American Idol Takes Twitter, FB Accounts From Contestants

In a classic case of control freaks gone mad, the producers of American Idol have taken control of the Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts from contestants.

Instead of individual accounts, contestant can now only communicate through “official accounts,” including a Twitter account at @AI9Contestants.

USA Today speculates that

I’d say that they individual accounts got pulled for roughly the same reason that the show doesn’t allow iTunes to give out sales figures — the popularity of the individual accounts gives away too much about which contestants are doing better.

Is knowing which contestants are doing well really that much of a bad thing vs cutting off contact between them and their fans directly?