I am proud to say that I have never watched a single minute of American Idol. Somewhere along the line in its earlier years I started to feel a little guilty that I was missing something but Mike mentioned that he had tried to watch it once and his impressions confirmed what I had thought about it.
Now I know more about this godawful waste of broadcasting spectrum than I ever cared to know. It is the fault of the Arizona Republic. Somewhere along the line what happened on these reality shows became "news". So and so was cast off the island on Survivors, etc. This has come to a head on American Idol. The winner was chosen last night apparently and I unfortunately know who it is. The winner was an overweight unattractive woman from Glendale with a poorly spelled name. Over the last few weeks the Rep has covered this almost as intensely as they covered the Suns in the NBA Playoffs. There was a special section of the paper one day, a full page picture of her another day with the notation "good luck".
Meanwhile we are spending a billion dollars every day or so on an illegal war, gas costs three bucks a gallon and the polar icecaps are melting. But people want to hear about this silly talent show.
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You know. I agree with you that it's over the top, but I have one positive thing to say. I have watched 2 episodes or at least snippets thereof: the first episode with Amanda Ostroff; and a section of one in a bar because it was on.
The first episode was ridiculous and awful but the second one had talented people. I think it's a far better idea than Survivor because it COULD BE about talented singers in competition which I think seems kinda cool. However, the unbearable thing about it is that it doesn't seem to be about the performers, but rather the "judges" whose job it seems to be to berate and use absolutely unclever phrases (that they themselves of course find brilliant) to deride seemingly random performers. And then there's this whole usage of really bad performers to make the show funny.
In Europe they have a Eurovision song contest. It's similar, but it is 25 years old and it's international. I really like it, because the countries vote as countries, so it's like watching the United Nations. The Ukrainians vote high for the Russians and Belorussians. The Germans vote high for the Turks, but the Turks give no votes to the Germans. It's hilarious.
If only our contest was about the performances, rather than loudmouthed assholes making fun of people, and for fun, rather than attempt to drain us all of any decency left. I know a lot of children "vote" and maybe people vote many times, but I believe more people vote for the American Idol winner than any elections other than the presidential. Disgusting.
In conclusion, I think the show would be fun if it were less-hyped, less derisive and more about talent than a popularity contest. On a side note, I find it encouraging that the woman who won is not extremely attractive. I would never have believed that anybody winning any contest on American television wouldn't have had 463 facelifts.
As I said, I have never seen it. Mike said he watched it hoping to see some performances but most of what he got was "up close and personal" crap about the people. Amanda Ostroff was on it? The woman who won is 17, she will use the money she is getting out of this for future face lifts.
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