‘American Idol’ Runs Into Trouble With 13th Contender

“American Idol” has never had a Top 13 before, and it appears, having one extra contender on the show comes with one major complication of the saucy variety.

The phone number fans would reasonably expect to dial for the final singer on Tuesday’s show reaches an adult chat line.

If a fan chooses to call 866-IDOLS-13, they will be met with a friendly female voice recording which offers callers “nasty talk” for $1.99 or $3.99 a minute.

According to Megan Michaels, a producer at “American Idol,” who spoke to Ryan Seacrest on his radio show, “On Air With Ryan Seacrest” on KISS FM on Tuesday, the show will be rolling out a new number for Tuesday’s vote.

“We have a special ‘Idol’ number tonight that we will be revealing on the show,” she said. “It will not be that [IDOLS-13]… We have to be sure that people dial carefully tonight.”

Michaels said “Idol” will not even reference the sex phone line on tonight’s broadcast.

“We will not allude to the fact of the 1-3, because we don’t even want to endorse that,” Michaels told Seacrest.

And “American Idol” can’t use IDOLS-00 either, as the sex line also owns that number.

“You’re going to have to explain it very carefully,” Michaels told Seacrest about his “Idol” hosting job tonight. “We’re just going to talk about how it’s a special, new ‘Idol’ number.”