What's Sanjaya's Secret Weapon?

March 21, 2007 — -- Sanjaya Malakar has interesting hair. This much, everyone seems to agree on.

But for the most part, that's where the praise for the wispy, sweet 17-year-old "American Idol" contestant ends.

Malakar has been almost universally panned by the judges, bloggers and show watchers as perhaps the worst contestant ever to set foot on the "Idol" stage.

Malakar's vocals are weak, and his stage presence awkward. On last week's show, the judges seemed flabbergasted by his butchering of Diana Ross' classic "Ain't No Mountain High Enough."

As one Rolling Stone blogger summed up: "Stop in the name of suck, dude!"

So why is Malakar among the final 12 contestants on the wildly popular reality show? Could it be that his outrageous awfulness is actually his secret weapon?

That's one theory floating around to explain the Sanjaya mystery.

He is the favorite of VotefortheWorst.com, a Web site started by Dave Della Terza during season three, after Della Terza said he realized that "American Idol" was a reality TV show more than a talent competition.

"People like Antonella Barba and Sanjaya Malakar, interesting as they are, don't really belong in a competition to find the next big singing superstar, but they're cast as foils for the show to create drama," Della Terza said in an e-mail interview. "So we say, let's make the show more entertaining by helping to keep them around."

Della Terza said the Web site receives about a million hits a day now and up to 3 million on show nights.

There is no way to gauge how many votes can be directly attributed to the Web site. However, according to Alexa.com, a site that monitors Internet traffic, VotefortheWorst.com is the second most popular "American Idol" Web site behind the official AmericanIdol.com.

Della Terza believes the site has helped keep past contestants such as Scott Savol, Kevin Covais, Kellie Pickler and even season five winner Taylor Hicks around longer than their talent warranted.