Idol Worship

This thing has me somewhat addicted. I diligently switch on my TV every week (not once but twice in the week - one day is the contest, and the next day is the results show). Silliness, really, because there is so much hoopla about nothing, but still I am addicted. This thing is called American Idol. And I tune in twice every single week.

Even though this show is a singing contest for young American wannabe's, it almost always turns into a popularity contest in which, each week, the American public votes its least favourite contestant out of the show. In the mean time, the rest of the "lucky" contestants (who claim that it is their life's dream to even BE on the show, forget about winning) belt out popular and sometimes not so popular numbers, throwing in "personality", quirks and silliness in an appeal to fans to text and repeatedly text their devotion so that they may survive another week on the show that claims that more people vote for the American Idol than for the American President.

What I really enjoy watching - and this actually has me rolling in laughter on my couch - is the initial part of the show where they basically open up the contest to anyone and everyone, people who turn up in the thousands to try their hand at what they think is singing. And the samples, oh the samples. All sorts of people, trying all sorts of things. And the poor judges (Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell) have to sit through that, and give their comments. And that is really hilarious, actually. Simon Cowell makes such mean remarks (and I think most of the donkeys trying to sing but actually braying really deserve some of those comments), and it makes for a bunch of laughs, every time.

The contestants who make it through all the initial rounds then have to sing each week and the country votes for their favourite. Even this bunch has its share of characters. Take for instance contestant Haley, who shows up each week in teeny tiny shorts and a back-less top and belts out something that borders on shrieking...she finally got voted off on account of the fact that she shows more skin than talent.

But the biggest character to date has been 17 year old Sanjaya Malakar, a somewhat emaciated Indian American (aka ABCD) who is actually really an awful singer. Somehow he made it to the top 12, and from that point on, he caught the public's fancy, and each week, in spite of his ridiculous hairdos, pathetic choice of songs, and really awful singing- gets voted in and stays on in the competition. Apparently teen and pre-teen girls in the country make up the bulk of his fan following. Still, that does not seem enough to keep him in the competition, but miracuoulsy, he stays each week. Some theories floating around, because EVERYBODY is obsessed with the question of "Just WHO is voting for Sanjaya" (here, please remember that we are talking about a public that in general, lives in its own cocoon of a world, not concerned with the real issues that are taking the rest of the world by storm, but really really concerned with the fairly useless set of events that rock their little cushiony world - like the fact that Donald Trump gave the alcoholic Miss USA a second chance at retaining the crown, or the fact that Sanjaya Malakar might just win American Idol). As I was saying, some theories are -

1. Howard Stern is campaigning for "Lets vote for the worst" on his radio shows that bring in Sanjaya's votes
2. Since Sanjaya is an Indian American, some call center in India has been commisioned to do nothing but call in again and again voting for Sanjaya

Anyway, like I was saying, in spite of the sheer silliness of this whole thing, I still tune in every single week to see what's happenning, and what will happen next. Lets hope that I stay away next season and do something more useful with the one hour of time. But for this season, there are exactly six contestants still left, and next week, two of them are going to get voted off. I'm wondering who they will be, and I have a few suspects.

Oh and by the way - Sanjaya got voted off last week. He was finally really just too awful for his own good. I'll miss him, that's for sure.