Vote for the Worst Founder Dave Della Terza on ‘Letterman’ Tonight
The Man American Idol Lovers Love to Hate Set to Sit in the Hot Seat
On tonight’s installment of the Late Show with David Letterman, along with fellow talk-show host Craig Ferguson and musical guest Avril Lavigne, David Letterman will chat up 24-year-old (yes, he’s just a babe in the woods, not some old broken and depressed hatemonger) Dave Della Terza, the controversial founder of the alternatively adored and reviled American Idol-busting Web site votefortheworst.com. Although Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe claimed in a March 26 conference call with reporters that he’s not worried about the influence of the anti-Idol site, many fans definitely are given the unexpected popularity of Vote for the Worst poster boy Sanjaya Malakar, roundly considered by hordes of viewers to be the cause of the show’s impending downfall. In fact, I bet there’ll be more than a few vehement protestors in the Letterman audience tonight, just waiting to give Della Terza a stern word or two.
Whether or not Della Terza gets a taste of New York’s world-famous “politeness,” what will the two Daves discuss? The young entrepreneur is certainly not a fool, if the answers he gave during a Chicago Tribune interview this month are any indication. For instance, responding to Fox network’s claim that votefortheworst.com is mean-spirited, Della Terza says:
I don’t think we’re mean-spirited. We’re just having fun with the show. The thing is, they sit there and in bring these people on the show, these bad singers that audition for the show – they’ve gone through three auditions before they get to Simon, Paula and Randy. At that point, the producer have been building them up and telling them, ‘You’re so good. We love you.’ Then they see the judges, and it’s, ‘You’re terrible.’ It’s like, wow, that’s awful.
All we’re doing it helping these people they’re sticking on the show on purpose for ratings. Like Sanjaya, they knew he would suck eventually, and they knew he would be in over his head because he’s only 17 and he didn’t have much background singing. So they throw him in there, he’s going to mess up and then everyone will boo him off the stage and laugh at him. So we say, ‘Let’s help that person out,’ because that’s more fun for us to watch. You could call us mean-spirited, but I think the producers are more mean-spirited than we are.
As painful as the reality may be, the dude’s got more than one valid point. I think it would be wild if either Malakar or Della Terza’s other BFF, radio shock jock Howard Stern, showed up for a surprise late-night freak-out. Whatever happens, anxious Idol lovers should rest assured that Della Terza has no desire to cause the “transparently fake” show’s cancellation, although he does predict both a “riot” and a “giant celebration” if Malakar actually wins. With the teen wonder still in the running this late in the season, anything obviously goes.
The Late Show with David Letterman currently airs weeknights on CBS at 11:35pm EST
Late Show with David Letterman photo courtesy of CBS
