American Idol - First Thoughts

I am fascinated by American Idol -- some people who have only performed in school or in church or at their local karaoke bar being suddenly thrust onto an enormous stage. The backstories are often complelling, as are the hows and whys of what they choose to sing and how they present themselves to the world.

Then, you have fans who really root for their favorite singers and I am always interested to know who they love and why.

It's excellent television.

That said, last night's show was extremely disappointing. I loved the self-described "crack baby" who sang "And I am telling you." But everything else was "meh" to "OMG, her parents/friends/therapist should have prevented her from doing this!"

The numbers of truly delusional people is astounding.

I meet delusional folks regularly. They really believe their script, their short film, their band are just one meeting away from fame, fortune, and adulation. (The non-delusional ones know that a meeting is the start of the journey, not the end.)

If you are in a band or you are making a movie, you have to convince other people that your project is worthy and your talent is there. If you are just showing up to an audition, you can be deluded in your own special way.

Seeing deluded people on television having their dreams crushed is not the way I enjoy spending a couple of hours. Even with the snow/ice day and the magic of the dvr, it was still painful to watch as the ratio of awful to good was so off-kilter.

We will keep monitoring it, but I do hope the editing improves the ratio a bit so we can hear better performances along with all of the sad, deluded.