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AI2: Bad Music, Mediocre TV

© Paula Chase-Hyman

Yes, I'm watching American Idol 2 (AI2). As an avid music fan and slave to reality television, due in part to the lack of decent programming available across network and cable television, it was inevitable that I'd tune in. As a regular viewer last year, one of the first things I noticed about this edition is how scripted everything feels.

There's way more commentary from Ryan Seacrest, who dresses worst and worst each show. And, most of the participants seemed to come prepared with a set of quips and comebacks for the judges, primarily Simon. Many were so preoccupied with having that oh-so savvy one-liner, "Simon can kiss my ass," ready that they forgot they were there to sing! How foolish to stay up all night practicing what you're going to say, if faced with a bad review, instead of say..hmmm..learning the words to the song!

Which brings me to my second point, the talent pool is so shallow an ant couldn't drown in it. I mean, it's God awful. Simon's comments can't get any worse because he's pretty much exhausted his aresenal of alternative words for "horrid."

A lot of these folks are not only bad singers, but they likely wouldn't have even made it onto the Gong Show. Note - if you have no idea what the Gong Show is, refer to your TV history under, bad TV that made us laugh.

It seems the pre-requisite for making the television cut was to be so bad as to evoke feelings of disbelief in viewers. Which brings me to my third point, why have the producers chosen to air mostly bad auditions instead of the real talent?

The first few days of the show was mostly narration of just how painful auditions were for the judges, having to sit through so many poor auditions. Well they're getting paid to sit through them, why were we subjected to it?

Let's face it, we watch to see some of the bad, but many of us would really like to see and hear some of the truly talented singers out there, as well. Unfortunately that's where AI2 has been lacking. Round after round they whisked through the contestants who made it, most of whom we never even heard!

My husband believes there wasn't any real talent to showcase and that the producers went with what made good TV. At first I disagreed. I mean you can't travel to five cities and not find 30 people who can sing well. Biimmppp..wrong answer! AI2 did and couldn't!

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