Viewers still texting after judges choose winner

Viewers were asked to text their votes in, but voting remained open after the winner had been decided. Photo / BoP Times

A woman competing in a television contest for a Samoan holiday is shocked that people were still paying to text-vote for a winner several hours after the producers had chosen one.

Clarissa Chandrahasen appeared on TV3's Sunrise programme on Monday morning with two other contestants, each hoping to win viewer support in order to win the prize.

Viewers were asked to vote by texting the name of the person they wanted to win.

Each text cost 50c and people could vote multiple times.

Ms Chandrahasen said a TV3 staff member told her at 11am that she hadn't won the trip.

When she told friends the news, she discovered that they, and others, had continued texting until 1pm, when the broadcaster's website said voting had closed.

"People spent up to $50 texting in."

The 23-year-old scientist wants to know how much the texts contributed to the overall decision on who won the prize.

"They had already decided when the poll was still open," she said. "It's fine if it was a mistake, but it still cost people money."

TV3 publicity manager Nicole Wood told the Herald Ms Chandrahasen had raised a valid point. "The texting was always supposed to finish at 11am, but one of our staff had mistakenly posted the close as 1pm."

At 11am it was clear from the texting that all three candidates had a similar level of popular support and the judges then made a decision based on additional criteria, Ms Wood said. She couldn't say yesterday what those were.