Ah, it’s American Idol time. This is when the show starts up with plenty of bad singers, fame-coveting no-names, and twits who just want to get on TV, show up and perform poorly while the few talented make it through to further potential cuts. This is also the time when people start whining about how mean the judges are. It’s now become an annual rite as some are complaining about comments made during the auditions that were televised last week. This is all somewhat amusing because I remember quite well last season when there were complaints about how mean the judges were being, how it was much meaner than in the past, etc. – pretty much everything being said now. The public has a short memory.
The lead whiner is The View‘s Rosie O’Donnell. Rosie is apparently a human PR machine for The View as she has made a habit of picking fights with other quasi-celebrities and utterly manufacturing controversy where there none existed. Thus far, she has publicly feuded with Kelly Ripa, Donald Trump, The View‘s own Barbara Walters, and now American Idol. Be warned not to peek inside Rosie’s teapots lest yea be blown away by the tempests.
All that said, yes, American Idol is a silly, somewhat unfair show. At each city audition, there’s one or two rounds of cuts before people get to see Randy, Paula, and Simon. Plenty of talented people are assuredly turned away in those cuts, and many clearly talentless self-deceived people are sent through for the sole purpose of being ridiculed by the judges and the American public. It’s a talent show, but it’s also a reality show and events are unfairly manipulated for TV. Once you realize this and get past the hang-ups, it’s possible to be entertained by it. I am entertained and I know it’s quite silly; I am entertained because I know it’s quite silly. I am as much amused by the absurdity of it all as by the amount or dearth of talent.
As to Rosie’s comment that the American public doesn’t like the fare being provided by the show, this seems to be an eminently disprovable statement through empirical evidence: the two shows last week had nearly 40 million viewers.
I know one person who was asked to sing again and the first round judges actually talked for a minute or two about her before sending her home. She was told that her voice was good enough, but she was too mature (at age 26) for their audiance. She heard people who she thought were better singers than her not even make it that far as the vast majority of people get about a 5 second audition and then get sent home instantly without an explantation. I stopped watching because the show was excrutiatingly drawn out and the singers hardly sang at all.
Comment by Pete The Elder — 1/24/2007 @ 8:41 am