COLUMN: ‘American Idol’ is ruining an idle America
Do you know what 37 million of our fellow Americans were doing Tuesday night? They were killing brain cells.
Now, I’m probably going to catch a lot of flack for this article, seeing that USU has its share of “American Idol” fans, but I just don’t understand the obsession with this show. I don’t know how people can devote not one, but two nights a week watching the most worthless show on television.
What is it people find so appealing about a “reality” show that’s so blatantly staged and usually offers subpar to average singers?
But, before you pick up your sticks and stones in preparation to beat me, please hear me out.
When the auditions start they tell the audience “over a hundred thousand people have tried out,” and then they show a football stadium filled with people hoping they will be the next Kelly Clarkson, not the next Ruben Studdard.
But what they don’t tell you is Simon, Paula and crazy Randy don’t see every single one of them. No. They make you think they do, but instead the producers comb the crowd for the good singers and the insanely bad ones, making for better TV.
Then it’s off to the races: singing, dancing, stinging remarks from Simon Cowell, washed-up celebrities trying to get seen in the audience, Paula Abdul looking drunk a majority of the time and, at the end, a text message frenzy of gigantic proportions for the voting.
After it’s over, do you even remember who won? Let’s think back to last year. Who won? Oh yeah, that baby-boomer-looking guy Taylor Hicks. Up until the season finale of the show, Taylor was America’s gray-haired golden boy, and then after the finale, where’d he go?
I think I saw him on a Ford commercial.
Aaron Peck is the Statesman TV critic. Send comments to aaronpeck@cc.usu.edu.