( EW.com ) -- After various Websites noted a curious surge in votes Tuesday for a contestant in Oprah Winfrey 's `` Your OWN Show '' contest , OWN , the television network Winfrey will launch in January , confirms to EW it is investigating . The online contest is really a search for contestants for an OWN reality series in which competitors will then vie for their own show on the network . Until yesterday , Zach Anner , a witty wheelchair-bound Texan who explains in his video that he has cerebral palsy ( `` the sexiest of the palsies '' ) and pitches `` a travel show for people who never thought they could travel , '' held a commanding lead . But in the afternoon , contestant Dr. Phyllis -- who proposes a reality show on teachers because the drama is in the classroom , rather convincingly -- took the top spot by amassing votes at a rate that spurred some techno-savvy readers into sleuth mode . Geekosystem has a detailed breakdown of the various claims ( complete with graphs ) among them that for at least a few hours , the source code for Phyllis ' `` Vote '' button differed from that of all the other contestants and that as quickly as her vote-per-minute average rose it dropped later that day ( from 1,923 votes a minute to 3 ) . Contacted by EW , a spokesperson for OWN issued the following statement : `` The online voting rules for the 'Your OWN Show ' video submission competition were carefully crafted to be fair to everyone . Any allegations of impropriety will be investigated and the appropriate actions taken to keep the process unbiased . '' ( As of 5:15 p.m . ET Wednesday , Anner was back in the lead , by a margin of more than 400,000 votes ; Dr. Phyllis could not be reached for comment . ) While some conspiracy theorists have gone as far as to suggest that Winfrey could be rigging the competition against Anner , he has not jumped to that conclusion : `` I sincerely doubt that Oprah would do anything like that , '' he says in a statement to EW . `` She 's probably too busy building schools and helping children to even notice someone like me . I 'm grateful for everyone 's continued support and to Oprah for giving me this opportunity . Thanks again , happy travels , and keep being sexy ! '' See full article at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2010 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
Websites noted a surge in votes Tuesday for an online contest for Oprah 's Network . The winner will be announced on May 20. The contest is a search for contestants for an OWN reality series .