American Idol 9 drops individual Facebook, Twitter profiles for semi-finalists

American Idol 9 contestants’ Facebook and Twitter profiles have been dropped and consolidated down to one account for all of them, perhaps because their number of followers was too revealing.

Contestants’ posts have been consolidated to a single Facebook fan page, and their posts are preceded by their names. Those posts feed automatically to one Twitter account: @AI9Contestants.

Contestants’ official Facebook profiles haven’t been deleted, but now all have generic messages posted within the past hour that say:

“Thanks so much for joining my Fan Page! All my updates from now on will be on our Official American Idol 9 Contestant Page, please become a fan there to read all my updates throughout the season!”

“Thanks so much for following me! All my updates from now on will be on our Official Ai9 Twitter Page, please follow me there @AI9Contestants”

Last month, when the semi-finalists were first revealed, Fox announced separate social networking accounts for each of them, and their number of followers—and changes in followers—were potentially revealing.