My Idol Fling May Be Ending

Last night, the 9th season of American Idol premiered. For most of the early years I never watched the show. I've always held on to my view that most of the contestants aren't exceptionally talented or worthy of being referred to as an idol, that truly gifted singers who work at their craft get discovered and earn careers without such a shortcut. This isn't to say that no one from Idol deserves success; I have some admiration for Kelly Clarkson and I love Adam Lambert. But come on -- Taylor Hicks? Jordin Sparks? Kris Allen? Yawn. I just think there's too much self-serving hype from the show itself.

So, in the early years, my only real experience watching the show itself was in season 3's audition round, the one which featured the infamous William Hung. The freak show aspect was being hyped in Fox's promos at the time, and that's why I watched. However, I just didn't care after that.

In season 6 (the year of Sanjaya!) I finally watched an entire season from beginning to end. In part it was because I wanted to see what the fuss was about, and in part it was because I was reading recaps of the show online (EW.com, for one) and didn't enjoy them as much since I hadn't seen what I was reading about. I watched most of season 7, but with season 8 I didn't begin watching until Motown Week, when they were down to the top 10, and after that I was mainly interested in Adam Lambert.

While the show is entertaining on some levels, it also annoys me in a lot of ways. The editing process, as with many "reality" shows, truly warps what actually occurs in shows that aren't live broadcasts. People can be made to look good, or bad, depending on the whims of the producers. Controversies can be manufactured as needed. The emphasis on the feel-good or hard-luck stories, families, the self-congratulations about the vote totals, the product placement, Ryan Seacrest's "America has voted...and you are...not...going to..." lines...all of this grates on me.

Then there are the judges. The three originals -- Randy Jackson and all of his "dawg" shtick, Simon Cowell's acerbic crankiness, and Paula Abdul's lovable (substance-enhanced?) daffiness -- and the newbie, Kara DioGuardi, who struck me as sometimes vapid, sometimes obnoxious, always unnecessary. Often the criticism of the judges is contradictory from week to week or from contestant to contestant ("you made the song your own" vs. "you changed a great song" or "this is a singing competition" vs. "you sound fine but you look ridiculous"). At least Simon tends to be more honest, and Paula, in her way, tried to make the contestants feel good. If Randy and Kara got lost in the Bermuda Triangle I wouldn't be unhappy.

Unfortunately, the reverse is happening. Paula is already gone, and this is Simon's last year. We have to wait until we see how Ellen DeGeneres, Paula's replacement, works out. For the audition rounds they added guest judges. Last night it was Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham. Who knows what happens next year?

The whole show last night just left me kind of bored. I wasn't paying much atttention by the last 15-20 minutes. Everything about the show -- the awful and awfully strange auditions, the people who take offense when they don't get a ticket to the Hollywood round, the human-interest stuff (grandma with Alzheimer's, cancer survivor) -- it all had a "been there, done that" vibe. I didn't think anyone had a particular star quality, and with Posh Spice in Paula's place there was little coming from the judges (other than Simon) that I cared to hear.

I'm still planning to watch tonight, but I'm not sure whether or not I'll stick it out through the entire season. Certainly when Simon is gone, I think the show will take a real dive unless the producers do a major reboot. I'm not sure I can wait that long to jump off the Idol train.