TV Series World

Sanjaya Malakar might have gotten voted off "American Idol" last week, but he refuses to go away. Sanjaya recently appeared on "The Ellen Degeneres Show" (the episode airs today) and told Ellen that he didn't think Howard Stern's constant campaigning had much of an effect on his success. Rather, Sanjaya credited his fans for pushing him into the top seven of "AI."

Said Sanjaya of the Vote For The Worst campaign, "I was fine with it, cause honestly, anyone who was going to vote for me cause Howard Stern told them to isn't going to vote more than like, twice maybe, so that's not gonna make a dent in the system... I was definitely where I was because of the fans."

I'll give Sanjaya a break because I don't think 17 year olds should be held accountable for saying foolish things. Also, considering that 37 million people watch "American Idol," no one is going to make it through on Howard Stern's support alone. But yeah, it definitely helped.