American Idol

(For a person who doesn't watch much TV and shields her kid from it, I sure have opinions on the matter.)

American Idol is a show that I've been following the last 2 seasons. Last year I was SO disappointed that Adam Lambert didn't win. It felt like all the voters went for the boy-next-door who had a puppy dog face and some decent vocals. This year, once it came down to the top 2, I was convinced Crytal was the best. MrM said she would win, and I said "She should but she won't". I guess we all should have read more into the fact that goldilocks made it into the top 3. Lee's performance was nothing compared to Crystal's in the final, and yet he won. Media blames it on the 14-40 year old girls (and women). Perhaps that is right. I did love Lee's Hallelujah on the top-3 night, but even someone musically ungifted like me could tell that Crystal was a powerhouse singer and the better performer.

Nevertheless, the popular vote quietly declared that giving a single mom a chance to make it in life was a less compelling story than letting a paint salesman make it.

I was fretting about this, about the unreliable nature of quality assessment when you let the public vote on talent, and about how fluttering eyelids have taken over American Idol decision making. Then it occurred to me, this phenomenon is not limited to talent shows and judging who will be the next media sensation. We have pot bellied men who have never had a period passing abortion laws, people with 10,000 sqft mansions trying to talk us out of global warming, school boards rewriting history and science, and many other decisions that impact us that are made by people who would not be impacted by it in the same way.

American Idol is just a small example of a miscast jury (and I don't mean the 4 judges), and benign enough that media is willing to blame the voters. And in the large scale of things, only a handful of dreams are broken and one dream is always granted an open door. So, I'll give the 14-40 year old women their Lee DeWyze. Just don't have an unwanted pregnancy with him because the 40-80 year old men will force you to take that to term.