I’ve never taken the initiative to watch this series; somehow I get hauled into it by one of my kids. This go-around it’s Ariel who wanted to watch it and I’m keeping her company.
I’m telling you, I don’t understand the bad rap Simon gets. All the guy is is honest. He obviously lives by the philosophy of Miss Cordelia Chase: “Tact is just not saying true stuff.” In the segments I’ve seen thus far, I have yet to see him dismiss anyone of indisputable quality, and when someone good wanders in, he seems *happy* about it. My understanding is that he’s said this is his last year. If that’s true, maybe they want to replace him with the woman from “Weakest Link.” “You *are* the weakest singer. Good-bye.”
But, man, some jerk in Houston snapped and threw a cup of water on him? I think Simon is getting out at the right time; what’s to stop some loon from sneaking a gun in and blowing a hole in him? (Unless they make them go through metal detectors.) What I don’t comprehend is, ostensibly there’s a screening process. Some of these people, the moment they open their mouth, it’s clear they don’t know an E flat from a Salt Flat. Why then in God’s name would the producers send them up the line? Only one answer comes to mind: Knowing these people are horrendous, they send them before the three judges and the TV camera specifically so they can humiliate themselves on national TV. I’m not sure why I never realized that before, but that has to be the case. ‘Wow, this guy is so awful, we’ve got to share him with America.” Seems kind of–oh, what’s the word–cruel.
Granted, you’d think the would-be singers should know better, but it’s pretty evident by now that they don’t. I know they’re signing themselves up to be exploited, but boy, it just all comes across as pretty mean insofar as the producers are obviously setting them up to be seen as schmucks. Kind of a waste of one’s fifteen minutes.
PAD
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EClark1849: Some of you guys slay me. You’re “intelligence snobs”. “I don’t watch reality tv”, yet you know how bad it ALL is.
Well, I can’t speak for everybody else, but I work at a TV station, and I’m kind of force-fed a regular amount of ‘reality’ programming… though I will confess to a certain fascination with reality show fare. It’s hard to tear your eyes from it; kind of like a train wreck or a schlock movie in that regard. Of course, I still feel dirty and shameful afterward…
tOjb
I have heard that the producers put in “bad” singers on purpose, some even as ringers, in order to provoke the very reactions you are talking about!
Den: What I want to see is Paula Abdul getting up there and have [Simon Cowell] critique her singing.
Luigi Novi: I believe he once did make a disparaging remark about her music.
Den: This is why Al Franken, the guy who created The Coneheads, now thinks he’s a great political thinker or actors like Charlton Heston or Martin Sheen go on CNN and talk about politics. Hey, they’re famous, so they must be smarter than the rest of us, right?
Luigi Novi: Franken is a satirist, not a political commentator. Heston is not only an actor, but a former President of the NRA, which means that his opinions bear relevance on discussions pertaining to the Second Ammendment, crime, gun control, etc. The reason Martin Sheen and similar celebrities like him go on CNN is because CNN invites them to. When people like Sheen express their opinions on things like politics, they’re doing so for the same reason you and I do, Den: because they’re asked, because they want to, and because they have the right to. Not because they’re “smarter” than us.
I hate the bad auditions too. Who wants to watch karaoke singers deliberately try to sound bad anyway?
The real fun comes later on in the season when the field gets narrow and competition increases among favorites.
Well…I hope those that didn’t watch American Idol were watching Smallville…it was a great episode showing Clark developing his super-hearing power.
Unfortunately…Smallville finished 6th in the overall ratings for Wednesday evening. The main competition? American Idol, The Apprentice, My Wife and Kids and It’s All Relative…ugh.
Christ I wish American Idol would die along with all the other pathetic “reality” television.
I mean, anyone who is stupid enough to sit through any of that stuff and think it entertaining is obviously brain dead, but American Idol is even worse because it shows just how crappy and manufactured the music industry has become. When no-talent hacks like Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken can actually sell albums when they have been literally created by a crappy TV show…. it just goes to show what a sad state the music industry is in.
And the RIAA wants to blame low music sales on file sharing. Heh. Riiiight. (Side rant, when Napster was up and running I bought more CD’s then I ever had before because I was able to sample stuff outside of the 2 meida company controlled radio stations and their mind control formats. Now my music buying is down from $100 a month during Napster use to maybe a CD or two every couple months.)
Luigi Novi: Franken is a satirist, not a political commentator.
Tell him that.
Heston is not only an actor, but a former President of the NRA, which means that his opinions bear relevance on discussions pertaining to the Second Ammendment, crime, gun control, etc.
Tell me this, did he get the job as president of the NRA because of his vast organization skills and his impressive knowledge of constitutional law or because having a famous president would help them with fund raising?
The reason Martin Sheen and similar celebrities like him go on CNN is because CNN invites them to. When people like Sheen express their opinions on things like politics, they’re doing so for the same reason you and I do, Den: because they’re asked, because they want to, and because they have the right to. Not because they’re “smarter” than us.
No one desputes that they have the right to express their opinion, but why would CNN ask Jeanine Garafaolo about the search for WMDs in Iraq? Did she become an expert on military affairs or mideast culture in between filming “The Truth about cats and dogs” and “Mystery Men”? No. Celebrities are invited onto talk shows to discuss politics because famous people are good for ratings. I said it before: Our culture worships fame and people in this country believe that famous people are inherently better than the unwashed masses who are not famous.
I’m a little late with this….but my girlfriend’s friend tried out for American Idol last season. She flew down to Miami (im in NYC) in order to do so….And I can tell you that the judges do NOT see everyone, but the producers do. The producers do screen out a majority of the people (including my girlfriends friend)…and alot of the crap you see on TV they purposefully put through just to get them on TV. The girl who went down to Miami actually can sing very well…She teaches singing and dancing at an acting school…but I think they basically just found her a little too boring….she was basically in the middle of the pack…Not really all that good looking, but not ugly…just not “tv material”…so she never got past the producers and didnt get to see the judges.
Mike
**Especially when it comes to shows like Survivor *cough*rigged*cough*, Joe Millionare, and the like, the people who audition for shows such as these DESERVE to be humiliated. They DESERVE to be treated like dirt. They’re blemishes on this country – a filthy shame that makes us the laughing stock of the world.
Posted by Andrew**
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the first version of Survivor shown anyplace on the planet originally an EUROPEAN show? And that more than a few of the reality shows made/shown here were first created over there? In other words, don’t blame America for this stupidity, blame the Europeans. They started it. 😀 We’ll just take the blame for the creation of the stupid sit-coms that infect this planet instead. 😀 Fair’s fair. 😀
Chris
When no-talent hacks like Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken can actually sell albums when they have been literally created by a crappy TV show…. it just goes to show what a sad state the music industry is in. Posted by Mike
Why do you call Kelly and Clay “no-talent hacks”? Relative to who? I’m a music fan and a singer, and I consider these two to be very talented singers. Certainly, they don’t write their own music, but their voices are superb.
when you audition to get to the actual TV show auditions, the producers of the show judge. not the actual three judges that the american tv viewers are used to seeing. the producers don’t just look for good voices they look for appearance, style and personality.
that might be why people that actually do make it to the tv show auditions can’t tell a difference between a flat and a sharp.