'Idol' hooked Hawai'i from start

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

You don't have to be a brain surgeon, a rocket scientist or even an "American Idol" vote tabulator to figure out how badly Hawai'i had it for Jasmine Trias these past few months.

Jordan Ehara, 6, was one of the kindergartners at Nu'uanu Elementary School who made graphs charting the popularity of "American Idol" contestants. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

Nu'uanu Elementary School's youngest statisticians have been keeping their smudgy fingers on the pulse of the school for more than two months, dutifully tracking their schoolmates' up and down estimation of Trias, Camile Velasco and other "Idol" favorites.

Trias, the home-island girl, was the across-the-board favorite — as handmade graphs adorning Skrimstad's classroom clearly attest.

"Some of the older kids liked LaToya (London)," Skrimstad said. "But mostly everybody was for Jasmine."

By "everyone," Skrimstad includes all grade levels, school administrators, faculty, staff, parents, custodians and cafeteria workers.

"Everybody talks about the show," she said. "Everybody knows what happens every week. Hawai'i has really taken it to another level."

Indeed, there probably aren't enough Magic Markers on the island to chart the extent to which the show and its Hawai'i-bred stars captured the state's imagination. From school projects to weekly viewing-and-voting parties to Trias' recent promotional overnighter (which culminated in a Beatlesque scene on Kalakaua Avenue), the response has been immense and intense.

According to statistics provided by Fox affiliate KHON, nearly one-third of the state's population has tuned in to "Idol" each Tuesday and Wednesday. Stories about "American Idol" and its contestants consistently receive the most hits on The Advertiser's Web site and dozens of e-mails from the Mainland and the Philippines are sent to the newsroom each day. Recent online chats have drawn so many participants the system overloaded.

"Every Tuesday used to be watch the show and vote, and every Wednesday was watch the show and pray," said Kimberley Kawano, 61, of Kahala. "I'm not sure what to do with myself now."

Kawano's husband, Richard, for one, will be glad to have the phone lines clear again.

"Every week after the first show, she's on the phone trying to vote," he said. "And not just the house phone, but her cell, too. If I want to call her from somewhere, I cannot. Either that or I have to wait."

Richard Kawano says he watches the show — but only because his wife "won't let me get near the remote control.

"What a life," he said, laughing.

Similar scenes took place around the state after it was announced that three Hawai'i residents — Trias, Velasco, and Jonah Moananu — survived their initial auditions to advance to the round of 32.

Hawai'i's love affair with "American Idol" actually started a year ago, when Farrington's Jordan Segundo reached the round of 32. According to KHON, the state tuned in more than any ratings area other than Idol winner Ruben Studdard's home television market — including Clay Aiken's.

And that was just the beginning.

Starting with the auditions last September, the community's intrigue grew each week.

Velasco was the first to appear and Hawai'i voters responded with 1.5 million call attempts, according to Verizon Hawaii. The next week, only 450,000 call attempts registered when Moananu appeared, but the votes were back a week later when Trias, known then as the Maryknoll Mystery Girl, finally appeared on March 2. Hawai'i' logged 1.3 million attempts.

That's when Charlie Pacheco, 16, of Kane'ohe started paying attention.

"When I saw the picture of the 12 contestants and two of them were from Hawai'i, I almost couldn't believe it," she said. "I was cheering for Jordan last year, but this was even better (because) they got farther and there was two of them."

Pacheco said she, her mother, Caroline, and her sister, Cat, drop everything to watch the show.

"Wednesday night, we're all sitting side-by-side holding hands and praying for Jasmine," she said. "It's like total family bonding."

Pacheco said she and her friends have spent hours debating who was better, Trias or Velasco.

It was a debate that raged throughout the state. Whom do you identify with the most — the Maryknoll student with the faux flower in her hair or the erstwhile IHOP waitress from Maui?

Many, like Pacheco, chose not to decide.

"I always voted for both of them," Pacheco said. "I thought maybe Jasmine was a little better, but I wanted them to be the last two standing."

Voting attempts for Trias and Velasco dipped below 1 million only once, 926,878 on March 30. The next week, Velasco was eliminated despite 1.4 million total vote attempts from Hawai'i.

The fact that Trias and Velasco were the bottom two vote-getters that night may have provided the next boost for Trias, the survivor.

With one "Idol" hopeful left in contention, Hawai'i's obsession intensified. No more having to choose between the two, and the home-state viewers seemed to galvanize.

"Jasmine was the perfect person to bring the whole state together," said Dawn Truong, 39, of Kalihi. "She is talented enough to compete with the best of them, but she also has a quality about her that is special. She's a local girl, and it shows in how well she handled herself.

"I think that's what people respond (to) in the end," she said. "We want someone we can be proud to say represents us."

Truong, who works at a travel agency, said she and her co-workers stayed late at the office to watch the show and to use the office phones — with their sophisticated redial functions — to call in votes.

Even people who never watched the show knew of Trias' weekly progress.

"I never saw a single episode until (last) week," said Tony Lyons, 43, of Kahala. "But I can tell you exactly who sang what and who did or didn't do a good job because it's everywhere. You can't escape it. Everybody has Jasmine on the brain."

Businesses were affected by all that Jas, too.

Chad Cabanban, a supervisor at Starbucks Coffee in Pearlridge Center, said the mall was "a ghost town" on "Idol" nights.

"There's maybe half as many people walking around," he said. "It's dead. Everybody is at home watching the show."

There was a night David Louis, 36, of Kunia attended a meeting of the National Association of Catering Executives at the Hale Koa Hotel.

"They put TVs up so people could watch the show," he said. "The speaker was trying to hurry up and finish before it started."

To keep Trias' dreams alive, residents made a record 3.8 million attempts on April 14, then broke that record five times over the next six weeks.

It was a charmed run for Trias, who entered as a mystery girl , captured an entire state's — and nation's — attention, then exited with grace.

"American Idol," for all its popularity, isn't perfect. Rumblings of vote fixing started when Jennifer Hudson was voted off and John Stevens remained until the final six.

Once Stevens exited, the critical gaze of the national media focused on Trias and her overwhelming homestate support, particularly when favorite La Toya London was eliminated. Chatboards buzzed with conspiracy theories; hate mail poured into The Advertiser.

All of which seemed to steel the resolve of Hawai'i voters. One local telecommunication and data company set up a volunteer call center and generated 40,000 more votes for Trias. In all, a record 5.9 million attempts were logged the night Trias was bumped.

In the end, though, many of Trias' fans agreed that the singer bid aloha at the right time.

"It was time, I think," Lyons said. "Another week or so and the whole island would have fallen over the deep end."

Reach Michael Tsai at 535-2461 or mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.