I am not a Clay Aiken fan. I don't even watch American Idol. But as the editor of Elites TV I have not been able to escape the all-encompassing passion of the fans of this unlikely new star.

The e-mail that finally made me decide to write a piece on Clay fans was addressed to one of our writers, Ray Courtright Jr. Short and sweet, it said "Thank you, Ray Courtright, for a great article! It is refreshing to read unbiased reporting when it comes to American Idol. Well-written, insightful, and right on the nose!" OK I do read the articles I publish, and Ray is definitely not an unbiased writer and is definitely a Clay fan (read his articles and see what you think: "Musical Idol Beyond The American Idol Competition?", "Clay Aiken: Pulling Ahead In The American Idol Marathon Competition?", "Clay Aiken & Ruben Studdard - Entertainer vs. Studio Singer?"). Coupling this with the many letters I and my other writers receive when they mention anything negative about Clay (and KC does really enjoy your letters, Clay fans), I thought I should investigate this a little more.

First check out the websites. There is www.claytonaiken.com with a full screen picture popping up immediately. Then there is www.clayaiken.freewebpages.org/ with, suprisingly, another very large picture of Clay. Looking a little further we find www.promoinnovations.com/clay/ with guess what - nope - just a small picture of Clay. And last but not least, well actually it does have the smallest picture, clay.neurox.net/. Our sources says there are at least 6 websites devoted to Clay, though I think they may have missed a few. Josh Gracin supposedly has one, and none of the other contestants even rate a website.

Of course there are message boards galore out there discussing Clay and the rest of the American Idolers. At EZBoard alone (a very popular free forum site) there are 7 Clay Aiken boards that have been created, the most active being That's The Clay.

And finally there are the message groups - like the Yahoo group Claymates. I tracked them down, signed up for the group, and found to my suprise not the usual welcome message, but several useful files for any Clay fan.

Yes, their name is the Claymates. To make sure that I understood the jargon that has built up around Mr. Aiken, one of the files sent by the Claymates was a glossary of terms that every Clay fan must have. Meaning that not only has Clay gained fanatical fans, but has also had a language created around him. All he needs now is a small piece of land and a jeweled crown and he can run his own country - perhaps "The Republic of Clay"? No wait - that is another of his fan groups.

So now we have Claynadians - Clay's Canadian fan base, and Ameraikens, who all are clayving for more Clay. Or more importantly, they are all voting for Clay each week with an undying loyalty to their titular head of the ever expanding Clay Nation.

E!
Editor
www.elitestv.com