's about the same as the season average for Tuesday performance broadcasts of "Idol" and on par with the same broadcast of "Idol" last season.

This despite the fact that the media are all atwitter over those claims by booted "Idol" contestant Clark and ABC News's upcoming look at alleged hanky-panky behind the scenes on the country's most popular television show.

You'd think that would have sent Tuesday's numbers through the roof as viewers tuned in to see: Whether Paula was there, how Paula looked, how Paula acted, what Paula said, whether the allegations were mentioned, whether the upcoming ABC News special was mentioned.

Could it be that the American public -- gulp -- does not care?

We Watch So You Don't Have To:

Constantine Maroulis, the only unboring, unpredictable, talented performer in the bunch, gets booted last night after receiving the fewest votes from viewers, while Smugpugsly Savol lands among the top three vote-getters along with hoedown queen Carrie Underwood and one-note-song Bo Bice? What am I watching -- an episode of NBC's "Revelations"?

No, it's "American Idol" -- we can tell because Ryan Seacrest is asking Paula Abdul to react and she's weeping bitter tears. Now she's hugging Maroulis's mother's head and weeping. Now they're showing Maroulis's This Is Your Life video, only without the clip of Paula saying she's starting to fall in love with him.

And so, we leave our ever-shrinking band of "Idol" contestants and the show's producers as they ponder a life in which they have to market Savol as an "American Idol."

Good luck with that.