NEW YORK, USA – Oprah’s ‘Host your own show’ competition is under fire after videos of several contestants were getting thousands of votes in a matter of minutes.

Doctor Phyllis, an African-American contestant managed to get a reported 300,000 votes in under 25 minutes, while Zach Anner, who suffers from celebral palsy was a favourite on social bookmarking sites, ranking up millions of views in the past week. The sudden gain in votes on the Doctor Phyllis video sparked debate on how videos were getting such enormous responses so fast, and whether spam bots where voting instead of viewers. To add to the turmoil, according to RadarOnline, Oprah was targeted in a viral internet spam attack which was a leading search result in google to protest the ‘vote rigging’.

OWN (Oprah’s television network) has denied rigging votes in favor of their preferred contestants. Despite the allegations, the speculation surrounding the contest has shed light on some talented young people with innovative ideas and given others encouragement to give the contest a try. Their videos are compelling, sometimes awkward, but also intriguing. This is the kind of contest that many will feel gives them a chance to ‘Think Big’.

To find out more about the TV contest click here.

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