You may remember that in May 06, we used Hitwise search term volume data to predict that Taylor Hicks would win American Idol Season 5. After sweating it out, watching the finale on my living room couch (I was quoted that morning in USAToday predicting Taylor Hicks to be the winner), our prediction came true.
Fast forward to a presentation that I gave at our Hitwise Breakfast seminar in the U.K. on Noveber 10th 2006. I decided to apply the concepts from American reality television to the U.K. version of Dancing with the Stars aptly named Strictly Come Dancing. After applying our Stacy Keibler correction coefficient I predicted that cricketer Mark Ramprakash would win the show a full seven weeks before the finale. Here’s a snapshot of my prediction slide (note that even though Ramprakash was third of seven finalists, the quality of his search term data vaulted him above the other two).

I hadn’t been following the show since then, but just heard from our U.K. staff that the prediction once again was right on the money. Tonight is the premier of American Idol Season 6, while I don’t think I can bear to watch the full two hour premier, rest assured I’ll be posting some predictions as get deeper into the season.