Now I'll confess - I watched 20 minutes of "American Idol" last night

[LynneSin]

First mind you, this was on my TV set that I've lost the remote control for. So I did not have the ability to automatically change the channel.

And I thought "Lynne, why be so judgmental - why not find out what the big deal is about 'American Idol'". So I did, I committed to watching this show and see what it is all about.

And after 20 minutes I realized what it was all about - canned crap!

Watching the Audience of AI was like watching the Audience from the movie "The Running Man" where everyone had signs for their favorite "Idol/Runner". I mean, I might go to an Eagles football game and hold a sign that says "Go Eagles" but surely I wouldn't hold something like "Donavan you rock my World". Maybe that was just something I outgrew when I was 13 and realized that Led Zeppelin was better than Shaun Cassidy.

But the Fox Channel, like it's sister News station, knows how to pull on the heartstrings of America with mindless crap that makes you shut down your brain in order to enjoy it. I would almost consider watching the show if these contestants were required to write their own original songs, but these contests were pulling the worst of Billboard's #1 and doing everything feasible to mutilate the already dreadful songs.

So that was my 20 minutes of American Idol. After some long hair dude sang Jim Croce, I could bear absolutely no more. I got up and turned off the TV.

[Bill McBlueState]

1. my wife and I got sucked into this season

We have this unfortunate tendency to get sucked into watching shows we know are crap, but we watch them anyway. It doesn't happen too often -- the last time was for the reality show "Amish in the City." God, that was awful.

What annoys me most about American Idol is how the judges have the same reaction to almost every performer. The first two make vague, glittering generalities, then the last guy says something critical and everyone boos him.

It might be part of Fox's grand quest to equate critical thinking of any kind with "bashing," which is a boon to the Bushies. (You know, any criticism of Bush, no matter how well-articulated, is just "bashing.")

[LynneSin]

3. I think that first guy was the only one that gave any sort of real critic

Paul Abdul's role is to just gush and that got on my nerve after a minute. I mean, I could go in there and Lip Sync "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and she would still think it was the best thing ever. And that Simon guy, well, he's doing it because he loves the reputation of being an asshole

[BlueJazz]

6. Actually (here we go again) ..Speaking as a Jazz Musician..

...Simon...the "last" Guy...is usually fairly accurate in his desciption of the Talent.
He tends not to put up with a lot of Bullshit...not always, but usually..

[BlueJazz]

2. "Led Zeppelin was better than Shaun Cassidy" ????

Sweet Jesus..LynnSin..Where in the hell did you get your Musical Taste?

I mean ..come on..don't you remember when we used to all swoon to Shaun singing those heart-tugging ballads.

Tsk..Tsk..How soon we forget...

[LynneSin]

4. That's my opinion and I'm stucking with it

:P

[sniffa]

5. i hope you voted for mikayLa

[Bill McBlueState]

7. Why does Mikayla look so angry when she sings?

She's always making these really scary angry faces. It's like she's trying to be emotional, but that's the only emotional face she can make. She kinda frightens me.

(God, I can't believe I'm having this conversation....)

[sniffa]

9. i haven't watched Last night's episode (yet)

is she stiLL sucking? i absoLuteLy Loved her before she aged 30 yrs and moved to manhatten.

[LynneSin]

8. Sorry, didn't vote for anyone

wasn't going to waste my cell phone time calling in to vote unless they have an option of "They all really suck"

[huskerlaw]

10. You have the chance to watch the whole thing again...

tonight. Turns out the *(&@'d up the voting...or rather, the phone numbers to vote...for some of the people. They're doing another 1-hour episode tonight, which will show part of their performances from last night and they'll do an encore. Then we get the opportunity to vote all over again. The 1/2 hour "you suck, get of the stage" episode will be on Thursday. Can we say...whoops!?